Models
32 models
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Yamaha DX7
Six-operator FM digital synthesizer
Synthesizer · Japan
Yamaha's landmark six-operator FM digital synthesizer, introduced in May 1983.
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Bond Electraglide
Electric guitar made in England in the mid-1980s
Electric guitar · United Kingdom
A futuristic British electric guitar of the mid-1980s, the Electraglide had a molded carbon-fiber body, a stepped fingerboard in place of conventional frets, and a digital control panel with an electroluminescent readout. Hugely ambitious and expensive, it was a commercial failure that helped sink its maker.
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Bogner Ecstasy
Multi-channel tube guitar amplifier
Amplifier · United States
The Bogner Ecstasy, introduced in 1992, is Bogner Amplification's flagship multi-channel tube guitar amplifier. It is offered with selectable 6L6 (American voicing) or EL34 (British voicing) power tubes and is known for its versatile clean, Blue, and Red channels spanning sparkling cleans to saturated high gain.
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Gibson Lucille
Electric guitar model
United States
B.B. King's signature guitar, based on the ES-355 but built without f-holes to cut down on feedback at high volume. Named after King's own guitar, it features stereo wiring and a Varitone tone selector for a refined, smooth voice.
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Akai S1000
1988 16-bit professional stereo digital sampler
Sampler · Japan
The Akai S1000, released in 1988, is a rackmount 16-bit stereo digital sampler that set a professional standard for sampling in the late 1980s and 1990s, with high audio quality, flexible editing, and wide library support.
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Soldano SLO-100
100-watt high-gain tube amplifier head
Amplifier · United States
The Soldano Super Lead Overdrive 100 (SLO-100), introduced in 1987 by Mike Soldano, is a 100-watt all-tube guitar amplifier head with Normal and Overdrive channels, powered by four 5881/6L6 tubes. It is widely credited as a benchmark modern high-gain design and is hand wired in the USA.
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Diezel VH4
100-watt four-channel tube amplifier head
Amplifier · Germany
The Diezel VH4 is a 100-watt all-tube guitar amplifier head driven by four KT77 power tubes, with four independently voiced preamp channels (Clean, Crunch, Mega, Lead), each with its own gain, EQ, and master. A benchmark high-gain amplifier, it is hand-built in Germany.
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Akai MPC
Electronic musical instrument
Synthesizer · Japan
The Akai MPC (MIDI Production Center) is a family of sampler-sequencers, first released in 1988, that combined sampling, drum-pad performance, and sequencing in one unit. Developed with Roger Linn, the MPC became a central tool of hip-hop and electronic production and remains an industry standard.
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Anderson Drop Top
S-style solid-body electric guitar model
Electric guitar · United States
The Drop Top is Tom Anderson Guitarworks' signature S-style electric guitar, introduced in 1990. It features a book-matched exotic tonewood top (flame or quilted maple, walnut, or koa) 'dropped' over a tonewood back of alder, mahogany, swamp ash, or basswood to create a contoured forearm bevel, paired with a bolt-on Anderson neck.
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Simmons SDS-V
The hexagonal pads of the 1980s
Electronic drums · United Kingdom
The SDS-V put hexagonal playing surfaces and an analogue drum synthesizer in front of drummers in 1981, and its pitch-swept toms are so tied to the decade that using one now is a period reference. The pads were also famously hard on wrists.
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Yamaha DX1
DX Series FM digital synthesizer
Synthesizer · Japan
A Yamaha DX Series FM digital synthesizer introduced in 1983 and part of the original DX Series lineup discussed in Yamaha's official synth history.
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Jackson Kelly
Explorer-style electric guitar series
Electric guitar
The Jackson Kelly is an angular, Explorer-derived series with an offset pointed body, offered from X and Pro models to USA versions, typically with neck-through construction and high-output humbucking pickups.
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Yamaha DX5
DX Series FM digital synthesizer
Japan
A Yamaha DX Series FM digital synthesizer introduced in 1985 and discussed in Yamaha's official synth history.
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Yamaha GS-1
Digital keyboard with FM tone generation
Synthesizer · Japan
A Yamaha digital keyboard released in 1981 with FM tone generation and touch-sensitive control.
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Yamaha CS6x
Synthesizer from Yamaha
Synthesizer · Japan
The Yamaha CS6x is a sample-based synthesizer from around 2000 combining AWM2 sample playback with virtual-analog-style control and effects, aimed at performers wanting hands-on sound shaping.
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Yamaha CS-70M
CS Series analog synthesizer
Japan
A Yamaha CS Series synthesizer introduced in 1981 with auto-tune and a built-in sequencer.
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Akai S900
1986 12-bit professional digital sampler
Sampler · Japan
The Akai S900, released in 1986, is a rackmount 12-bit digital sampler that brought professional sampling to a wider market. Its characterful lo-fi sound and MIDI control made it a studio standard of the late 1980s.
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Akai S3000XL
The Akai S3000XL is a sampler with 32 polyphonic voices, and 2 MB of built-in RAM.
Sampler · Japan
The Akai S3000XL is a rackmount professional digital sampler in Akai's S3000 series, offering high-quality 16-bit sampling, extensive editing, and broad compatibility for studio production.
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Casio MT-40
Electronic keyboard
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.
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Akai AX60
Analogue synthesizer
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.
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Selmer Super Action 80 Series II
Professional saxophone model family
Saxophone · France
The Henri Selmer Paris Super Action 80 Series II, usually called the Series II, is the long-running backbone of the Selmer professional saxophone catalogue. Launched in 1986 and built in sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass, it is known for an open, harmonically rich sound and strong projection, and is regarded as the versatile professional alto par excellence.
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Selmer Série III
Professional saxophone model family
Saxophone · France
The Henri Selmer Paris Série III (Series III) is a professional saxophone family unveiled in 1999 and built in soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. Its innovative design uses small pads that reduce the surface soldered to the body tube to free the instrument's resonance, giving very accurate tuning and a rich, warm timbre without aggressiveness.
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Realistic Concertmate MG-1
Synthesizer model
Synthesizer · United States
The Realistic Concertmate MG-1 is an analog synthesizer built by Moog Music and sold through Radio Shack in the early 1980s under its Realistic brand. A consumer-oriented instrument, it offered genuine Moog circuitry—including the Moog filter—at a low price.
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Moog Source
Digitally controlled analog monophonic synthesizer with patch memory
Synthesizer · United States
The Moog Source, released in 1981, is a monophonic analog synthesizer notable for its flat membrane control panel and for being the first Moog synth with patch memory. It offers two oscillators, the Moog filter, and a built-in sequencer.
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Moog Liberation
Keytar synthesizer
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.
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Moog Opus 3
Polyphonic ensemble keyboard (paraphonic multi-keyboard) designed by Herb Deutsch
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.
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Moog Rogue
Monophonic analog synthesizer
Synthesizer · United States
The Moog Rogue is an inexpensive monophonic analog synthesizer released in 1981, with two oscillators and the Moog filter in a small, simple package aimed at beginners and bass duties.
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Memorymoog
1982 polyphonic analog synthesizer
Synthesizer · United States
The Memorymoog, released in 1982, was Moog's most ambitious polyphonic synthesizer, offering six voices each with three oscillators for a huge, lush sound. Powerful but initially troubled by tuning instability, it is now prized as one of the richest-sounding vintage analog polysynths.
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Goodall Concert Jumbo
Mid-large steel-string acoustic guitar
Steel-string guitar · United States
The Concert Jumbo is a Goodall steel-string guitar sized slightly smaller than the Standard series and larger than the Grand Concert. James Goodall added it in November 1998 in response to requests for a more comfortable body that still retained a large soundboard area, and it has become a favored size among Goodall owners.
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Akai SG01v
Sound module model
Synthesizer · Japan
The Akai SG01v is a General MIDI-compatible sound module released in 1995, providing a library of sampled instrument sounds for playback from a MIDI sequencer or controller.
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Roland Octapad PAD-8
The 1985 pad controller that named a category
Electronic drums · Japan
The original Octapad was eight rubber pads and a MIDI socket, and it made "octapad" a generic word for a percussion controller. It is still the reason a drummer's auxiliary pad set is called that.
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Roland TD-10
The first V-Drums
Electronic drums · Japan
The TD-10 introduced mesh heads and physical-modelling drum synthesis in 1997, and it is the moment electronic drums stopped being pads that triggered samples and started being instruments a drummer could play dynamically.