Farfisa Tk 73 Manual

[Jacquelyne Betance]

Didyou ever know there was a "manualpedalboard", 13 black keys, with the plug to connect it to the pedalboardplug on the "Duo" ? Don't remember if it ever went into production.Also I remember many problems in developing the amp/speaker box for the Duo. ...the Professional started as a "non cost limit" project, and I ...wanted a structural study using "aeronautical technology" to reducethickness and weight (at first it was all aluminum, reinforced with complicatedbrackets with large holes, for weight, then cost was too high and a compromisewas taken, but the metal structure remained). A few months were spent instudying the behavior of FET's (new devices at the time) for percussion. I amstill not satisfied with the result, but at the time couldn't do better. Flutefilter came from playing Lowrey's (Farfisa was cooperating with Lowrey for theCordvox, and also met some of Lowrey's people...), and completely revising thefilter architecture.

"The clarinet (sharp) footages really have awild sound in the lower register... very poly-synth like, almost like a Prophet.Absolutely wild. The percussion section is its own wild animal, capable, withthe three decay times, of a sputtering synth like spit on the shortest setting,almost a wow... very weird and unique. It takes work to get Hammond sounds outof it ..., unlike the YC-45d, but it definitely has its own unique character, asunique as, say, the Gibson (while sounding *nothing* like the Gibson at all!).The sustain voices work on both keyboards, the percussion only on the top, andthe cancel switches are handy to quickly change registrations or tones (aboutthe only way you have of doing it quickly, actually.) The switches are exactlythat; switches; they don't have the four position or the endless variety of theYC-series, but you have a good selection of footages and between the sharps andthe flutes can get a lot of variety using just switches. Probably make itslightly easier live to get to a given registration; that probably was thethought behind it.

"Built like a tank, weighing a ton (a tadlighter than the YC-45D but not much), rock steady with the stand, I'll be usingthis thing a lot. The slalom is fantastic, a perfect octave up or down(depending on where you start) and everything in between, and it's smooth.There's also an on-off switch on the pedal board to turn the darn thing off(handy live when you go for the volume pedal, hit the slalom right next to it bymistake and the whole organ goes out of tune!!!)

"Oh, the PEDALS!!!! Let me tell you about thePEDALS!!!! I first hooked this thing up downstairs to check it out and ran itinto my little tube Ampeg amp. When I got it upstairs and plugged it into theYamaha RA200, WOW!!! Does this thing have bass!!! The bottom "C" ofthe pedal is a 32' stop, not a 16' stop as labeled. In fact, all the bass pedalsare an octave down from where they are listed... oh, wait a minute, no, the slalomwas set high... I have to try out the pedals with slalom... dang, they might godown all the way to a 64' stop (completely subsonic!!!) And beef, the wholeorgan is much bassier than the YC-45d, and the sharps take on a slightlydifferent character than with a small amp, but WOW. None of the other organs Ihave have the pedals hooked up, and with this thing permanently hooked up (tohave access to the slalom pedal) now I don't *need* any of the other pedals Ihave (never was able to get the YC pedals to work right above a certain note).Oh, also there is no function for playing the pedal tones on the top keyboard,but since both keyboards have the extra octave and 16' stops, (not to mentiondropping the pitch an octave with slalom) Farfisa probably figured why bother?

"Also it's like we assumed; the sharps are moreof the original Farfisa combo sound, while the flutes are more like the Hammond.It would take a lot of work to make this sound like a Hammond though, and that,in my opinion, is a good thing (having three of the things already and theYC-45d being able to emulate 'em in a pinch)!!"

Compared with other CIEPs (Cheap Italian Electronic Pianos), like the Univox Compac Piano, and even the Vox Piano, the Professional Piano has a goodly array of features and sounds.I believe Kraftwerk used a Professional Piano Controls:

piano1solo.mp3 This is the piano tabonly on the treble clef (upper section) selected to ON, while everything else isoff. There is no keyboard splitting set in this clip. The first decay mode isset (corresponding to the bank which piano tab is under, the isosceles trianglesetting (top))

piano_harpclavichordSplit.mp3This file demonstrates the keyboard splitting function, with the lower clef setto harp and clavichord, and the upper clef set to piano. Both are set to theupper decay setting (isosceles triangle for long decay)

SpecialeffectPianoClavichordsolo.mp3This file shows the special effect decay mode being used, which, unlike theother two, does not taper off but rather holds out the note like an organ would.It has a rather heavy bottom end when using this feature with the lower keys, asyou will hear...Kind of sounds like an electrified harmonium if such a sound canbe conjured.

The Special Effects can be mixed with the Flutes. Flute Cancel killsthe flute voices. The Presets are NOT user-programmable

Coupler is used to play piano sounds on the lower manual. Special Coupler isused to have piano sounds on both manuals.

The Pedal voices (16', 8') are just straight flute voices. Pedal to LMallows you to play those voices on the 1st octave of the lower manual (convertsthat octave to bass-only, doesn't add the bass voices to the regular organvoices)

Percussion Long lengthens the attack of the percussion. Special Attackadds a keyclick.

Repeat does the Percussion attack repetitively, at a rate set by the RepeatSpeed slider. It's a multi-triggering effect, adding the percussive soundfor every key pressed.

Electric Bass is a synth-type sound with a short decay, and does not sound muchlike an electric bass.

And some additional thoughts from Valerio: "Asa final note I can tell you that the Pro 110 is not a typical combo organ likethe Compact. It's a Hammond clone and a very good one. The tone is bright andopen and very convincing. The "pedal to l.m." feature gives you thepossibility to play very effective bass lines on the lower manual compensatingthe lack of 16' harmonic on the lower manual. The vibrato is pretty goodand you have also the leslie controls (9 pins)."

I am revisiting the Farfisa Transicord because I have been asked to build a power supply unit for one, and after investigation it seems there is a need to clarify the situation and provide some substitute designs.

How hard could it be? Well this apparently simple request resulted in considerable confusion until I found combo-organ.com. While this site only deals with the Transicord in passing, it contains extensive information on servicing the Compact Duo combo organ which is closely related, and provided some valuable missing bits to the puzzle.

The capsule history of Farfisa is that it was a merger of several Italian accordion builders, and the Transicord electronic accordion released in 1962 was their first electronic product, the more conventional keyboard line of combo organs following about two years later. For the full Farfisa story see the link above.

Farfisa's initial decision to split the electronic accordions and organs into two units, the instrument and companion power supply on the floor, was fateful and has resulted in some instruments being separated from their unique power supply and becoming non-functioning junk.

If you have, or a considering buying, either model Transicord (or a Compact) without power supply; these are not available over the counter, however anybody with some electronics skills who can build a robust and safe low-voltage power supply, can build a suitable substitute. We will look at this in detail below.

We also know that the plain Transicord accordion and the early Compact Duo combo used much the same electronics internally and the same F/AR power supply, although the relationship between the Deluxe and later Compact combos is unclear.

Like Farfisa organs generally, there are also a number of Transicord variants, mainly using button rows instead of piano keys for the right hand, with markings in several European languages, and different connectors for American and European models, however internally there seem to be only two major variants, the Transicord with one row of voice tabs, and Transicord Deluxe with two.

We might expect that the Deluxe model would follow the plain Transicord, but if that is the case it represents a leap into the past in styling, and a loss of facility with the dropping of the reverb. Which came first? No idea, and given how Frafisa progressed they could have been trying to cover both modern and traditional bases at the same time.

This design is a simple unregulated single supply of around 11 volts. It may get you going, but at best it is an incomplete subsitute for the F/AR supply required by both the Transicord and Compact Duo, as we will see below, and certainly unsuitable as a replacement for the ATR/3 supply for the Transicord Deluxe.

The supply must be DC, at least 12 volts, and capable of delivering at least 200-250mA. It doesn't need to be a regulated supply but it must have a suitable resistor between the supply and the instrument in the positive lead.

A modern replacement for the ATR/3 could easily be constructed, say in a recovered computer power supply case, using common low voltage transformers and 3-pin regulators. If you already have a dead ATR/3 then repair should be a straightforward matter.

This is my suggested but so far untried (I don't need one) modernised replacement circuit for the above, with PCB layout suitable to be built in an old computer PSU case. Notes: Some tweeking or scaling of the regulator offset resistors may be required to bring the rails to the required voltages before you unleash it on the instrument; and the stability caps on the PCB are not shown on the circuit.

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