Jennings Univox J6 Analog Tube Synth Demonstration

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Steve Christie from Vintage Keys Studio demonstrates a working Jennings Univox J6 from circa 1954.
This organ came to our studio in need of a total overhaul and has been restored by Steve for daily usage. It is an early model with a maroon case and green light-up logo.
The keyboard is made of wood and fits neatly inside the amplifier part of the case when stored away (with a lid.) There is also a knee lever (not shown in the video) which enables volume/expression control.
Some of the Effect tabs have been modified by Steve with different value capacitors for a 'darker' sound on the E and F tabs. There is also a line out fitted on the amp.
Recorded using a JZ V67 mic on the back of the speaker. Through Neve a VR preamp.
The video includes a piece called 'Electric Cher' written by Steve Christie and performed by Steve Christie's Wrong. It is from the forthcoming album 'The Vintage Keys Studio Collection'
Please Support Our Channel over on Patreon (Only £1 per month - Thank you very much!):
/ vintagekeysstudio - this will go towards the upkeep of the studio and its equipment, and enable us to continue creating videos
Steve and other session musicians from Vintage Keys are available to record this organ for you as a layer to add to your own project. Please contact us at vintagekeysstu... for more details.
Video and sound recording (C) 2021 Vintage Keys Studio (R)
Music (C) 2014 [Electric Cher] and 2021 Steve Christie (Copyright Control) except for tiny snippets played by Steve of the songs: ''Underpass' by John Foxx, 'Ghostbusters' by Ray Parker Jnr and 'Telstar' by Joe Meek.
Filmed and Edited by Louisa Revolta at Vintage Keys.

Опубликовано:

11 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 49

@DeadKoby 8 месяцев назад

These old school instruments are just wild. It makes you REALLY appreciate artists like Perry & Kingsley who figured out how to really get them to sing.

@pieceworkstudios Год назад

So glad you showed off this crazy little thing. So cool 👍

@petejandrell4512 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for the great content, invaluable, incalculable and involuble

@VintageKeysStudio 5 месяцев назад

My pleasure!

@projectz975 Год назад

excellent rendition of the long forgotten Weird Al classic

@inthefade 7 месяцев назад

I see what you did there in the intro; Starting with a John Foxx song, which is a reference to Ultravox, which is a reference to Univox.

@godfreypoon5148 9 месяцев назад

Ah, this brings back such memories, from when I was a child. I used to take a vegetable sack and I would search the neighborhood for stray and feral cats, and when I had several of them in the sack it would sound just like this!

@LucyOLastic Год назад

I remember missing out on this keyboard when I saw it on Preston Market selling for £100. I remember the bevelled keys, some of them collapsed inwards. I had never seen anything like it in my life, but it reminded me of the days when I used to plug a home made synth thing into the back of a Philip's valve radio, and I dreamed of playing this thing in my band, since we were performing a song in tribute to Joe Meek called "Cowboys Don't Have Brollies." (Yes, from the film Telstar) I hummed and ha'd over it for a few weeks while it was there. Someone else bought it and put it on Ebay within a week. This must be the exact same one! The timescale certainly fits. I still have photos of it I used to do some research. Nice to hear it finally!

@VintageKeysStudio Год назад

Wow yes I seem to recall it came from somewhere up north. It was completely wrecked when it came to me. I haven’t ever seen another one with the maroon coloured case and the green logo. Lots of brown case ones

@LucyOLastic Год назад

@@VintageKeysStudio The bevelled keys were unusual too. The maroon case caught my eye straight away! I liked the way the keyboard was tucked in with the amp, looking like an old valve radio/accordion! Glad to know it has been restored back to life. The market trader did say it made a terrible noise when he switched it on....I went Univox/Clavioline crazy after that. I picked up a fairly well-kept but non functioning Selmer Concert Reverb clavioline, which was at least partly restored by a guy who I met at Todmorden Market who did amp repairs. He did the re-capping and restored the full range of the keyboard. Unfortunately it was more than he could do as keys began to pop out or fall flat. I did get some use out of it thankfully but would like to see it working properly again. Here's just one recording I made with it johannkloos.bandcamp.com/track/the-horseshoe-kid

@georgeparkins777 2 года назад

That Univox reminds me very much of an old 50's accordion that I've been "restoring," in that, in both cases, the little wooden keyboard is an uneven mess and there's this really charming uncertainty, when you press a key, what you're going to get. On the accordion, there's six reeds for each note on the piano side, one for each direction of the bellows, per each stop. And it's missing some reeds and some of them buzz or rasp, so there's this startling unpredictability of tone color and sound, depending on what stops you have selected, what note you're playing and which direction you're pumping in. Sometimes there's a rasping sound, or a cough before the note begins, and the bellows gradually loses air from several holes, so even the expression is a little difficult to control. But it has a similar character to some of these grandiose but modestly ill-conceived little instruments you have. I find it very fun to play around with, and eventually I'll find a song that needs a weird, textural solo to go in it-just as you or some of your clients might use that contraption, or the clavioline or any of your other little curiosities. I note that you have the Univox sitting on Hammond's weird little valve organ--both with the knee lever, and both evolutionary dead-ends! Odd how different the S6 is from its contemporaries among Hammond's more serious instruments.

@VintageKeysStudio 2 года назад

Thanks very much. We have a few accordions here including a terrible Hohner electrovox that might make it to a video one day.

@mastercylinder1939 3 года назад

Brilliant, what a great sounding instrument, I’m a big fan of the clavioline, as used on Telstar.

@VintageKeysStudio 3 года назад

Master Cylinder - thank you! We have a clavioline video on its way too!

@mastercylinder1939 3 года назад

@@VintageKeysStudio looking forward to it.

@asmusubermensch5889 2 года назад

The Fibertron impulse generator circuit!!!! Nice!!!

@alexhauptmann298 Год назад

I’ve said it before: Bruce Haack In A Box, right here.

@silvertongues2 2 года назад

I’ve got a nice one of these!

@markanthonycoliinson873 3 года назад

Underpants! Thank you very much for that, Steve. I love the little piece you wrote, too. Where is your shop?

@VintageKeysStudio 3 года назад

Thanks Mark. We are in Lockerley, Hampshire UK

@didibergman2306 10 месяцев назад

Fascinating!

@revtonynewnham 3 года назад

Fascinating. I was given a non-working one years ago - sadly it got left behind in a house move. Wish I still had it (or something similar). I noticed the Advance audio oscillator - I've got one of those as well.

@VintageKeysStudio 3 года назад

Thank you! Ahh that’s a shame about leaving your one behind. Yes the advance audio H1 is one of the ones that they used for the original Dr Who theme, or so I’m told

@revtonynewnham 3 года назад

@@VintageKeysStudio I regret parting with the instruments I used to have - thankfully, I've not got rid of too many! Looking forward to watching more of your videos when I have time. I'm fascinated by early electronic musical instruments.

@freeman61 3 года назад

Love it so much !!!

@VintageKeysStudio 3 года назад

Thank you!

@johnsonmonsen 3 года назад

Oh, "Electric Cher" because the J6 and the well known singer-actress have roughly the same age ;-)?! Thanks for your detailed explanation and reanimation of those historic music devices. Because of the listed instruments on the Vintage Keys Studio website I became curious. There's a whole world in electronic generated music I've never had a look before. I like the slightly unpredictable behaviour of the old circuits. Maybe because it acts more "organic" but I'm not sure. It contains some kind of analog "mystic" which even makes some of the 80's machines so special (e.g. Roland TR-808, TB-303 etc.). All the best :-)!

@VintageKeysStudio 3 года назад

Thank you Curtis! Yes, the unpredictability of these circuits is very exciting and adds a whole new (old) dimension to making music

@RBLevin Год назад

Crazy cool

@jenshennekes9576 7 месяцев назад

Nice thing..! Reminds quite a lot of an Ondioline. 😊

@TehSyneS 4 месяца назад

wow this is so epic, need to get that thing to go lower!!

@VintageKeysStudio 4 месяца назад

Yes! One of these days I will

@TehSyneS 4 месяца назад

@@VintageKeysStudio That would be so great! Love watching you play that thing, theres one for sale locally, wish I could get it, way too overpriced. Are there any websites or info about repairing the tremolo circuit?

@molepup 3 года назад

John Soxx - Underpants?

@scaffoldpole 8 месяцев назад

well restored! quite a passable bass clarinet sound in the right register. why is there a small bell in the middle of the front panel?

@JC-jv5xw 3 месяца назад

@@scaffoldpole I was wondering that all the way through. Some sort of over drive alarm? Once he showed the speaker grille on the back - probably the speaker magnet which means the speaker is well offset?

@CheshireMoonBand 3 года назад

Ok, the JF joke hurt me. I've been saying that for years, and knew I was not the only one.

@aranyaofficial7082 Год назад

The Indian pianist Mr V Balsara used to play this instrument....

@VintageKeysStudio Год назад

I think I may have a record with him on - i shall look - was it an Ananda Shankar record? Not sure

@jehavelock 3 года назад

If Dr Phibes had a Korg Volca...

@jehavelock 3 года назад

I'm waiting to hear what the doorbell does

@jehavelock 3 года назад

and the Hammond S6 (?) it's sitting on... great fun, the S6. You could do an entire soundtrack with one. Someone probably has.

@keiranbradley3238 Год назад

You mentioned in a past video that you have perfect pitch, does the drifting tunings not drive you insane with all these analogue instruments?. I would've thought it would make it unbearable for you?. Thanks.

@VintageKeysStudio Год назад

I can hear they are going out, but I can tolerate +/- maybe a quarter tone before it hurts

@keiranbradley3238 Год назад

@VKS Yes, I understand it can be excruciating. It's a strange thing how one is afflicted or gifted. Take care.