Clef Products (Electronics) Ltd.

In the next entries I will be publishing some information about Clef Products Ltd. (sometimes called Clef Electronics). This company had very interesting kits, some of them were ahead of their time, but badly marketed. I have a couple previous post about Clef, look for the Clef tag.

I've found this web with profuse information about Clef and the kits they were selling at that time:
http://audiotools.com/en_mi_dead_b.html

In conversation with our friend Jeffrey Jones about Clef, he recalls:

"As regards Clef I have met Alan Boothman twice, once at an electronics exhibition where he had a stand displaying the piano and string ensemble, and once when I went to his premises to pick up the cabinet for the piano. He was always very friendly and helpful. I also had contact from someone who used to work at Clef. He was advertising to buy a String Ensemble about two years ago. I contacted him and he gave me a valuable insight into the company which I can share with you."
Sure we will enjoy what you have to told us Jeff! He also sent this old Clef two-page catalog pictured here:

I made this chronological list of Clef instruments/kits:

• 1972 - PE Electronic Piano (Practical Electronics, sep 1972 to jan 1973)
• 1975 - Joanna (PE Joanna - Practical Electronics, may to sept 1975, may 1977)
• 1976 - Sound Design (updated Joanna) (Practical Electronics, mar 1976 pg.215?)
• 1978 - String Ensemble (PE String Ensemble - Practical Electronics, mar to july 1978)
• 1978 - Electronic Piano (88 keys, 72 keys and 'Stage Piano', three versions of an updated Joanna)
• 1979 - Master Rhythm (PE Master Rhythm - Practical Electronics, dec 1980 to jan 1981)
• 1979 - Band-Box (PE Bandbox - Practical Electronics, nov 1981to feb 1982)
• 1982 - Microsynth (aka. uSynth and later B30 Microsynth - Practical Electronics, jun to aug 1982)
• 1984 - PDSG

I don't know if Clef had more than those instruments/kits mentioned here. From all of it, there are so little info on the web, so, with the help from some friends, in the following posts we will be talking about some of this rare instruments.

Minisonic music missed

Pages ahead, from my previous post, I've found this ad with PE Minisonic kits, parts, pcb's AND the "Symbiosis" cassette by Malcolm Pointon.

The Minisonic series of articles was published in Practical Electronic magazine between november 1974 and march 1975 issues, by a man named G. D. Shaw. I don't have any of these magazines, but I've saw the scans of this synth in the Anders Sponton's Cloned Analog Gear web, but the scan of Anders don't came from the magazines, is from a book published with all the constructive articles of the Minisonic and other things.

Judging by this ad, it seems that in the last article of the Minisonic was offered to the readers a companion tape with the music created with this synth.

I must admit that I never heard about Mr. Malcolm Pointon never in my life, then Wikipedia came to help me and I've learned about the very tragic life of this man. Obviously, I didn't know their music. I think it will be very interesting to hear this cassette, in first place because is related with the main role of this blog (electronic arts-electronic instruments) and then because it could be the only "electronic work" of this man demoing a very particular instrument.

I call all the people out there, mainly to the UK people, to search in the old pile of cassettes looking for this gem... and please share with us!
 
For more information about the Minisonic (and the PE Synthesiser) you could visit the Julian Bunn webpages about it, here and here. Very nteresting is the Minisonic serial number 001 (at the bottom of this page) maybe this was the used by Malcolm Pointon?
 
At the end, I want to show an alternative casing for the Minisonic with keyboard in this ad by Phonosonic, in this same magazine (also pay attention to the alternative casing for the PE Synthesiser and the kits for the PE Joanna piano that I've wrote before) .

Joanna, the "shE-Piano"

Has been a while since the last post, to reward the curious visitor here this time I bring a piano. There are many builders of synthesizers, a bunch of organ builders ... but how many people have built a piano? And I'm talking about e-pianos, of course.

Reviewing my old magazines I found in Practical Electronics a series of articles to build the "Joanna" a very complete electronic piano for its time. The designer was a man named A. J. Boothman, I believe this man had a sort of relationship with the CLEF company, and certainly had a kit available through this company (although there were other companies offering it).

I did not have the opportunity to see the full series of articles, this was published between May and September 1975 and I only possess August and September. Judging by these two parts, it seems to me that was well designed and really well tested because at the end the author makes some recommendations on amps and speakers to obtain a good sound, making references to the equipment he used.

I really like to see the full serie of articles to have a further insight on this instrument, because how many people you know, that had made an e-piano? And if we could get some sound samples that would be really great! The interesting thing here is an e-piano that sound... 'electronic', because if you want more real pianos (and cheap), the samplers are the easy ways. Enjoy the pictures.