Talk:Lowrey organ

Request for clarification

I discussed this with a few fellow musician friends, and we all agree that a solid-state electrical organ should not exhibit feedback since there is no microphone input nor are there any unintentional "microphonic" elements that could act as transducers. Therefore, the claim that "to prevent feedback in the silences between notes (consequence of playing at a very high volume), Ratledge invented a style of his own avoiding the between-note gaps by soloing in legato" requires further clarification or justification. --Briankaz 22:12, 13 Jun 2011 (UTC)

My 2 Cents

I don't believe it to be feedback either. Although the amplified noise when no keys are played through a fuzz-box can produce similar sounds (a high shreeking noise).

I think the original text was based on this quote of Robert Wyatt (who uses the word 'feedback') from the BBC4 Documentary "Prog Rock Britannia" (around 20:30)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/progbritannia/

"If you put the fuzz on, you had to keep playing. You couldn't take your hand off because it would stop feeding back. So he developed a solo style of absolute continual [simulates fast-paced legato sequence] notes without a single break in them."

Hamsterwoede (talk) 09:49, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

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History and Dates

The article is sadly deficient in the history of the development of the Lowrey. To read it one would assume the organ was invented in the mid-1960s, whereas it is considerably earlier. According to the Pugno & Curry article (ref 1) "In 1941, Lowrey put on the market the famous Organo, an organ-like keyboard placed on the front of a piano keyboard" and "In 1955, Lowrey came out with its first commercially successful electronic organ." There is an admirable summary history in the Pugno & Curry article, although cross-checking has thrown some dates in doubt. There should be more history of the organ itself, and IMO less detail of which rock group used a Lowrey in what song. BTW the Italian Wikipedia article, strangely enough, has more dates & history; I may just borrow from that. I don't have time to do the full history right now, but I'll put this on my watchlist for later—feel free to jump in and just do it. For now, I will just add the 1955 date to the lead. --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 05:59, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

• Added dates, a little history, revised some vague, misleading or incorrect info after consulting sources. Frederick C. Lowrey's dates are from the lowrey.com site, was too embarrassed to cite it in the article as it's primary/commercial site, but was only place I could find them on the web. Did a bit more than I intended as article needed (and still needs some) cleanup. --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 08:18, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
• Added a tad more history, broke the article rather arbitrarily into sections as a preliminary structure for expansion, allow individual sections to be edited, and force TOC generation. Needs to be restructured so all history is together; models can be part of History at this level of detail, there is a separate article List of Lowrey organs describing Lowrey models exhaustively—need a link to it here!. --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 10:05, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

• Early history on the Lowrey Organ Company site. (Temporary for convenient reference, no permission, may be deleted)
  Early history on the Lowrey Organ Company site. (Temporary for convenient reference, no permission, may be deleted)

• Further to be resolved & updated:

1. The date of the first production of the Organo keyboard is unclear. One source (PugnoCurry2005) gives 1941, the Lowrey Organ Company site has 1949, while the WP article List of Lowrey organs cites a 1956 newspaper advertisement! Updated: I found several 1950 newspaper ads. OUP Grove Online has 1949, which should be authoritative, and The Organ:An Encyclopedia by Bush & Kassel also gives 1949 (possible source for future ref tho Amazon UK has 2 negative reviews, attesting 1+ error(s) of fact v poor proofreading & spotty coverage). I now have a primary & 2 secondary sources, one v reliable, agreeing on 1949—s/b enough to settle it!  Done
2. The claim that during the 1960s and 1970s, Lowrey was the largest manufacturer of electronic organs in the world, is dubious (tagged). The statement is in the source, but I do not regard the source as very reliable, it is just a cobbled-together list of organs with remarks and no references. Other sources suggest Hammond led the market for most of the period; Lowrey may have achieved dominance for 2-3 years in the late 70s. PugnoCurry2005 states: "The 1970s were indeed a lively time for electronic organs. Lowrey...actually broke Hammond’s overwhelming lead in the industry...became America’s most popular organ. In 1979 and 1980, the organ was the most popular instrument in America and Lowrey was on top."
3. The last para re the cessation of production by Kawai needs updating; the source has been updated subsequent to inclusion in the article. The situation is currently unclear; some production seems to be continuing, see https://lowreyorgan.uk/an-end-of-an-era-for-lowrey-organs/, go to EDIT & UPDATE at the bottom. --D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 10:37, 11 August 2019 (UTC)