Keyboard Instruments · Models

Hammond organ

Keyboard

The Hammond organ is an electromechanical keyboard instrument introduced by Laurens Hammond in 1935. It generates sound with spinning tonewheels and lets players blend harmonics using drawbars; paired with a rotating Leslie speaker, the Hammond (especially the B-3) became central to jazz, gospel, blues, and rock.

ELKA Rhapsody

Synthesizer · Italy

The Elka Rhapsody is a polyphonic string synthesizer made by the Italian company Elka in the 1970s. A popular and roadworthy string machine, it produces violin- and viola-style ensemble sounds and was widely used by touring musicians.

ARP Omni

Synthesizer · United States

The ARP Omni, released in 1975, is a polyphonic synthesizer that combined a popular string-ensemble section with a polyphonic synth and a bass voice. One of ARP's best-selling instruments, its lush strings were widely used in 1970s pop and rock.

Bontempi Memoplay

A portable home electronic keyboard made by Bontempi during its 1980s shift from reed chord organs to electronic keyboards. The Memoplay is one of several inexpensive Bontempi portables collected for their toy-like character.

Alesis Andromeda A6

Synthesizer · United States

The Alesis Andromeda A6, released in 2000, is a sixteen-voice analog synthesizer with two oscillators and dual filters per voice plus extensive digital control and effects. A rare large-scale analog polysynth of its era, it is prized for its deep, powerful sound.

Moog Liberation

Keyboard

The Liberation is a strap-on keyboard synthesizer Moog introduced in 1980, one of the first keytars. Worn like a guitar, it combines monophonic and polyphonic sections with a guitar-style neck controller for pitch bend and modulation, freeing the player from a stationary keyboard.

Bontempi Minstrel

A portable electronic keyboard made by Bontempi, part of the Italian company's range of affordable home keyboards. Like other Bontempi instruments it is valued by samplers for its raw, plasticky sound.

Yamaha SHS-10

Electric guitar

The SHS-10 is a keytar, a keyboard built to be worn on a strap and held like a guitar, released by Yamaha in 1987. It uses FM tone generation, includes built-in rhythms and a MIDI output, and was an affordable, portable instrument popular with younger players.

Korg i3

Keyboard

The i3 is an interactive music workstation keyboard that Korg released in the early 1990s. Built around auto-accompaniment, it provides backing styles that follow the player's chords, making it an arranger keyboard suited to one-person song performance.

Ammer 'Ruckers' Harpsichord

A single-manual harpsichord built by the Ammer brothers' workshop in Eisenberg, Thuringia, Germany, modeled on historical Ruckers instruments and series-produced from the 1930s into the early 1960s. Early Ammer harpsichords were used for Bach recordings by harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm.

Elgam Snoopy

An inexpensive Italian electronic keyboard made by Elgam in the 1970s, offering piano, harpsichord, and spinet voices mixable via faders. Its raw, lo-fi character has made it a cult instrument among electronic musicians.

Ammer Clavichord

A clavichord built by Gebr. Ammer of Eisenberg, Germany, produced both as series instruments and as historically informed reconstructions in collaboration with the Leipzig musical instrument collection.

Yamaha CP88

The Yamaha CP88 is a digital stage piano introduced in 2019, with 88 weighted keys and sampled acoustic, electric-piano, and synth voices. It carries the CP name into Yamaha's modern stage-piano line, emphasizing fast hands-on sound selection for live performance.

Casio MT-40

Electronic keyboard · Japan

The Casio MT-40 is a small consumer Casiotone keyboard from the early 1980s. Though a budget home instrument, its preset rhythm and bass patterns became foundational to Jamaican dancehall through the 'Sleng Teng' riddim.

Yamaha CS30/CS30L synthesizer

Keyboard

The CS30 and CS30L are monophonic analog synthesizers Yamaha released in 1977. They feature two oscillators, dual filters, and multiple envelope generators for complex single-note sounds; the CS30 adds a built-in step sequencer, which the CS30L omits.

Digital Keyboards Synergy

Keyboard

The Synergy is a digital synthesizer made from about 1982 to 1985 by Digital Keyboards Inc., a US division of Crumar. A more affordable, preset-oriented spin-off of the Crumar GDS system developed from Bell Labs research, it became closely associated with Wendy Carlos, who used it extensively and created many of its patches.

Yamaha CP-80

The Yamaha CP-80 is an electric grand piano, the full 88-key counterpart to the CP-70. Like the CP-70 it amplifies real struck strings with piezoelectric pickups in a portable split case, and it saw heavy stage use through the late 1970s and 1980s.

Ammer Spinet

A spinet made by Gebr. Ammer of Eisenberg, Germany. Spinets were one of the workshop's core products alongside harpsichords and clavichords; the firm built more than 2,500 such keyboard instruments before being nationalized in 1972.

Farfisa Pergamon

Organ · Italy

A top-of-the-line electronic home and entertainment organ built by the Italian maker Farfisa in the early 1980s. It carried two manuals, a pedalboard, a built-in rhythm and accompaniment section, a human-choir voice, and a mechanical rotating speaker in a heavy wooden console, and was discontinued in 1984.

Yamaha PSR-EW425

Keyboard

The PSR-EW425 is a 76-key portable arranger keyboard in Yamaha's PSR-EW family. It offers a large library of built-in voices and auto-accompaniment styles along with onboard speakers, aimed at home players and performers who want an extended-range keyboard in a lightweight instrument.

Casio VL-1

Synthesizer · Japan

The Casio VL-1 (VL-Tone), released in 1981, is a tiny combined calculator, monophonic synthesizer, and sequencer. A novelty consumer instrument, its quirky preset sounds—famously heard in Trio's 'Da Da Da'—gave it lasting cult status.

Moog Opus 3

Keyboard

The Opus 3 is an ensemble keyboard Moog released in 1980, designed by Herb Deutsch. It is an affordable divide-down instrument offering string, organ, and brass ensemble voices that can be mixed together, aimed at players wanting lush layered sounds without a large modular system.

Eminent 310 Unique

Keyboard

The 310 Unique is a home organ made by the Dutch manufacturer Eminent. It is best known for its built-in string-ensemble section, the same string-synth technology sold separately as the Solina/ARP String Ensemble, which Jean-Michel Jarre used prominently on his album Oxygene.

Akai AX60

Synthesizer · Japan

The Akai AX60, released in 1986, is a six-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer with a slider-based interface that could interface with Akai's samplers, offering warm analog sounds with MIDI control.

Yamaha CP-70

The Yamaha CP-70 is an electric grand piano introduced in 1976, sounding real hammered strings amplified by piezoelectric pickups rather than samples. Its two-piece, road-portable case made a grand-piano voice practical on stage, and it became a fixture of late-1970s and 1980s rock and pop.