Question about Farfisa Compact Duo

[49bv]

I may be in the market for a Duo Compact. I understand that they can be temperamental and I suspect that this one will need a bit of work. I am familiar somewhat with Hammonds and was wondering where does Farfisa stand in comparison to the reliability of a Hammond.

[Alenhoff]

There is no comparison: A tonewheel Hammond is far better built, and both techs and parts are generally readily available. The Farfisa was not built for long life or for ease of repair, and parts and qualified techs can be hard to find. Buying a Farfisa is like buying a vintage sports car you know will be unreliable: You should be prepared for it to spend a fair amount of time in the shop. If you really love it, it may be worth the time and cost to keep it going.

Alan

[49bv]

Ok thank you! That sounds about right. I think I'm going to stick with the Hammond and use a digital keyboard for Farfisa emulation.

[David Anderson]

I own a Farfisa Compact Duo, and I have to agree with the comment above. Now, once I thoroughly refurbished my Duo, it's been pretty reliable, but I probably put at least $2,000 worth of work into it, if you go by standard tech bench rates.

[Drawbar Dave]

I also agree with the opinions above. I resurrected both a MK1 and a MK2, keeping the MK2 for myself. Neither of them needed as much work as David's did, but they both had every single electrolytic capacitor changed - >100 if I remember correctly. This is essential if you want it to be reliable. I also had to change a few rogue germanium transistors as well and rebuild the F/AR preamplifier too. Mine had both been well behaved since the restoration. I think I did the MK2 3 or 4 years ago and it is still working as it should. I will say that nothing compares to the experience of playing a fully working model and I did not regret a minute of the effort and money that I put in to them.

[Jyvoipabo]

I have restored a compact Farfisa.

Main problems :
-Schematics very difficult = Labyrinth in postage stamp format.
-Craddle of the PCB made of very fragile crate wood.
-Reverb with piezo cell very hard to find if short.
-Wiring wires broke by themselves
-Electrolytic capacitors of poor quality, but some of them on the tone generator can be replaced by film capacitors.

JP

Notes :
Key 2 2/3 : Does not correspond to a busbar. Must not be played alone. Brilliant Key: Shines the right 2 2/3. No effect on other keys.

Percussion: Each key is associated with a double contact: 1 Make and 1 Break.
If one of the 2 is dirty (or if the key is not pressed firmly) the percussion does not trigger and / or has a dead time after triggering.
Note that at the end of the percussion, if you hold down the key, the sound disappears completely.
For Bass black key, operation that uses only one contact is slightly different.