Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design of the spinet electronic organ. Current models are completely digital and contain a variety of sounds, effects, and accompaniments, on top of the ability to store programming data onto memory devices.
History
After Hammond pioneered the electronic organ in the 1930s, other manufacturers began to market their own versions of the instrument. By the end of the 1950s, familiar brand names of home organs in addition to Hammond included Conn, Kimball, Lowrey, and others, while companies such as Allen and Rodgers manufactured large electronic organs designed for church and other public settings.
What would later become the Yamaha Electone emerged as a prototype concept in 1958, then named "E-T". The Electone series finally made its commercial debut in 1959 with the D-1, a home instrument. By 1980, with the market waning sharply, and some manufacturers ceasing production, the Electone line embraced digital technology. This allowed Electone's survival as the traditional home electronic organ market dried up. The product name "Electone", coined from the word "Electronic" and "Tone", would become so popular in Japan that in later years, it would become a way to refer to electronic organs in general in the country.
Electones built until 1983 were often similar in specifications to a small theatre organ, with a main flute group analogous to the Tibia Clausa, strings (usually at 8' and 4'), and multiple reeds at 16' and 8' pitches.
Starting with the D-3, Electones featured theatre organ-style color coding for the tone levers, which followed as: white for flutes and diapasons, red for reeds (brass and woodwinds), yellow for string voices (including piano and guitar), and green for percussion voices.
Unlike theatre organs however, the tone levers could be gradually made louder, similar to a drawbar organ, and had 4 click positions (one "off" position followed by 3 progressively loud "on" levels), although they could be adjusted between them.
By the 1980s, many of the most famous names had ceased home production, but the Electone had successfully transitioned into the modern world of digital synthesizers.
The FE, and FX lines introduced in 1983, marked a transition from Theater organ styled instruments, with push buttons being used for selecting sounds, instead of tone levers, which would be carried over to future models and lines afterwards.
It would come to compete with new products from Moog Music, Wersi, and later Kurzweil. Electones were to be found not only in homes, especially in Japan and elsewhere in the East Asia, but also in bands and other solo and group public performances.
Notable former models
Yamaha began exporting Electones to the United States starting with the D-2B in 1967.
1958 — E-T Prototype The E-T was a prototype concept by Nippon Gakki (known today as Yamaha). It consisted of one console, four oscillators, a tone-forming part widening device, and three speakers. The consoles consisted of a three-stage keyboard, a 32-key pedal keyboard, and 171 switches of sounds and other functions. (Note: some tracks are available on YouTube; A2:Jingle Bells (played by Shiro Michi)) 1959 — Prototype ET-5 and EM-6 In May 1959, the prototype ET-5 was manufactured, along with the prototype EM-6, a single-stage keyboard utilizing transistor technology. 1959 — D-1 The first model of Electone that was launched by Yamaha, starting with the price around ¥350.000 at that time. 1960 — A-2 The first Electone model with a single keyboard and a single octave pedal. With the price of ¥128.000, it was mostly used for students. Discontinued in 1963. 1962 — E-1 The highest-end Electone model at that time, with a starting price of ¥647.000 in 1962. 1964 — F-1 Electone's first "pipe organ" model. It was built for 15 years, from 1964 to 1979, despite this it has remained in relative obscurity. With a launch price of around ¥2,200,000, it was the most expensive Electone model of its era. 1966 — A-3 Electone's first combo organ, it was only equipped with a single keyboard and an expression pedal. 1966 — F-2 Another "pipe organ" model similar to the F-1, released with an initial price of around ¥1,350,000. It was discontinued in 1975. 1967 — D-2B The first Electone Model that was imported by Nippon Gakki to the United States. 1968 — E-3 Yamaha's top model at that time, commonly used for stage purposes. Its original price tag was ¥800,000. 1968 — EX-21 Prototype The EX-21 was a prototype intended to illustrate the upcoming futuristic, space-age style stage organ models of the future. Unlike prior Electones, it was expressly designed for stage performances. Named for "21st century" technology, it can be heard on the "Electone Fantastic!" album. (Note: several tracks are available on YouTube; B6:L'amour Est Bleu (played by Koichi Oki), A7:Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (played by Hidemi Saito), B7:The Last Waltz (played by Hidemi Saito), Side 1:Side 1, Side 2:Side 2, Full Album Version: Electone Fantastic!) 1970 — EX-42 Yamaha's first commercially available stage model Electone, and the commercial successor to the EX-21. It was the first Electone to use integrated circuits, although it was still based on analogue technology. Famous Electone players such as Shigeo Sekito used this instrument to make the "Special Sound Series", known as "華麗なるエレクトーン" (1975-1977). It was built from 1970 until 1977, launching in 1970 in Japan for ¥2,800,000. In the US, the EX-42 had a $32,000 price tag or $200,000 when adjusted for inflation. It is likely that less than 200 of these were built. 1972 — D-3R Another top model of Electone, mostly used for homes. 1974 — Designing of Electones around synthesisers, instead of organs 1974 — CSY-1 Based on the SY-1 synthesizer. 1975 — GX-1 (a.k.a. GX-707) The first polyphonic synthesizer in Electone form, bridging the gap between synthesizer and organ. It used velocity-sensitive keyboards and the solo keyboard was even after-touch sensitive. The original price tag at that time was around ¥7,000,000. Some notable users of the GX-1 include Richard D. James,. Stevie Wonder, Keith Emerson, John Paul Jones, and Benny Andersson of ABBA. 1977 — EX-1, EX-2 The third generation of space-age stage Electone models. The EX-1 and EX-2 sold for ¥3,600,000 and ¥2,600,000, respectively. on 1977 — E-70 One of the first home-based organs to feature Yamaha's PASS (Pulse Analog Synthesis System) in a console cabinet. The E-70's architecture resembles the famous CS-80 synthesizer, though it lacked analog VCOs. Its original price tag was ¥1,800,000. 1979 — CN-70 A single-keyboard model marketed to music schools. 1980 — D-700 A more advanced and upgraded version of its predecessor models. 1983 — FS and FX series (FC/FE/FS/FX) It featured frequency modulation tone generators, with the FX series featuring the company's first digitally sampled sounds for the onboard percussion/rhythm units. The F series Electones were the first to allow users to digitally save registrations via pistons and then save them to RAM packs or an external disk drive unit with the MDR-1. It is also known as the fourth generation of the space-age stage models, costing around ¥4,500,000. While the lower version of the FX-1, the FX-3, cost around ¥2,000,000. Along with the FS-30m, cost around ¥1,100,000. The FX-10 cost around ¥1,900,000, while the FX-20 cost around ¥2,200,000. The FE-30m retailed for ¥490,000. 1983 — CN-1000 A single chord organ model. 1985 — ME series A smaller and more compact Electone series, starting with the ME-15 and ending at the ME-600. It was discontinued in 1989. The ME-600 retailed for around ¥580,000, while the ME-15 launched with a price of ¥204,000. 1987 — HS and HX series (HA/HC/HE/HK/HS/HX) The HS and HX series represented a transition to more digital technology for the Electone line. Integrated circuit technology resulted in vastly smaller components, leading to a sleeker design. The HX/HS series was the first to use AWM (Advanced Wave Memory) sampling technology for both voices and rhythms, and also featured 16-operator FM voices. AWM voice expansion was also possible via sound packs. Even smaller versions were also available as the HK-10 and HA-1. The HK-10 had the same design as the HC series devices, but sported a bigger cover. The HA-1 was a chord organ version and is rarely seen today, despite being manufactured from 1988 to 2001. The original price for the HS-8 was ¥835,000, while the HX-1 cost around ¥3,321,000. 1991 — EL series This series included an attached Music Disk Recorder which enabled players to record their registrations and performances, thus eliminating the need for extensive programming before each performance. The EL series introduced new synthesisers, filtering, and expression technologies that made instrument voices on the Electone even more realistic. Voice technology continued to be based on AWM and FM technologies. The EL-90 cost around ¥1,250,000, while the ELX-1 cost twice the EL-90 at around ¥2,700,000. 1996 — AR series The AR100 and its junior model the AR80 (released in 1997), were designed for the US and European market and reverted to the more traditional cabinet design. Using purely AWM voices, the most distinctive feature of the series was its 384 preset registrations, a huge increase compared to only 5 presets on the EL series. 1998 — EL-900 (Second version of EL series) Visually similar to the EL90 model from 1991, but with more voices, rhythms and effects, the most significant change of this model is the inclusion of VA (Virtual Acoustic) voices. These voices, or preset sounds, do not use sampling technology but are instead based on modeling, providing an enhanced degree of authenticity. 2000 — ELX-1m Visually similar to the EL90 model from 1991, but with more voices, rhythms and effects, the most significant change of this model is the inclusion of VA (Virtual Acoustic) voices. These voices, or preset sounds, do not use sampling technology but are instead based on modeling, providing an enhanced degree of authenticity. 2004 — Stagea Series This brand new Electone line-up series added around 415 voices and sounds in the standard model (ELS-01), including "articulation voices". These models were only sold in the Asian Pacific region due to low demand from Europe and America. 2005 — ELS-01C and ELS-01X The ELS-01X had 2 61-key keyboards and 25 pedalboard keys. Both this version and its custom model variant the ELS-01C had around 509 voices with articulation. 2006 — ELB-01 A Stagea line-up product mainly used for children and students in Electone courses. The ELB-01K version came out later in 2006. 2007 — D-Deck (DDK-7) Another Stagea line-up product, but more compact, and mostly used for concerts. It was designed as a combo organ, similar to the Hammond Portable B-3. 2009 — ELS-01U / ELS-01CU / ELS-01XU A minor upgrade for first generation stagea models. 2014 — "02" Stagea series. The new make-over of 2nd generation of Stagea series. It consisted of three main models: the standard model (ELS-02), custom model (ELS-02C), and professional model (ELS-02X). It sported super-articulation voices, more registration banks, and double the voices and sounds included in the second generation model. The ELS-02 had around 986 voices and sounds. The ELS-02C and ELS-02X had around 1.080 voices and sounds. The basic model (ELS-02) started with a price of ¥715.000, while custom models (ELS-02C) started at ¥1.078.000. The professional model (ELS-02X) started at ¥1.738.000. 2016 — ELB-02 Like its predecessor the ELB-02, but with more advanced sounds and major updates. The original price with tax started around ¥198.000. 2016 — ELC-02