Matt's Gearspace
Farfisa

Farfisa Combo Compact

Discontinued 1969Released 1964

The other great combo organ: nine voice tabs plus the Multi-Tone Booster, a knee lever that snarls up a bright, spiky tone the Vox can't do. Five octaves including a reverse-colour bass octave, and valve-driven spring reverb. Germanium transistors and brittle plastic keys make a healthy one a restoration job.

Specifications

General

Manufacturer
Farfisa
Status
Discontinued
Released
1964

Keyboard

Manuals
1
Keys per manual
61
Key action
Waterfall
Keybed
Five octaves: a 12-note reverse-colour manual bass octave (C to B) below 49 normal keys; unweighted plastic organ keys. The 1968 Compact I adds a switchable grey second octave

Sound

Drawbars
Tab switches
Sound engine
Germanium-transistor organ with 12 tone-generator boards and frequency dividers; valve (ECC83) reverb drive
Organ models
Voice tabs: Bass 16', Strings 16', Flute 8', Oboe 8', Trumpet 8', Strings 8', Flute 4', Piccolo 4', Strings 4'; Multi-Tone Booster 16', 8', 4' and All Booster on the knee lever
Polyphony
Full polyphony

Connections

Outputs
Hard-wired 1/4-inch output lead, High-impedance headphone jack
Pedal inputs
Expression, Pedalboard

Features

Features
Multi-Tone Booster knee lever, Spring reverb, Vibrato (slow/fast, light/heavy), Three bass volume tabs, Optical swell pedal, 13-note bass pedalboard option

Size & weight

Colours
Red, Grey

Heard on

Artists and records that used it, as Farfisa tells it.

  • Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, “Wooly Bully”
  • Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) – His first Farfisa, before the Compact Duo
  • Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (Grateful Dead) – His first keyboard with the band

More from Farfisa

  • Farfisa

    Mini Compact

    Discontinued 1969
    Manuals
    1
    Keys per manual
    49
    Key action
    Waterfall
    Drawbars
    Tab switches
    —1966
  • Farfisa Compact Deluxe drawbar organ

    Farfisa

    Compact Deluxe

    Discontinued 1969
    Manuals
    1
    Keys per manual
    61
    Key action
    Waterfall
    Drawbars
    Tab switches
    —1966
  • Farfisa Compact Duo drawbar organ

    Farfisa

    Compact Duo

    Discontinued 1969
    Manuals
    2
    Keys per manual
    49
    Key action
    Waterfall
    Drawbars
    Tab switches
    —1966