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[BJG145]

Another eBay oddity - this is a "Tubon bass synth", one of the earliest keytars.



McCartney had one...



http://120years.net/the-tubon-sweden-1967/

Strange sounding thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgKu1AaUPBA&safe=active

[Rich Hanson]

That's an unusual beast. Looks like the result of a threesome between an ashtray, a golf bag and a mellotron!

[Martin Walker]

That's an unusual beast. Looks like the result of a threesome between an ashtray, a golf bag and a mellotron!

Your imagination is just too vivid, Rich


Martin

[Rich Hanson]

Oh I know. Mellotrons, eh? Phwoar!

It's an odd sounding thing although I can't really tell if the noise is part of the instrument or it's just a bad recording.

[pilot-wave]

I have this on my eBay 'watch list' though I doubt if I'll be bidding for it. These have occasionally cropped up on VEMIA, if I remember rightly, in worse cosmetic condition than this one.

Kraftwerk used one on their early albums. As a 15 year old in 1975 on buying the earlier "Kraftwerk" oscilloscope-trace double album - on the back of "Autobahn", - I'd always wondered what that tube-like thing was (keys obscured ) propped up against the studio wall in one the small black and white album gate fold photos.

Used notably on the track "Vom Himmel Hoch" it can be seen here used by Ralf Hutter in this live 1970's footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJTW80D2i8

[ramthelinefeed]

Yeah, Ralf was wigging out on the tubon in 1970. It sounds a bit meh, though, if you ask me. It's just a sawtooth blart. He'd have been better off playing fuzz bass

[Sam Spoons]

That wouldn't have looked as cool though would it.

[The Elf]

It went for just a little more than I was prepared to pay.

I love these quirky instruments, as many here know. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than turning unknown, unhealthy, unwanted and unloved machines into beautiful music!

[ramthelinefeed]

That wouldn't have looked as cool though would it.

Trying to look cool when you're in the same band as Klaus Dinger & Florian Esleben-Schneider is a fruitless task in any case