I didn't particularly want two cabinets, but I decided to buy hisĬomplete Solovox, including keyboard, and that's the one which I restored: After we had made a deal for the keyboardĪlone, he abandoned that scheme and offered me the tone cabinet for an additional $15. The seller owned a complete Solovox but he wanted to use I owned the silent tone cabinet for about two years before I foundĪ keyboard for sale. This patent drawing shows the Solovox keyboard, mounted on a piano:Īll very interesting, but without a keyboard, the Solovox can't make any music! Voice controls and a leg operated volume lever. Missing is the little keyboard that attached to the front of Plate identifies it as a Model L tone cabinet, to be used withĪnybody familiar with this mystery device? It was meant to stand against one end of an organ. The cabinet has a flat back and rounded edges - perhaps This is a knee-high wooden cabinet, very shallow, withġ3 tubes and a decent-sized speaker inside, and a bigįlat sixteen-pin connector on the end of a cloth-covered cable. One of these followed me home, and now I'm curious. The mystery was quickly solved when I posted a query to the newsgroup on USENET. Partly out of curiosity and partly to save it from a worseįate, I handed over the cash and hauled it home. Pondering for a moment, I decided that the tubesĪlone were worth more than the asking price, so, With soįew tubes, what kind of music could this critter make-if Thirteen seen in the back of this device. You know that it will have many more tubes than the If you have ever peeked inside a tube organ, This is a musical instrument of some kind, where's the Now, Hammond was aīig manufacturer of tube-powered organs, but if When I spied a mysterious cabinet with a speaker at a thrift store, I was More time, I'll compare their performance and perhaps have more to add to My Clavioline is a recent (Fall, 2011) acquisition. The following photos picture the two instruments separately, with Much of the following article was written thirteen years before IĪcquired another, similar 1940s electronic instrument, a Gibson It was created by Laurens Hammond, theĬompany founder, and engineers John Hanert and George Stephens. The Hammond Solovox is a pioneering electronic keyboard instrument,ĭating from the 1940s and manufactured by the Hammond Corporation,įamous for their organs.

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