Selmer Clavioline Concert

NOTE: This item works but not perfectly and still has some (mostly mechanical) issues. It has had a good deal of electrical restoration and sounds great, but should be viewed as still requiring further attention. See below for more detail. We are auctioning because we do not have time to finish it. It is sold without warranty (and with no guarantee that it will continue to function as in the video without further attention post shipping!).

These are monstrous things. Wonderful and with a unique tone. Joe Meek! This one is in exceptional condition having been part of a Clavioline expert's personal collection.

It originally came to us already serviced by a Clavioline specialist. Further electrical and mechanical work was completed about two years ago and it had the essential breakout box added to the connecting cable - this allows effects to be inserted (or the signal to be recorded directly from the output). Tony recently collected it from our storage unit and was pleasantly surprised to find that it still mostly works after standing idle for about 18 months, which is a very positive sign! It's a little temperamental, a few keys are loose and the selection buttons aren’t 100% right, but it’s sonically pretty much all there and sounds huge. The tone, overdrive and vibe from the amp are superb (you can feed external signals into the amp via the effects return socket on the breakout box - an amazing reamping tool).

We never quite found the time to finish it - the difference between working ‘mostly’ and ‘perfectly’ is too much precious tech time which we cannot afford to spend on it.

The Clavioline is an all valve ‘synthesizer’ complete with valve amp built into its carry case - it weighs a ton. Famously used by Joe Meek (‘Telstar’), but once you add extra effects - some delay and a little extra drive - it becomes something very immense indeed: a true all-valve 'synth' with monstrous tone.

The keyboard was designed to sit under a piano keyboard - it features a knee lever for hands-free volume control. It’s loud, and the bottom end is pretty monstrous. Rocker switches below the keys control various functions.

They require an immense amount of time and work to bring up to a useable state: the keybed and keys often need a lot of careful adjustment and rebuilding, and the scaling and tuning is labour-intensive (and doesn’t end up perfect) - and requires careful selection/matching of resistors. Much of this has been done, but it was some time ago and it clearly needs more care and attention to complete the work.

Auction shipping charged at our standard rates (it weighs about the same as a medium valve amp).

 

Condition

Exceptional for a 60+ year old instrument - an excellent example. Minor scuffs and marks on the case: should clean up very well indeed. Keys are a great shade of faded yellow. See the many photos for more information.

Voltage Information

220/240v unit. A step-up transformer will be required for use on 110/120v supplies. Please ask if you need advice on what to use. We do not recommend using cheap, generic Chinese mains transformers.

Tax

For sales in UK this item is on the margin scheme for second hand goods.