Hammond took a bold swing at the synth world in 1974 with this ultra-rare monophonic beast, building just 200 units in Japan—making it one of the scarcest analog treasures from the organ giant's lone foray into synthesis.
At its heart sits a single VCO churning out square and sawtooth waves, feeding into a lowpass VCF and VCA, each with dedicated AR envelope generators for punchy, expressive attacks. What sets it apart is the wild 7x7 matrix of 49 pushbuttons letting you dial in custom voicings across seven parameters like pitch mixes, filter cutoff and resonance, LFO speed on pitch and cutoff, plus envelope tweaks—far more tweakable than typical preset boxes of the era. Six cheesy-but-charming factory presets (French Horn, Tuba, Sax, Violin, Clarinet, Solar Echo) load via radio buttons, with a Cancel switch unlocking the matrix; add a noise slider, wind control, and volume for extra grit. It's got a compact 44-key keyboard designed to perch atop a Hammond organ, all in a sleek, low-profile metal chassis with minimal knobs beyond tune and master volume.
Vintage enthusiasts prize its authentic '70s bite and surprising depth, though the button-permutation workflow demands patience, and no patch storage means recreating sounds is part of the ritual. Fully operational survivors sing with warm analog character that's tough to find elsewhere.
