Farfisa Polychrome

Back in 1978, Farfisa dropped this behemoth of a string machine, one of the rarest from the Italian combo organ legends, blending orchestral voices into a fully polyphonic powerhouse using clever octave-divider tech that lets you hammer out massive 61-note chords without breaking a sweat.

Picture a hefty 30kg frame with velocity-sensitive keys, optional metal legs for stage stance, and a control panel packed with 36 push buttons, 20 sliders, three switches, and a basic pitch bender wheel. It splits into four sections: Percussive with piano, harpsichord, clavichord, honky-tonk, and guitar presets filtered by brilliance, decay, and emphasis; Strings at 16', 8', and 4' octaves with brilliance and a simple attack-decay envelope; Ensemble offering brass, reed, and accordion tones tweakable via volume mix, brilliance, attack, sustain, and emphasis; plus a stellar Vocal Chorus with three selectable choir voices and a double button for thicker effects. A built-in analog phaser modulates ensemble, percussive, and strings with speed, emphasis, and tremolo knobs, while the chorus gets its own output for external processing—rear panel also has stereo main out, choir out, swell pedal input, audio in, and pitch trims. Touch Brilliance aftertouch dynamically boosts chorus and key tones like guitar, brass, reed, and strings for expressive play.

Owners and collectors can't get enough of that lush, characterful chorus—often called the most beautiful analog vocal sound of the era—paired with the phaser's swirling magic, though its rarity and servicing needs keep it a collector's dream rather than an everyday workhorse.