Compton Electrones / Melotones / Theatrones outside the UK

[Lucien Nunes]

I thought I'd see if anyone here has a Compton electrostatic organ outside the British Isles. This forum is quite focused on electronics of US and Japanese parentage, and to be honest there's a reason why these were sold widely in the UK yet the Comptons are little known elsewhere.

If the marque is new to you, the Electrones were UK-made electrostatic tonewheel organs on sale between 1947 and about 1972, from the John Compton Organ Co., one of the UK's biggest builders who specialised in compact extension organs and theatre pipe organs. The Electrone developed from the Melotone, which was an electrostatic tone generator add-in for a TPO. The Electrones were well built and long lasting, but in general rather dull-sounding by modern standards and the larger models were ridiculously complicated for the limited effects they produced. I collect and restore them, as much for technical interest than music-making, and because I am interested in everything Compton.

If you're curious, see some pics here including how the generators work:
http://comptonmelotones.multiply.com...ens_Electrones
http://comptonmelotones.multiply.com..._on_the_Draper

So - anybody with an Electrone in El Paso or a Melotone in Melbourne - let's hear how it got there...

Lucien

[andyg]

Last electrostatics I played were one from the ice rink in Brighton and a drawbar spinet (C49??) in a dealer's back in 1970 or 71. Can't say I was that impressed. I had more fun using Melotones on Comptons. ABC Plymouth was a nice one - I can hear it in my head now.

[Lucien Nunes]

A drawbar spinet... could that have been a Parie? They used audio keying rather than the Compton's generator keying and were much livelier than the typical entertainment-voiced Electrone with its sedate slow attack. For a budget instrument, I rather like my little electrostatic Parie, which is an interesting half-way-house between the Electrones and the later electromagnetic Pari.

I rather confounded the meaning of 'Melotone' in the post above - when used in the title I really meant the entertainment console organ (model 352) named after the original Melotone. ABC Plymouth had a good Melo install as you say, which is currently in our workshop having an overhaul in slow time while the organ awaits re-installation. Seems the BBC techs looked after it somewhat during the 'As Prescribed' years, sounds great on Dudley Savage's recordings. I might have it playing from my 3m in due course, until it goes off to its new home.

Lucien

[andyg]

No, it was definitely a Compton, Lucien. I recall it being broadly similar in specification to a Hammond M100 or T100 but it was bigger, with 49-note manuals. The internals looked somwehat similar to the photos on your site. The only Pari (no 'e' on the name this time) I've played to any extent was the XTO - their electromagnetic version of the Hammond T. It was in the same dealer's showroom. That room seemed to display all the oddball stuff, a concert sized Wurlitzer electronic church model, the Compton and Pari, plus things like the Leslie 950 with its psychedelic light show.

Dudley was a great guy, it was he who invited me down to Plymouth to play the organ, gave me a crash course in handling a Compton and Melotone (I'd never played one before), and a guided tour around the chambers. Then we sat in while he recorded two 'As Prescribed' shows before he let me loose on the organ for an hour or so. I met him several times after that and he kindly said he'd been following my career with interest, having heard first me play for Robin Richmond on 'The Organist Entertains'.

I've half a mind to produce a virtual Melotone VSTi, to go with Miditzer and Haputwerk. Could be an interesting project. Need to do some serious sampling or modelling though!

[Lucien Nunes]

Crikey, a drawbar Electrone! I wonder how many were made? I've been researching Electrones for several years and so far no trace of one has surfaced. Mind you, we only recently came across the first of the semi-experimental 400 series, which were basic Electrones with various quirks such as illegible grey stopkeys an odd generator layout. 49-note manuals would also seem to be an out-of-character attempt to break the mould, as their HE series spinets had 44.

Wally Fair's 'voicing machine' consisted of a row of discrete-step quadrant faders in a box at the end of a cable that could be wired onto the harmonic busbars to dial in experimental settings. It wouldn't have taken a great leap of imagination to envisage a smaller version of that installed in a console, patent infringements and unwanted associations with 'Imported Models' aside.

The trouble with getting a good Melo sample set mostly revolves around getting a good Melo! Most existing, working units now have at least some minor issues with their discs, either warp which causes amplitude tremulation or surface deterioration which causes noise. A couple of us have been working at reconstructing the definitive waveform for mastering new discs, a project where others have made faster progress than I. Somewhere down the line there should be a very close approach to the original tone from a new trouble-free disc, then it will be a matter of deciding whether the faint background mains hum, clicks and generator 'sing' are all part of the Melo sound!

I'm glad we've been able to start up a thread with some Melo discussion, surely if we keep it up long enough all the millions of overseas Electrone owners will spot it and join in... FWIW I know there are at least three in mainland Europe, a 357cp in Holland that I swapped with the Parie and Dereux, plus a 347 in Germany that was recently relocated from the UK. But both of those belong to dedicated vintage electric organ enthusiasts with existing collections, so they don't really count as ordinary exports. There's also a 352 'Melotone' (or possibly two) in Germany &/or Holland. Is there even ONE in the US?

Lucien

[j reimer]

I recall a Compton Electrone in the Baptist Church in Earlwood, a Sydney suburb, and I did have a short play on it on one occasion in the late 1950's. The console was substantial, and the tones good for the time, but frequency-locked and therefore disappointing. I believe it was eventually replaced by a theatre-type (?) pipe organ. I don't know what became of the Compton. It was not a large building, and there would have been no help from its acoustics.

At that time the Anglican church in Earlwood had a small tracker pipe organ on which I learned to play. Its pipe-work was of poor quality, and a later Rector described it as "an organ with asthma". It was replaced in 1980 by an analogue electronic organ of my design (although I had left Earlwood years before, having become an Anglican parish clergyman), and was the first of five similar organs for Sydney churches. I am now retired, and my wife and I live back in Earlwood. We hear that first organ being played each Sunday morning, and once a month I do the playing.

I still build "organs", but these days they are computer organs using jOrgan. Their sound is far superior to those analogue organs of the 1980's, but with the way technology changes, they are certainly not likely to last as long, at least in their present form!

John Reimer

[Lucien Nunes]

Apparently the drawbar Electrone was model CL72 and Chris Thompson has a brochure for it, I'd seen the picture but never noticed the comment about drawbars.
http://comptonmelotones.multiply.com...dverts#photo=8
I wonder if any survive...

John I think you've summed up the very nature of the Electrone in one sentence there, as far as it stood in the 1960s. Substantial but disappointing, and reliant on room acoustics to put some life into the sound. To be fair to Compton, the models with multiple 5-inch generators were tonally much more involving than those with 7-octave 2.5" generators built into the console. The popularity of the latter instruments suggest that buyers didn't think the difference worth the substantial extra cost though. Good to hear that an Electrone or two made it to Australia.

Lucien

[andyg]

Ah, well at least I got the letter C correct! I wonder if we can unearth some more information or photos.

[Guest]

http://comptonmelotones.multiply.com seems to have gone off air, does anyone know what's happened to it?

[Lucien Nunes]

Yes, it does seem to be down, I emailed the admin but haven't heard back yet. We do have an embryonic forum for this subject at http://www.electrokinetica.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=8 where I am putting together an Electrone collection. If I get cracking with my site updates there should be a good resource of Electrone info there soon. More news as I get it...

Incidentally, Steve Dutfield (keeper of the Compton List) also has some info on the CL72 home entertainment Electrone with drawbars, which he will send once scanned.

Lucien

[Guest]

Hi Lucien,

Thanks for replying. I found the site an interesting and useful resource as I have been given an electrone console which has had the electronics removed at some point in the past, but it's unusual in the fact it the pedalboard splits in half and the console has been split in to an upper and lower sections for transporting, weather this is original compton or a later modification I don't know. Guess I will find out more once I start renovating the console.

[Lucien Nunes]

I've never seen a transportable Electrone. Compton made classical-style instruments for all applications, whilst their offerings for light music were typically aimed at theatrical installations in the early days and home entertainment later on. But touring / rock use was anathema to Compton, so their organs were mostly built to stand all their lives in one place. I expect your console was split at the time it was repurposed, but it would be great if you could post some pictures e.g. to the Electrokinetica forum, as if it is a factory special (and there were plenty of those) it is quite a rarity and we would like to learn more about it.

Lucien