Product: Vox Corinthian
Price Paid: Free
Submitted
01/31/2004
at
06:37pm
by
Andy Nowacki
Ease of Use
:
9
This is of course a non-issue with organs of this vintage (late '60s). You plug it in, turn it on and hit one of four rocker switches. And hope it works
Features
:
5
The Corinthian is essentialy a Jaguar with a worse name, and so is feature-wise identical:
- 4-octave reverse-colour keyboard (the coolest part) with a normal octave bass section.
- 4 'preset' voicings
- Vibrato
- 'Contour'
The keyboard would feel horrible to piano-players because it's incredibly shallow and light, with no 'clickiness' to it. However, for organ-playing, it's actually quite helpful--runs are easy!
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
The Jaguar/Corinthian was a cheap Continental, so sounds sometimes quite similar--a very 'period' feel to it. The four voices (Flute, Bright, Brass and Mellow) offer a mixture of footings (pitches) and can be combined to give a modest range of sounds, ranging from full, almost Hammond-ish to very cheesy indeed.
The vibrato, for me, is the killer. Flip it on and you instantly have a somehow energetic and 'moving' sort of tone to any playing. It surprisingly fits well into anything and creates an unexpected contrast with the flat tones. The Vox vibrato rightly grabs your attention.
The 'contour' knob is quite interesting. It appears to be a high-cut filter with some resonance, and can be used to take off some of the cheesy fizz of the Brass and Bright stops. Twiddle that knob whilst you're playing and you've got a filter sweep! Talk about ahead of its time. It can also be used for variation in tone.
It sounds like what it is, really.
Reliability
:
8
The Corinthian is more reliable than its older siblings (it was the last Vox-branded organ made) because the circuitry is more robustly put together. I can survive knocks well, but shares a fault with the Jaguar range--the 'walking bass' section tends to break.
My bass section has never worked, and notes ocassionally go missing due to some dodgy solders, but that is something I can repair any time I muster up the inclination. I wouldn't really worry about this thing concking out on me, though--it's a lot more solid than keyboards these days (i.e it weighs an absolute ton and is made of inch-thick wood.)
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Erm.. Shall we say that 'Customer Support' means 'The Customer Supports' (himself). This Vox company died years ago. The new one is entirely unrealted, though the schematic for this organ is on the Vox Amps website (www.voxamps.co.uk). Because technology of this vintage was so basic, I'd argue that most problems can be sorted out by anyone who can handle a soldering iron.
Overall Rating
:
10
I found this baby in a skip! This makes it free and therefore an absolute-must-find-lying-about. Don't buy it, though, buy a Continental. For everything I can say that's great about it (it's orange; it has reverse-colour keys; it sounds wicked; it has the shite-coolest chrome stand on anything; it's got that reverb...), I could say more about the Continental. If I could find another cheap (< a tenner), I'd pay for one, but a combo organ like this is a labour of love and a curiosity.
OH what the hell... it looks and sounds amazing.
