VOX CONTINENTAL 71 - Rare vintage combo organ - Demonstration

Demo of a rare vintage combo organ VOX Continetal 71, also known as the Super Continental II., from 1971! Super rare, no more than a few houndred ever produced by EME for Jennings Musical Industries, Ltd - you can see by special drawbars position on top, instead on the left side (on video is currently missing drawbar plasitc knobs).

Serial number: 3175185 / Marchesini G. / EME / Jennings Musical Industries, Ltd

"This machine is one of the last of the Jenning's Vox Continentals, it was completely manufactured in Italy. It still has the reverse colour keyboard but it is plastic rather than the wooden keys of the earlier Connies, and the Germanium transistor dividers of the originals are replaced by an early integrated circuit, the SAJ 110, which took the master frequency for each note in a octave and divided it 7 times to supply all the Octaves and Footages for the entire organ. That being said, it seems to be quite rare, possibly no more than a few hundred were ever produced."

"Hoo, boy! Can you say weeeeeird!? Man, I just about fell over when I saw this thing. Another of Henry B's rare finds, it sits here supported by his trusty ironing board stand. Clearly a latecomer, probably 1971 (hence, the model name). The badge indicates it's Italian, a product of EME, under license from Vox Sound, which would place it in that time period. From the serial numbers I've collected, it appears there may have been over 900 of these suckers manufactured!"

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The instrument is commonly associated with Rock & Roll of the 1960s, being used by such artists as Alan Price of The Animals, Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five and Ray Manzarek of The Doors. Famous songs that feature the Vox Continental include:

"House of the Rising Sun" (1964) by The Animals
"Because" (1964) by The Dave Clark Five
"California Sun" (1964) by The Rivieras
"She's About a Mover" (1965) by the Sir Douglas Quintet
"Pushin' Too Hard" (1965) by The Seeds
"Woman" (1965) by The Zombies
"I'm Down" (1965) by The Beatles
"96 Tears" (1966) by Question Mark and the Mysterians
"I'm a Believer" (1966) by The Monkees
"Hungry" (1966) by Paul Revere and The Raiders
"(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" (1966) by the Blues Magoos
"Working My Way Back to You" (1966) by The Four Seasons
"If You Gotta Go, Go Now" and "Absolutely Sweet Marie" (1966) by Bob Dylan, who also played the Connie on the 1979 tour for his album Slow Train Coming
"Light My Fire" and "The Crystal Ship" (1967) by The Doors
"The Rains Came" (1966) and "Mendocino" (1968) by the Sir Douglas Quintet
"Sister Ray" (1968) by The Velvet Underground
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (1968) by Iron Butterfly
"Don't Do Me Like That" (1979) by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
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Keywords:
Vox organ, Vox, rare vintage organ, vintage instrument, Vox Jaguar, Vox Super Continental, Vox Continental 2, Vox Continental 71, Vox Dual Continental, Vox Riviera, Vox Jennings, Single Continental Vox, vintage synth, Keyboard, Synthesizer, Chromatic, Combo organ

[frankleroux]

So many bands and hits of the 60s with this organ.

[TheOtherLogan]

This is the most beautiful instrument I have ever heard.

[dannybrazen]

sounds killer, man. love the dirty late 60's/early 70's vibe it puts out

[seanhuds]

96 Tears. ? And the Mysterians! What a great instrument from some great songs!

[kkteutsch]

With echoes added the first register sound showed remembers me " Marie Jolie with Demis Roussos " ...

[gary]

Sweet ! I want one of these -- and Alan Price's talent, of course :)

[URTH-ybxh]

Thats really cool great sounds Nice playing

[ronniefarnsworth]

I miss the Crazy Cool and Eerie sounds of the Vox Organs ! : D

[LuisEduardoGalindo]

the area next to the drawbars makes it perfect to lay down my Dry Martini while playing

[awhite]

This is the sound of my youth. It sounds like all of the video games I played:)

[fnathan]

Amazing instrument, I hope I can play it one day

[phayzyre]

This organ has 1960's written all over it!   Very unique sound and decade defining indeed because by the early 1970's the Continentals went to the wayside and the Moog synthesizers started to take hold.

[Narwhil]

I love the song you played I want to learn it now

[markpettigrew]

Definitely a thinner sound than a Hammond B3. The Vox and Farfisa organs weren't suitable for earthy blues or funky jazz. But they were great when laying "pads" behind rock groups like the Animals or the Doors.

[stuartphelps]

Lay lady lay? I love that progression!

[EType]

Thank you for sharing this awesome instrument. One question I have is...For many years into this day, the Hammond B-3 was considered the gold standard in rock and prog music, especially when paired with the equally legendary Leslie doppler speaker. Your Vox as demonstrated here also features that classic, warbling, doppler sound. Is this achieved internally by the instrument's hardware or is this an amplifier effect of some kind that you have implemented after the signal leaves the instrument? Thanks again for your video here. I am huge fan of so much of the rock and prog music that this instrument was used to create.

[robappleby]

This would be ideal for Philip Glass ensemble music, like Glassworks.

[mchorchos]

It's called VOX CONTINENTAL 71 but still it has only 49 keys :P

[hotwax]

They really need to start making Connies again...

[crazypainter]

Vox like that moody combo organ sound-you want to hear blues--listen life Blues by the Animals----Alan Price kills it