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5m Compton

Started by David Drinkell, July 10, 2012, 08:05:29 AM

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David Drinkell

Looking through a copy of Musical Opinion from the 60s, I noticed a Compton ad illustrating a five manual electrone built for a client in Tachbrook Mallory.  Does anyone know what happened to it?

Lucien Nunes

That would probably be the Electrone built c. 1960 for Tony Lucas, originally as a 4m. From memory, it was later modified and a new console built at the suggestion of Arthur Lord, with 5 manuals of which the 5th was coupler only as there was no 5th manual relay in the generator cabinet. It changed hands and survived complete until around a decade ago, when the console (in poor condition) changed hands again and was modified almost beyond recognition into an extensive VTPO. The redundant dual-generator cabinet was given to someone else and is currently operating on one generator only as a substitute for a Melotone.

I think it is a great shame that this unusual instrument was broken up, I would gladly have had a new 5-manual console built for its previous owner in exchange for it, to allow it to live on as a record of one of the high points in the Electrone's history, but for the fact that I had not then begun to collect the history of the Electrone and knew nothing of its impending fate. The current owner of the generators has kindly offered me access to them so that I can reverse-engineer the instrument and its specification for reference purposes. There is of course then the possibility (very remote, I must add) of constructing a complete replica.

In the meantime I'd be very grateful for a scan of the advert, if possible...

Lucien

Bobbell9

There was a very large 3 manual Compton Electone built for the Royal Festival Hall prior to the installation of the Harrison & Harrison. The specification is here
http://cdmnet.org/Julian/schemes/elec/rfh.htm

90 stops over 3 manuals

Lucien Nunes

#3
Once redundant, the RFH job was promptly dismantled reportedly at the instigation of Compton himself as he was dissatisfied with its performance. Its nearest relatives that were probably technically similar (although I am unsure whether the generators were actually the same) were the Electrones at Rowton Castle Shrewsbury and the Manchester Free Trade Hall. The fate of Rowton Castle I have been unable to trace. This leaves us only the FTH, which sadly suffered exactly the same fate as the 5m in the original post. It survived complete (although heavily modified) until a few years ago, having been extensively overhauled and tweaked in the 1970s by Whitfield Lewis, its first private owner. A more recent owner attempted to sell it complete but finding no takers, repurposed the console for a digital and passed the generators over to an enthusiast.

The current owner of the generators is committed to returning them to a playable configuration. It is his ultimate aim to make a replica console, at the moment the cabinet is wired up to another Electrone console whilst he works on the major overhaul again required. Once complete, it will probably be the closest approach to the sound of the RFH Electrone that we will ever hear. What FTH shares with the 5m is the use of a dual generator system; in most other respects it is different, so we must consider these two orphaned generator cabinets the sole surviving representatives of their particular generator designs.

Lucien