Just scored this little retro curiosity for REAL CHEAP. I’m really excited for what I might end up doing with some of these old Combo Organs. Click on these images to enlarge.

It has a few issues and it will definitely need some TLC, but I’m very thankful for this awesome article on the “synthrepair” blog. Check it out for some great repair tips, and some decent shots of the organ’s innards.

Issues: the lowest E flat key is missing (I’ll probably never find a white one, so I think I might carve one out of hardwood or something). You can’t shut off the internal rhythm unit. There is a stuck note. Some keys are out of tune.

I also plan to take the hinges off of the keyboard lid so that it can actually be removed. Then the keyboard enclosure will become a good place for small keyboards and other gadgets. The Poly-800II seems to fit the space rather perfectly, but I could imagine some combo of a drum machine, the MS-20, the Microbrute, perhaps an fx pedal or two – this is actually the first self-standing keyboard I’ve ever owned and the possibilities excite me more than they would probably excite a normal person.