Vox Continental

I have an Italian Super Connie and I love it a lot. It has a totally different sound and feel than my Hammonds but it is absolutely unique too. There are less controls on the Vox but its beauty is in its simplicity. I paid $250 for mine 4 years ago and it was more than worth the price. I've had to do some minor work and plan to do a little more yet.

About the only effects available on a Continental is vibrato which is activated by a rocker switch. I have mine adjusted for maximum effect so the difference between on and off is striking. I figure if I bother take my left hand off the keys to switch it on, I want it to be heard.

For certain classic rock songs the Vox is the only way to go. For songs by Iron Butterfly or The Doors anything else just doesn't work. That thin, reedy tone is perfect for a lot of other styles as well. I have't heard a decent patch that imitates the real Vox sound yet. Many try, all fail in my opinion. It's like trying to reproduce the sound of a good Hammond Organ; by my ear it can't be done.

I take different keyboards out depending on what songs the sets include. The Vox Super Connie is heavy but also very nice looking. Most people have never seen one used on stage, at least in the present day. They are becoming more rare as the years go by. I have never taken just the Continental alone although mine hasn't given me problems yet. I'm very careful when transporting any of my keyboards or organs though.

There are parts available to work on your Continental. I've managed to come by some spare parts from demolished instruments and have those parts in reserve when they, and circuit boards as well, are non-existent. I also bought new Tolex to recover my case, (not easy to do!!!)) Luckily my red lid was in perfect condition and did not need to be recovered, just cleaned. I next plan to replace the bushings on my keycombs because the action tends to get rather sloppy on the Italian versions over time. The bottom line is there are still parts out there to fix most of the problems involved in owning a Vox Continental.

I absolutely love my Vox. The shape of the case, the stand, the reversed Baroque keyboard layout and the bright orange top are striking. I like the sound a lot although I use the Hammond more. The weight is a drawback but the Hammond weighs even more, especially with a Leslie attached. No synth board produced toady can emulate the sound of the Vox.

Plug and play...not as easy as flipping a tab,but how easy do you want it...samples...forget them. The Vox is it baby!

Um...it turns on and has vibrato...again, it's not a synth so get over it.haha. True some keybaords like the Gibson G101 has alot of sounds. I love my Gibson,but the Vox does the best 60s sound. It's cool enough as is.

Does basically 2 sounds...vibrato on and vibrato off. Sure you can change the drawbar footages,but it's basically modifying the same sound,but damn it sounds great!

Vox orgnas are tempermental... I've had mine for about 8 months and its fine so far. If I move it to another room, it'll probably not work. How it made it from Alaska to Indiana in playable condition, I'll never know. Thanks Bill!

None

I love this board....it's a classic and featured in my favorite music..Doors, Aminmals Iron Butterfly ect... It has it's shortcomings,but overall a Vox Continental is always a 10. I don't think I'll ever sell it.

Does one thing well, unique "cheesy" sounds you still hear today. The biggest mistake I made was selling my 66? wood keys Continental.
Very hard to get keyboard today.
Features, it had a cool vibrato, and drawbars.

The Vox Continental has that great transistor sound. Best 1960,s sound, play through an AC-30 or good tube amp. I must have sound. With the drawbars, play this through a good leslie. It sounds brighter than the Hammond, Rocks!

I never had a problem on the road with the 66 Vox in the 3 years I owned it.

Exact replacement stand from North Coast still availiable.

Sample players today sound great, but they can't do a Vox Continental. The Instant vibrato, the way each key contact hits the bar at a different time. You will need an old or new AC-30 for "the sound". This keyboard looks hot on stage with the "Z" chrome legs and orange/red top.

very easy. 4 footage drawbars, flute tone volume bar, reed tone volume bar... infinite possibilities.

well, its a vox continental... are you really expecting weighted keys or aftertouch? i would definitely rate it higher than an italian, at least its got wooden keys... one built in effect, the famous tremolo - any iron butterfly fan knows and loves it.

It does one sound, and it does it better than any of it's kind: Brash psychedelic screeching transistor organ rock. Suppose i could get some more mellow tones out of it, but if i wanted that boring crap i wouldve bought a hammond... This connie in particular has a sound i liken much more to Iron Butterfly than the Doors... not as reedy.

Heres the downfall.

It wasnt working properly when i got it. I fixed all that.

Worked well for about 6 months, but then at a gig the C note would play back a completely different note... and the E occasionally doesnt work at all. anyone who has been inside these things knows how lame they are to work on/fix. Add that to the fact that this is an american model and replacements are near impossible to locate.

Ive managed to keep all that in check through constant fixing and tinkering. It has been working without fault for the last 5 months.

But this morning, it just wont turn on. deader than a doornail.

Im pretty sure it's just the crappy cord, but still.

I know this thing is old, 1966 old... but, how much failure is too much failure? booooo!!!!

not even going to bother.

im putting this one up for sale; im tired of dealing with it, i need a more reliable combo organ, this has THAT sound, but it also has THOSE problems.

anyone interested? shoot me a message and make a REASONABLE offer.

I hate that this thing doesnt work right, i would play nothing but this rig if i could only depend on it.

i live in alaska, so its not just as easy as driving to the next state over to buy a new one. basically any combo is bought sight unseen. this was bought sight unseen, and i think im a little wiser because of it.

But im giving the overall rating based on its sound rather than its reliability... for a 1966 USA in used condition, that just wouldnt be fair.

if you ever find one of these in working condition, youd better damn well snap it up... it will change the way you play keyboards forever.

Connies are very easy to use. Theres only 6 drawbars on it so you have to make the best of it. The vibrato is a rocker tab and the speed is fixed. The mains is a rocker tab also.

Has sine drawbar (~) and sawtooth drawbar (M). These are the main drawbars and sort of work as volume drawbars. The additional 4 drawbars are the voices: 16', 8', 4', and IV. I like its simplicity.

The sounds are amazing. You won't find any good imatations anywhere unless you have it sampled from a REAL Connie. But its great to have the real deal. I've got an Italian one (1966 V301J). It's great for all types of music. Anything from trashy surf to mozart. There is only one onboard effect and its the vibrrato. It's amazing!!! It's fixed at one speed, but you can easily modify it for variable speeds.

Hmmmm.....reliability
Well, that all depends. If you know how to care for it, then it probably won't give you too many problems. I don't move mine around too much, so it has done me pretty good. The only true problem that i've come upon are the tone generator boards. They are either really easy to fix, or reallyhard to fix. Sometimes you'll have tones go out on your Connie and it'll sound funky. You can usually fix this by adjusting the little pots on the boards. But if that doesnt work than its probably those damn caps or something. I've also heard that they fall out of tune very easily, but mine survivrd being shipped from Florida to Huntington Beach (southern California) and it was in perfect tune. I would use it on a gig without a backup on the count of I don't have a backup!!!

Yeah..ummmmm..right
The Continental went out of production something like '71, so I dont think i could call up Vox and tell them about my problems with my Continental.

There are some really good sites on repairing them and also for parts.

Combo Organ Heaven:
http://www.combo-organ.com/
There's a wealth of info there about combo organs.

Morth Coast Music:
http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/shopping/index.htm
They sell mostly new and some used parts for Vox organs.

If this thing were stolen, i'd definately invest in another one. It is definately worth what i paid. This is this most saught after combo organ, for one reason: IT'S FREAKIN KICK ASS. I love its thinreedy sound. Visually, it's striking. With its red top and reversed colored keys. And it's sleek design. The only complaint is it's weight, only cause i'm real lazy.

In the 1960's, when this pievce of kit had its heyday, the answer to these questions would have been..."eh?"

I suppose there was primitive patch editing with the drawbars to change the organ sound harmonics, and that worked well.

Fully polyphonic - every key plays (usually). Fullsized, heavy wooden keys. No effects, MIDI, sequencer etc.

The basic organ sound was pretty fair, and a classic sound for its time. Used by just about every rock and pop band in its day.

Pretty good when new, I suppose. It was transistorised, and modular, and things wouild fall out of their sockets if you bashed it too hard on a gig! Quite easy to repair, though, if you were handy with a soldering iron.

They were made by the Jennings Organ Company, which went out of business many years ago.

Its a classic piece of junk, basically. Mine had an orange leatherette top/grey bottom, and a little shiny gold plastic 'VOX' logo on the front. It served its time on gigs and never really let me down. I had it hooked up to a Fender Bandmaster 100w valve amp with Fender speaker cabs, and it could shake the floor.

VOX Continental II (English) 2 manual transistor organ.

Such an easy instrument to use - choose the Frequency, hard or soft and play away to Madness or the Animals!

Difficult to answer, as it's not a modern keyboard.

But for its time it was a fantastic piece of electronic engineering.

The key action on both manuals if very good, the lowest octave on the lower manual doubles as a Bass (c-c') on two frequencies.

There is an Interesting vibrato effect, which can be varied for frequency and depth.

And although the tones types are limited to hard (vv) and soft (~), a wide variety of sounds on each can be achieved by using the white drawbars.

There is capability of pedals too.

My rating reflects my opinion if I was buying new in the mid-late 1960's

Well, the Continental has its own unique sound. It can sound weedy compared to a Hammond or some modern instruments, but it's this "weedy" sound that people buy a Vox for.

The instrument suits music by mod bands (ie the animals), Hipsters (Strawberry Alarm Clock) and Ska/Reggae (Desmond Dekker). Madness made good use of Continentals in a lot of their music.

Onboard effects? What are those? Oh yeah, the vibrato can give good results.

It's a nice keyboard to play on, although my skills are somewhat ropey at the moment!

Expect 96 key polyphony from an continental II!

At the moment, my poor vox needs some work. The power plug/lead on the english models easily be replaced, which I did as soon as I got mine - I didn't know how old the lead was. It uses a naff old bakelite object, similar to an old 2A round pin plug.

At the moment, some notes are losing sound. This is only due to transistors breaking down and I'm having difficulty finding a suitable replacement - the ones inside have no markings on them and the schematic from VOX is a bit blurry.

Once I've got new transistors on board, the organ would be extremely reliable (especially if I use modern solid state technology).

If the organ was in full working order, yes 8 or 9 out of ten. at the moment, I have No F's and No B's, so I can't play a lot of songs on it, there for my rating reflects this.

Vox stopped making continentals in the 1970's, and therefore have little customer support.

What they do have are limited spares and blurry circuit diagrams.

There are a couple of specialists that refurbish continentals in the UK, however they don't like doing them as some parts are supposedly awkward.

If decent replacement parts can be sourced (ie modern alternatives) then the rating would deserve higher.

I'd buy another continental if my one got nicked. I believe my price was fair - a local music shop had a top notch single manual version on sale last summer at a whopping GB#750 without stand!

I've got mine plugged into a Laney guitar amp at the moment - it does the trick and sounds really good on there, it has a very strong sound, and using the Vib function it almosts sounds like it's on a leslie. When I try playing the Doors' "light my fire" like this it sounds fantastic (even though I'm pretty ropey!)

I love the reverse colour keys. I don't actually hate anything about it.

Yet - I've only had it a month!

I'm starting to re-learn how to play keyboard instruments - i had lessons at school and want to re-kindle the flame. It suits some of the music I wish to learn to play, or use it as an interesting variant - the rest I'll leave to the piano.

Overall an interesting piece of technology that still gets used in todays music - so they couldn't have been that bad to start!

Very easy to use, turn it on plug it in ajust your drawbars and Go man go!

I have a V301H US made model. It had wooden keys the action is better that the plastic ones, I think they are allot stronger too, will last forever! I was told this model is very rare only 300 made. The only other Continental with wood keys is the UK one.

I love the sound, my fav band is The Animals just listen to anything by them. It's great for Ska music, Desmond Dekker sound!

Well I have over halled it. But still have to work out some bugs, The drawbars come off the slider inside I am going to put some silicone on the ends to keep them on. It was made in 1966, what do you want. You have to treat it like a hot girl friend, she is a bit high maintance.

I got a service manual from organ service. I figgered out how to fix it myself, Put new contact springs on, it takes time (I made the springs using guitar string and a drill bit that was the right size to make the spring). There are few guys on line that can help. If you are smart you can sort it out. I fix old keyboards though!

I have always wanted one and will not sell it ever. It is fun to fix and work on but I love this kind of detail work, I build acoustic guitars too. I think the price I paid is worth it, It will just go up and up!

It doesn't get any easier than this...if you can turn it on, then you're 95% there...all sounds that you get with it are basically tonal variations of the same sound...but a very unique sound. With a Hammond, there is a lot to be done in terms of changing the charicter of the sound...but the Vox drawbars....No Way !!

Sure, it has full 49 note polyphony...for whatever that's worth. It's a combo organ, so you probably won't play more than 5 or six notes simultaneously. I have the hard to find American Continental, which is very similar to the English version...with wooden keys. For a combo organ, it's really a nice feel. MIDI ??? Effects ?? Sequencer ?? GET REAL !!

This organ only gets one shrill, cheesy, wonderful sound. Combined with a perfect vibrato, it can't be beat when it comes to combo organs. This IS the archtypical, stereotyped COMBO ORGAN to which all others were compared or copied (listen to "LIGHT MY FIRE", "IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA", "HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN", or thousands of other songs of the '60's...you'll get the idea).

I have backup parts for mine, but I have never needed them. I gigged it for about 6 months post-restoration with an oldies band, and it's amazing how many people recognize it by sight...it's really quite an icon of the '60's. I no longer play it outside of the home studio...I just keep it as a shrine to Ray Manzarek/The Doors, along with my Rhodes Piano Bass.

Vox quit making these over 30 years ago, so there is no Customer Support !!

Everything other keyboard that I own will do 1000% more, but the one thing that the VOX does, it does better than anything else. If I need a combo organ for a gig, I'd probably take my Yamaha YC-20...it sounds very similar, and if something happened to it, it is much easier to find parts for, and I would'nt die broken hearted. If my VOX was stolen, I'd hunt down the dirty scumdog that took it for the rest of my life...it's simply irreplaceable. It has a heart and soul (just like my Hammond). No authentic 60's band should be without one !!

turn it on and play it. You will probably only ever use two drawbar settings: hard and soft.

obviously has no midi or sequencing capabilities. Full polyphony. The drawbars don't give anything like the tonal range of a Hammond but if you wanted that, you wouldn't buy a Vox

The Vox sounds incredible, I would personally recommend the single tier model, as the double has an extra drawbar on the upper manual which makes it sound 'plasticky'. The organ is suitable for a variety of musical styles, but never try it in a Funk setup.

Does have a tendency to play up, so a backup might be advisable. Or, a screwdriver and some glue, as the springs underneath the keys can break. One plus point is, repairs are usually minor.

There is no company support, but if you know a good electrical engineer most problems can be fixed easily and cheaply. One problem seems to be with power cables, but if you live in the UK these can be ordered from a company called RS. When I bought my second Continental, an English model, I only had to pay #55 to get it in to full working order. One piece of advice ; buy an Italian model if possible, because the keys have a more even action.

I could not live without a Continental, but luckily I have a buckup. Considering the condition it was in internally when I bought it, I should really have paid less, but they don't turn up every day. At gigs I use the Vox instead of a Hammond (too heavy to gig) and alongside a Rhodes and a Juno 106 synth. It contrasts nicely with the thick sound of the Rhodes, and if you put it through a Leslie speaker or simulator, it can be pretty convincing. The Continental is fairly light and quick to set up, and nothing really compares to that 'shreik'. Even farfisas sound a bit cheesy. The only thing the Continental needs is a built in reverb, but beggars can't be choosers. If you ever see one advertised, buy it, if only just to look at.