The Organ Forum

Can anyone remember Logan Organs? I never managed to find any information on the internet about them. Apart from the occasional mention of a string machine.

About ten years ago I had a  44/44/12 Logan spinet in the early days of my quest to have a Hammond console.

The logan had one set of drawbars, a mini synthesiser with buttons for different wave shapes, coloured flick tabs, a built in Leslie called "space sound" and as far as I can remember it had no rhythem box. The keys all operated a single spring down on to a bus bar and despite cleaning everything there were lots of intermittent notes. The user manual was dated as 1977-78. I think it's model was 2000 or something.

The only other person who has heard of them is my organ tech.

I also had a horrible orla in a "portable case" that took two people to move. That was in worse condition than the Logan. 

Cheers

Dave 

LOGAN CARAVELLE

I found this site on a search engine whilst looking for information on Logan Organs and spotted a thread requesting information on Logan.

Logan was an Italian manufacturer with a factory in Porto Reconati on the Adriatic coast of Italy (south of Ancona).

Their best known product was the String Machine.  There were two main contenders for strings at the time, the Logan and the Solina.  They both used bucket brigades to create a multi-phased string ensemble effect.  The Solina used a two phase system giving a fairly thin, ethereal string whereas the Logan was a three phase system giving a richer and warmer string.  Brian Sharp had both and used them to great advantage.

I had a Caravelle which was the top line in the organ range.  Mine was the second in line as it only had a 13 note pedal section (top of the range had a 25 note radial concave pedal organ).  The specification was in many ways more advanced than most of the popular organs of the day.  Yamaha organs had only 7 notes of polyphony on the lower manual and 8 on the upper (the 8^th note of the lower being lost to the pedal).  Yamaha’s sounds were rather clinical in those days, the American organs were warmer than the Japanese but suffered some of the same limitations.

The Caravelle was fully polyphonic except for the Solo Voices and one section of the Synthesiser.  The main organ had piano,synth, organ and string sections each with individual sustain control and separate attack control on the syth, organ and string sections, strings and flutes also had individual vibrato control and the flutes had a dedicated amplifier which was routed through a two speed rotary speaker.  At this time Yamaha were simulating rotary speakers, not terribly well, and if you switched on sustain all voices were sustained.

The synthesiser was a strange device of limited use, but used with discretion it could be used effectively to add to the free-phase depth that was a feature of the Caravelle.  It could also produce the weird and wonderful sounds which were an acquired taste, not much acquired by me.

In addition to the above there were some mono lead voices and poly general tabs.

The ‘drawbars’ were not a full harmonic series (the 1 3/5 was missing) and the lower manual flutes were 16/8/4 (possibly 2 2/3 – but I don’t remember for sure).

A friend of mine, Brian, who was the development engineer for Elka was one of the first designers to incorporate computer ICs in musical instruments.  He was responsible for the Elka Soloist, a mono synth which was later incorporated into the top Elka organs. He engineered a bucket brigade phasing system for the flutes on my Caravelle which considerably improved its ability to be more Hammond-like in the flute department.

There was no top-octave generator in the Caravelle.  It had twelve master oscillators and divider chains based on their own thin film encapsulated modules.  Carmelo Castorino was Logan’s MD and he personally tuned and voiced each Caravelle as it came off the production line.  Carmelo, a classical pianist, was always the final arbiter in deciding how a Logan instrument would sound.

Unfortunaltely the Logan company was typical of Italian industry of the 70-80s, superb design, excellent performance – zero reliability.  To my mind the Logan was the best orchestral sounding instrument of the day. As for reliability – I had a manual, a soldering iron and a box of spare parts – I was one of the lucky ones.  Unreliability was the main reason for the demise of the company.  If it had adopted the zero failure tolerance of the Japanese manufacturing industry we might still be playing Logans today.

I also had a Logan Vocalist.  I had heard this played in Italy and it was truly outstanding with its string, vocal, brass and reed sounds.  The one I had was given to me – despite much work and prodding with scope probes it never made a sound.  Such a shame – it was magnificent on the odd occasions it worked.

Probably the most successful Logan dealer was Henry Conway who had music shops in Sheffield and Rotherham – ‘Mister Music Superstore’.  I believe Henry sold more Logans than Yamahas and when you heard him or Brian Sharp playing them you could understand why.

For those who think that Logan is an unlikely name for an Italian company – there is an explanation. The company was founded on combining computer logic elements within analogue instruments: hence LOGic + ANalogue= LOGAN.

Other organs in the Logan range had little to differentiate them from the plethora of similar instruments of the day, but the Caravelle was special; for me at over £2,000 in 1980, it had to be.

JPT

Interesting info there, JPT. I guess our paths must have crossed in the organ heyday! One correction, if I may.

The Eminent/Solina system used three phase strings, right from the word go. The phasing was, however, lighter than on any of the several Italian string ensemble instruments, which no doubt all used the same BBD's. I had an early Jen Superstringer - a total (low-cost) rip-off of the spec of the Solina, but alas without that sweet sound that I wanted.

I remember getting a little shirty with some of the Kawai R&D guys in the late 70's, when they presented us with prototype models that only had two phase strings. The big T5 had multiple phasers, so why not the home models! I took them across to the Eminent booth and got them to listen very carefully. We got redesigned three phase strings after that!

I was never a great fan of the Logan organ, even when I could find one that worked! I did like some of the other instruments like the Vocalist and String Ensemble but like you said, reliability was a major problem.

 Andy

Andy G,

Thanks for your response to my posting and the info on the Solina.

I have had a quick scan through some of your contributions to the site and it has become quite obvious you are blessed with a wide knowledge of instruments as well as being a more than competent musician, and a prolific contributor to the site.

You referred to your demonstrating for Kawai (nearly 30 years ago).  Presumably you knew Peter (I forget his surname) who operated out of Bournemouth marketing the Kawai products around that time.  I met Peter on a few occasions but did not know him well.  I did know John Edgar who joined Peter, I believe he was mostly involved selling Kawai into educational markets. I first met John when he was MD of Logan in New Milton (Hants).

You also expressed an interest in Hammond X66 and X77s.  If you are interested in acquiring an X77 I could put you in touch with an owner that would be willing to part with one.  The instrument was purchased new by the owner in Jersey shortly after its launch.  It has two dedicated tone cabinets (large – very) one of which is faulty.  I suspect the problem resides in a faulty capacitor (a large double capacitor) in the power supply.  Consequently there is a rumbling hum with little audio.  The faulty cabinet has the pedal organ (amongst other sections) routed through it so the pedals are annoyingly absent at the moment.

The organ resides in south Devon, the price is negotiable – I would suggest a concert for our local keyboard club one Friday evening would probably secure it, but throw in a few recordings of your work just to make sure.  If you are interested I will check with the owner that it is still available.

The X77 was offered to me but I live in a tiny Brixham fisherman’s cottage which is overrun with keyboards: Tyros (1), Technics WSA1, Yamaha CVP, AR80, Elka Soloist and a new Yamaha something or other that purports to be a baby Motif (MM6? - unimpressed).  Unfortunately the ARP Soloist, Calvioline, TX7, EM10,  ... ... ... (et al) had to go before the 250 year old cob walls gave up.

Our club is of the ‘hands on’ variety and we do not normally present professional players so it would be a great change if we made an exception to this rule.  The club owns a Technics GA1 and a GA3 as well as a Tyros III, a PSR3000 and a Technics KN6500 for the its of its members.

Many years ago (40ish I guess?) I wandered into a pub/hotel for a pie and pint.  There was an organ in the bar (a small Thomas or something similar). The landlord asked me if I wanted to try it – and I did.  ‘Come with me’ he beckoned, and led me into the ballroom where I cast my eyes on an X77 for the first time.  I did rather less than usual work that day as the lunch hour was extended by another couple of hours.  The pub was to the north of Salisbury – perhaps the High Post.  A good day that one – a very good day.

However, enough rambling – it is now 03:30 hrs – time for bed.

Do let me know if you would like the X66 – the owner just wanted it to go to a good home where it would be appreciated – the offer was never intended as an opportunity for a quick profit.

Goodnight !

JPT

Hi

It was Arthur Butler who ran his company from Bournemouth, importing Gulbransen and Kawai organs. His son Peter joined him in the mid 70's, and it was Peter who took the company forward, eventually becoming MD of Kawai UK when the Japanese set up their own wholly-owned subsidiary. I was with the company from 1976 to 1989, an so worked with John Edgar quite a bit - nice guy.

Much though I'd love an X series, especially the X66, I'm in the same sort of position as you regarding space! 

Concert work is very difficult for me right now, due to an intermittent RSI problem that stops me playing and practising as much as I'd like,sadly. I teach and write, but playing is just for fun.

Andy

Andy,

Thanks for the info. I never met Arthur Butler, only Peter.

Shame abour the X66 space problem, I fully understand.

Tou were quite right, our paths did cross to some extent although we never met.

I was dong some development work in California on early digital instruments all those years ago and was quite pleased with what had been achieved until I met Peter Vogel in Frankfurt and saw the Fairlight!  It did everything ours did, everything we wanted ours to do and a whole lot of other stuff we had not even thought of! All this in the days when microprocessors umbered along at 1 or 2 Megs and could only directly address a handfull of memory.  Fabulous, mind-blowing performance for its day.  I only wish I could find a virtual instrument that handled like the CMI instrument.

 Thanks for your commnications over the past 24 hours - hopefully we will pick up a thread another time and swap experiences.

 Cheers for now, and best of luck with the RSI, hoping it doesn't preclude your music as a hobby.

JPT. 

Thanks Guys for all the info on the Logan.

I'd given up on this thread!

Mine had a small one-octave pedal board, and no piano voice. Of course the key contact system was unreliable and the lower manual was un playable. I would of loved to of tried playing a working one just once.

Cheers

Dave