Farfisa Duo Professional

This organ could not be ANY easier to use. All the switches and sliders are color coded and clearly marked. Operating this instrument will not confuse you unless you happen to be mentally challenged.

The Farfisa Pro Duo has two manuals, very responsive keys and a simple colorful design.

FLUTE: 16 | 8 | 5-1/3 | 4 | 2-2/3 | 2 | 1-3/5 | 1-1/3
CLARINET SHARP: 16 | 8 | 5-1/3 | 4 |2-2/3 | 2 | 1-3/5 | 1-1/3
LOWER MANUAL: FLUTE16|FLUTE8|FLUTE4|HORN16|CLARINET16|STRINGS8|PICCOLO4
PERCUSSION: 16 | 8 | 5-1/3 | 4 | 2-2/3 | 2 | 1-3/5|1-1/3
SUSTAIN: CELESTA|HARPSICHORD|KINURA|LONG
VIBRATO: FAST|HEAVY|ON
PEDAL: BASS16|BOURBON16|BASS8|SUSTAIN

Sustain can be assigned to the upper or lower manual independently. Vibrato can be assigned to FLUTE, CLARINET SHARP, PERCUSSION and LOWER MANUAL individually
A CANCEL panel allows you to deactivate FLUTE, CLARINET SHARP, PERCUSSION
There is one octave of pedals keys, a volume pedal, and a "Slolum" pedal.

I love the sounds that come out of this thing. It produces very warm, unique Farfisa tones that you won't get from other Farfisas. Yet it still has a classic Farfisa sound. The bass tones produced by the lower manual are super fat and pleasing. I generally just activate a couple of flute stops and throw on some heavy/fast vibrato to get the sound I like.

Introduced in 1970 and no longer in production, this thing is still working extremely well. My Pro Duo is older than I am and only has a few small issues (a poorly repaired key, some dirty contacts, and some missing felt behind the keys that cause a section of the upper manual to make clacking noises when played). EVERYTHING else works perfectly.

No longer available.

For a vintage Farfisa organ with two manuals, sweet bass tones,the classic sound and vibrato of a Farfisa, and it's portable, I give it a 9.

I figured this organ out in a matter of minutes without any manual (I've never even heard of one for this model). Its control panel is clearly marked and all the switches worked as indicated. The features are fairly simple: vibrato, sustain, percussion, that can be customized and handily turned on or off on a CANCEL panel with all the other features so you don't have to fish around in order to switch effects in the middle of a song.

The Farfisa Professional Duo has two manuals: a lower one that produces traditional organ sounds, and an upper one with a mix (if you want, or you can cancel one or the other) of "Clarinet" and "Flute" voices.

The vibrato is very, VERY nice - an essential feature on any organ. You can make it light or heavy, slow or fast, for a more spacy and eerie tone.

I haven't been able to find much use for sustain or percussion, however. Sustain actually sounds nice and fuzzy but doesn't quite last long enough to have a drastic effect on the sound. Percussion makes a tapping noise when you press a key down and works well for bass lines or for an extra "punch" IF you set the tapping noise low enough in pitch. If you set it to a higher register it just sounds ridiculous. Luckily, it has a three-way switch that enables you to change the pitch of the tapping easily and you don't have to fiddle with the endless tabs (more on that later).

There are inputs for both a swell (volume) pedal and a pitch-bend pedal but they are strange pin inputs and I haven't found any pedals to test them out (You don't need the pedal to control volume. There are sliders for the balance of each individual manual and effect, and also a very nice, responsive knob on the bottom of the organ).

Here lies my biggest gripe with the Farfisa. The keys feel right and are instantly responsive, but anyone expecting the screaming garage-rock Farfisas of the 60s should look at a Farfisa Compact. The lower manual has a very bland, commonplace (but pretty) organ sound, and while the top one is more shrill and reedy, it's not the definitive Farfisa you've heard so much about. And no matter how much you mess with the multitudes of tabs (there are even tabs for percussion, and I have NO idea how to use them effectively), you're always going to get pretty much the same sound. There are no presets, so you have memorize your settings and flip each individual tab to get them. Usually I just try to get a somewhat versatile sound and stick with it.

This thing's built like a tank. It weighs well over 100 pounds, and you need two people to carry it. I had it on a little metal keyboard stand for a week or so and it bent the bit that holds it together and tore up the face that lets you change the height of the legs. Luckily, the person I bought it from had the original solid wood legs and though you need a wrench to put them together, it can be done simply and they are very sturdy. Speaking of solid wood, it has a case that hooks over the top of the organ and has handles that make carrying the organ much more pleasant.

The Farfisa is very well designed and well engineered and cost thousands of dollars when it was released in the early 70's. I have complete faith in it. When atomic war destroys the earth, it's just going to be the cockroaches and my Farfisa rocking out in the nuclear wasteland.

Farfisa went out of business a while ago, and though it came back recently it only sells crappy MIDI workstations that are no match for their earlier organs, which they no longer support.

My appreciation of this organ is skewed by the fact that I got a fantastic deal for it. If I had payed $700 or so, which is what many go for, I probably would have been disappointed. The two manuals are definitely its biggest selling point and allow for a good contrast of rhythm and lead (if you see a single-manualed Farfisa Professional, do NOT buy it unless it's a fantastic bargain), but a lack of variation in the tone brings it down considerably.

I play it in a prog-rock-ish, dance-ish instrumental band, and it fits well (maybe because it's in an imaginary genre). I know that Sly Stone and Sun Ra and some German techno guy used it, so that should tell you something about its versatility. Basically, if you need a cheap(er) analog electric organ, it fits the mold quite nicely. If garage-rock bite isn't what you're looking for and you have a nice amp, this organ could probably pull off a very decent Hammond impersonation. And honestly, who could resist the 70s stadium-rock allure of a double keyboard?