1985 Roland New Product News for NAMM show, 1985

1985 Roland New Product News for NAMM show 16 page black and white brochure from June 1985.

Another big XOX day! This time celebrating all that is awesome about the TR-727. Heck, who doesn't love the Agogo and Whistle sounds from Phuture's Acid Tracks!

Quite by accident, I just looked on Twitter and Roland tweeted out a Boss Summer NAMM highlights video. Honestly, a total fluke that I'm posting a Roland NAMM brochure from 32 years early.

And if you haven't guessed, Roland features the TR-727 in this "new products" brochure that they handed out at Summer NAMM 1985. And it had good company - so many great products are including in this document. And they all have one thing in common (besides the obvious) - SPECIFICATIONS. As far as the eyes can see. Damn I love specs.

Each summary write-up does a great job including various other Roland gear that would be compatible. For example, the summary for the TR-727 pulls in the Pad-8 MIDI pad controller and the MKB-200 MIDI keyboard - both also featured in the brochure.

The Pad-8 Octapad was a piece of gear I had always wanted but never managed to pick up. I so wanted to stand on stage and summon my inner Depeche Mode a la Construction Time Again.

Another great highlight are the two pages devoted to the MKS-7 - both the black and ivory versions! Every once in a while an ivory MKS-7 pops up around town but I always miss out on picking it up. Under the photo of the ivory rack are diagrams of typical and expanded set-ups featuring many of Roland's products. Yum.

One thing missing from today's market is something akin to Roland's CPM-120 compact power mixer. Eight channels including an effects send/return, all in a small box. I still use Boss's mini-mixers of the era and would snap up a CPM-120 if it was ever remade.

The back of the doc includes a table of contents as well as Roland's logo and tagline - "We design the future". Its hard not to think that Roland's current "The future redefined" tagline for many of their remakes isn't a nod back to this original tagline that featured many of the originals.

If I was gonna quibble, I'd say the only thing missing are suggested retail prices. But I ain't complaining. I love this brochure from cover to cover.

Roland GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer "Each string is an orchestra" ad, International Musician 1978

Roland GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer "Each string is an orchestra" full page colour advertisement from page 99 in the January (UK)/February (US) 1978 issue of International Musician and Recording World Magazine.

Gah! How silly of me.

Here I thought that the first full-page advertisement for the GR-500 in IM was this "Play me a rainbow" ad.

I actually thought that the ad scanned above was only a half-pager because that was how I originally recorded it into my database.

What? A database? You thought I knew all these synth ad stats off the top of my head?!?!  That's crazy talk.   :D

Anyways, point being, I was delaying the posting this "half pager" so I could do my cute little "you thought this other ad was the first ad for this [insert instrument here]..." bloggy thing I do. Yah, I know. Cheesy. .

So, then the other day as I'm lining up my next few ads, I actually pay a bit closer attention to this one and figure out it's actually a full pager. Go figure.

Then it got me wondering - I wonder if readers at the time had the same problem - only seeing half of this ad. To me, the top half of this advertisement just doesn't fit in with the bottom half. The top is totally black and white, and the bottom is colour. My eye is immediately drawn to the colourful image of the GR500, and then that thick black-lined box around the top half of the ad acts like a barrier and my brain doesn't want my eye to cross back up to the top half.  Even with the large guitar neck imagery, the font used with it is so tiny and different looking that it too makes brain want to separate it from the bottom half.

Luckily for Roland, even if some readers only "got" half of this advertisement, this issue of International Musician also included a FULL PAGE promo of the GR500 only a page or two away. The GR500 promo was at the end of an 18-page Chase Musicians supplement (aka the London Synthesizer Centre Report) - a large advertising sectional promoting the new London Synthesizer Centre that opened on Chalton Street just a short six months previously in June 1977. I've blogged a bit about this supplement before - can't find the post at the moment though. Chase must have spent a ton of cash on promoting pages upon pages on ARP, Octave, Korg, Yamaha, Elka, and of course, Roland.

The GR-500 promo page is written almost like a review of the instrument with good sized paragraphs explaining every feature of the GR-500. and, boy, is it ballsy. Just read this introduction:

"FOR YEARS, guitarists have dreamed of new sounds. Now there's a whole Galaxy of new sounds waiting to be discovered. Roland have built a guitar synthesizer!

In the last ten years millions of pounds have been spent developing effects pedals and special pick-ups to improve guitar sounds. Now they are all OBSOLETE!"

Ballsy or what? And you know this statement must be true, because that last word was in capitals AND bolded.    :)

US readers of International Musician would get another lucky break with even more GR-500 goodness through the appearance of  an actual "balanced" review of the GR500 the following month in the February (UK)/March (International) issue of International Musician and Recording World.

US readers only? Confused? So was I for a bit. It seems that before IMRW split into what looks like totally separate magazines for their UK and US audiences, US readers got the exact same magazine as the UK - UK advertisements and all. But, apparently this Feb/March IM magazine was the "first ever US issue" running at a measly 86 pages.  This US issue has no price label or month-of-issue date on the outside cover, so I'm thinking in these early days it may just have been packaged in with the full 202 page UK issue for the US peeps - maybe as an early way for local US advertisers to hit the US readers. An experiment of sorts.

Anyways, before I got sidetracked, I wanted to mention the two-page GR-500 review that appeared in this first US issue. Written by Dave Simmons, it is almost as glowing as the Chase advertisement that appeared the month before - with detailed info on the guitar itself, as well as on the four main sections of the synth unit - Polyensemble, Bass, Solo melody, External synth. A good read.

The UK really had a monopoly on the GR500 advertising circuit. There is very little to be found on this side of the pond. Shame that is.

End note: Another interesting thing about the January/February issue of IM - there is ANOTHER Roland advertisement by a different synthesizer store in London - Macari's - that uses the exact same photo as this scanned ad - except in black and white. This Macari's ad is letting readers know that from January 14-21 they can view a special exhibition and demonstration of Roland instruments staged by Macari's and Brodr-Jorgensen at their London store.

Makes me wonder if BJ's strategy was to play stores against each other. And it also makes me wonder if BJ pitched in on advertising costs for these dealer ads.

Interesting stuff!

Roland GR-500 guitar synthesizer "Play me a rainbow" ad, International Musician 1978

Roland GR-500 guitar synthesizer "Play me a rainbow" full page colour advertisement from page 179 in the March (UK)/April (US) 1978 issue of International Musician and Recording World.

The rain is gone, and the sun and heat are back. I'm keeping this one short so I can enjoy the rest of my day!

Yup - the love-fest for Roland continues with this juicy full pager for Roland's GR-500. And Roland must have known it was a gooder because they kept it running from March to December of 1978 in most if not all the issues.

I had never come across the beast until a new employee showed up at my local music store and found that we had analogs in common. After we both became pretty sure that either one of us was out to rob the other, I had the chance to go see his home studio. And the first time I walked in, I tripped over one of these sitting on the floor. then I tripped over another. After the initial shock, he told me he had a third in the closet.

And can you believe, I never actually got to listen to one because he moved out of the province before I had the chance.

Gah!

*slaps forehead*

I really enjoy the layout of this advertisement. Nice a clean, with that iconic photo of the synth module in the foreground and the custom guitar behind. The green hughs, probably partly due to the age of the magazine, give it a slightly sea-sick appearance. But don't let that get in the way of enjoying this ad.

The ad-title is cute and reads well on the page. The ad-copy the same - if maybe a little on the sappy side to go with the "Play me a rainbow" theme. I'm usually not a fan of statements like "Roland gives you music" or "Open up a new world of creative possibilities" but in the context of the rainbow... meh... I don't mind it.

But, like most Roland ads at the time, its the Brodr, Jorgensen (BJ) connection that makes me love this ad the most. That logo with the three quarter notes and the crown (by appointment to the Royal Dutch Court) is really hip. I could see it blown up to huge proportions - like three stories tall.

And, although three logos is kind of repetitive (two on the machine and the third on its own), the third logo really is required to balance the whole ad.

A quick Google proved what I expected - people seem to love this thing.

Vintage Synth Explorer has a GR-500 page with a small write-up, but its the comments section that really provides some good info. For example, apparently there is a "3 'patch' memory 'floorboard' called the PC-50 that was available for the the GR-500".That peaked my interest and before you knew it, I was on Wayne Scott Joness' Vintage Roland Guitar Synthesizer Resource Web site. And in particular, the GR-500 page. And it is quite the resource. Specs, detailed info, nice photos, and a ton of videos showing off its functionality and performance. Nice.

You can also find some excellent history on the never-disappointing Sound On Sound Web site. The August 1999 article written by Norm Leete and simply titled "Roland GR-Series" provides some great historical and technical information on the GR-500, GR-300 and all of their brothers, sisters and cousins are mentioned.

Like I said at the beginning - I'm keeping this one short. Want more information? Google is your friend.   :)

Hello sun - here I come! What... no rainbow?!?!

Boo!

ARP Centaur VI, Avatar, and Proportional Pitch Control NAMM brochure, 1977

ARP Centaur VI, Avatar, and Proportional Pitch Control NAMM brochure from 1977.

What a cool little brochure. The spacy artwork is fantastic, and that little door flips open so readers can get a really good view the future. I've included a scan with the door closed and another with the door open. The rest of the back of the brochure is just white.

I'm guessing this 1977 NAMM brochure was probably handed out during the show to direct visitors to ARP's little piece of synthesizer heaven (ie: room 302). Or, less likely, it was a loose insert in magazines printed shortly before the show? Anyone tell me for sure?

In the end, it doesn't matter too much for me - the distribution isn't as important as the brochure-copy written on the other side of that door. It includes information that really helps me put together the chain of events that was occuring at ARP during this time period just a little bit better.

The handout focused on three ARP promotions. One of them, unsurprisingly, was their new proportional pitch control (PPC) - which had by now been incorporated into the Axxe and Odyssey. After the NAMM show, dedicated PPC ads started appearing in magazines such as Contemporary Keyboard around September 1977.

But, more surprisingly to me, is that this handout features BOTH the Centaur VI AND Avatar. And, it told readers to visit ARP in Room 302, Entrance Level, Georgia World Congress Center to "get a great view of the future". To me, that sounds like both units were available for viewing, and maybe even playing.

Looking closer at this text, you might say the hype around the Centaur VI was a little extreme, even for ARP:

"ARP Centaur VI - The world's first fully-polyphonic guitar synthesizer. Already acclaimed by top professionals as the ultimate black box, the CENTAUR VI breaks every musical boundary. Total sound control and a musician's dream come true."

That's interesting. Because my understanding was that the Centaur VI never made it into production. But, somehow it was "already acclaimed by top professionals as the ultimate black box".

Aaaaaah.... marketing hype. :D

It was also my understanding that the ARP Avatar rose from the ashes of the Centaur. But, both are obviously being promoted at the same NAMM show. Time to dig into the time line of these two instruments a bit further.

According to the chapter 'The Rise and Fall of ARP Instruments" in the book "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mark Vail, two versions of the polyphonic Centaur were to be developed in parallel - a guitar synthesizer and a keyboard synthesizer. The working prototype included 115 circuit boards, a failure time of approximately 2 hours, and apparently would have retailed for over $15,000 US.

Ouch.

Now, here's where I get confused. The way the book tells it, a 1977 business plan written by Friend shelved "a polyphonic keyboard synthesizer under development". The book then goes on in an aside [text written between two square brackets] to say the shelved project was the Centaur. But, then later on in the same aside, it's written that Dave Friend "killed the keyboard version and put all his money on the Centaur".

So, it sounded to me like the polyphonic guitar version continued development for a while longer, although at some point it was obviously also shut down. But the book doesn't say how this happened. Instead, the next paragraph goes directly into the story of the continued development of the Avatar, and all the technical problems that continued on with this monophonic guitar synthesizer.

Luckily, Sound On Sound comes to the rescue. A Retrozone article that appeared in the April 2002 issue of SOS called "Four in One: ARP Quadra - Part 1", we learn a bit more about the transition from the Centaur to the Avatar.

According to this article, the Centaur VI was being developed to include "two polyphonic sections, a dual-oscillator lead synth, a single-oscillator bass synth, and a polyphonic pitch/CV section" for guitar control. But by 1977, the two versions were being developed. The first was the original beast, and then there was also a "simplified keyboard version". It was this simplified keyboard that Dave Friend must have initially canceled. The Centaur VI continued development until ARP realized that it wasn't going to work out (that whole "115 circuit boards/2 hrs to failure/$15,000+ price tag" thing). So "Friend split off some of the Centaur's concepts to develop the Avatar".

Aaaah. That makes a bit more sense.

Also according to the SOS article, only two prototypes of the Centaur were created. So, does that mean one of those two working prototypes was in that room at NAMM?

Likely (and awesome!).

In fact, a post written by Dan Garrett on the Facebook ARP page confirms the appearance of a functioning Centaur VI at NAMM. From the post:

"I remember when we were first shown the Centaur. David Friend said there was no market for a polyphonic synthesizer over $3,500! The Centauri we showed at the Atlanta NAMM show that year was a six voice machine controlled by a guitar. "

He later posts in the same discussion thread that he started working at ARP in the summer of 1975 as a district sales manager, and continued to work there until the last day in 1981. You can read the full discussion thread for more great historical ARP information.

----
August 14, 2011 update: Found more proof for the appearance of the prototypes at NAMM in the "What's Happening" section of the May/June 1977 issue of Synapse:

"ARP Instruments has announced the unveiling of two guitar synthesizers at the Atlanta NAMM convention in June. On display will be the production prototypes. There is no date yet for their commercial release, but Synapse will let you know more about them as soon as we can."

----

So, from all this history, we can guess that the development of the Centaur VI continued on at least until the Summer of 1977 when shown at Summer NAMM. Plus, the Centaur VI was still alive and kickin' in prototype form long after the ARP Avatar was already well into development, functional, and probably close to launch.

Yay for timelines! :D

Now, back to that marketing hype for a second. The brochure-copy for the ARP Avatar is almost as crazy as that for the Centaur.

ARP Avatar:

"Only the ARP Avatar could unite the synthesizer and electric guitar in such perfect harmony. The new ARP Avatar is destined to become the most powerful musical force of the 1970's. And 80's. And 90's."

Perfect harmony? Destined? Into the 90s? Not so much. Although they do go for a lot on eBay. :)

End note: While digging up info online, I came across this fantastic NAMM oral history video with Philip Dodds, past Vice President of ARP, talking about his experience in 1977 (the same year as this brochure!) when "a young director named Steven Spielberg requested that an ARP technician set up a large unit for an upcoming movie".

What a great little story to hear directly from Dodds. Definitely check it out if you haven't seen it.

Korg "...we put it all together" Family of Products ad, Keyboard 1982

Korg Family of Products advertisement including the ES-50, Delta, Sigma, M500 Micro Preset, MS-10, MS-20, MS-50 and Trident synthesizers, CX-3 and BX-3 organs, LP-10 electric piano, KR-55 and KR-33 drum machines, SE-300 and SE-500 Stage Echo effects units, and X-911 guitar synthesizer from page 42 and 43 in Keyboard Magazine January 1982. Also included some tuners - meh.

And so the Korg love continues!

It had been quite a while since Korg had summarized their keyboard and drum machine offerings in a single ad. Oh yeah... Um... Never.

They had previously smooshed a couple of different instruments together in smaller ads, but I can't recall anything like this. Readers had the relatively rare privilege of viewing this ad in the January, February and June 1982 issues.

And it was about time it showed up. Competitor ARP had turned the "product family" photo ad into an art form back in 1976. Oberheim had also featured a family photo ad back in 1976, and Roland in 1978. And Sequential Circuits Inc. was about to join the family photo party with their ad starting in February of the same year this ad showed up.

It was also about time because for the previous few years, Korg and been pushing a lot of different products in Keyboard, sometimes three or four ads in an issue. A reader could easily get overwhelmed by it all. So, by putting "it all together" into a single ad, Korg helped readers wrap their heads around everything available in a nicely laid out 2-page package, while at the same time pounding their chests a little at some of their competitors. Korg big! Korg smash!

The collection of synthesizers Korg brought together for this ad is nothing but spectacular. It's definitely not every piece of gear Korg had on offer. But it's a good summary. And including products like the MS-20 or Sigma, gear that hadn't been advertised for over a year or two, were nice gentle reminders to readers that these instruments were indeed still available in 1982. For readers today, it provides a perfect summary snapshot in time. A great historical resource.

The design of the ad is a little chaotic. "Korg" in bright neon-red may almost be too big, and to me, looks like it is pushing what was once a nicely lined-up set of instruments into the column of text. Maybe that was the intent, but it makes reading the ad-copy a little more difficult than it should be. And that poor MS-10 in the upper-middle of the ad facing the wrong direction. What's going on there? It's like it never got the memo.

But those small small criticisms aside (from the guy, almost 30 years later, with 20/20 hindsight) just makes me love this ad even more.

The most interesting reference from this ad is right at the bottom: Get a full color catalog and 20" x 28" Keith Emerson color poster for three bucks. Good to see Korg take a page out of ARP's playbook and throwing a bit of name-dropping into their ads.

Korg, I'm still crushing on you. <3

ARP Avatar, Synapse 1978

ARP Avatar guitar synthesizer advertisement from page 11 of Synapse Magazine January/February 1978.

This advertisement answers at least one question I posed back in March when I posted and blogged about an Avatar brochure that used the same design style. If you don't recall that post, go back and read it. I'll wait. I learned some great Avatar history while writing it.

I had questionably pegged that brochure at around 1977, and this advertisement, from early 1978, was obviously the companion piece - letting readers known that for only a buck, they could be sent a demonstration record attached within that brochure. It also possibly explains why the brochure didn't include a large ARP logo on the front. If you were sending in for the brochure because of the action statement in this advertisement, you would have already been exposed to the logo that appears so prominently in this scan.

And - about that scan - I really like the detail in that 'A'. Seriously. The barely visible graph-like lines are fantastic.

So, obviously, if ARP was willing to spend advertising dollars to market to guitar players in an international music magazine such as Synapse, then I would have to say that Synapse was obviously successful in positioning itself to this audience.

And as you know, I've been a bit baffled by this positioning. Why target guitar players in an electronic magazine? But it makes sense that if the biggest problem facing guitar-synthesizer manufacturers was where to place ads to sell their product to their target audience (guitar magazines or keyboard magazines?), Synapse was well placed to lure this audience. And they did it well.

A letter to the editor in the May/June (Summer) 1978 issue of Synapse pretty much sums up Synapse's audience compared to one of its main competitors - Contemporary Keyboard (CK).

"I have subscribed to CK since its beginning, but was never entirely pleased. Don't get me wrong - CK is a fine magazine, covering the entire keyboard spectrum. That, however, is the problem. The material is so diverse that I find little of interest to me in each issue (due to my own restricted interest in the keyboard field, no doubt). Your magazine, as advertised in July '77 CK, looks more like what I want - contemporary, state-of-the-art electronic instruments and modern performers."

I bet a lot of people felt that CK was a bit too broad in scope, and that includes guitar-synth enthusiasts. Many were probably looking for a 'home' - and found it with Synapse's aggressive publishing of guitar-synth articles and advertisements during the explosion of electronic guitar devices that appeared around this time period.

Synapse started a new series of articles on guitar synthesis in the November/December 1977 issue of Synapse that was to include 'nutshell descriptions of most of the currently available guitar synthesizers', with 'future issues to follow in the form of hands-on, road test-type equipment reviews'.

In the January/February 1978 issue, the series featured Leon Gaer and his bass-guitar-synth system that revolved around a 360 System's Bass Slavedriver (yes, they came in a bass version too!). The first paragraph of that article sums up what most guitarists and bassists were probably facing at a time when synthesizer sounds were making it onto more and more records:

"It's not surprising to find that many of the bassists and guitar players using synthesizers are regularly employed studio musicians. When it is necessary to produce the appropriate sound under time pressure one become inventive. How steady one's studio income is can depend on how useful you are to a producer. It helps to be able to do more than simply play an instrument."

The series continued in later issues of Synapse, including a two-page article in the Summer '78 that covered the two basic methods of interfacing used in guitar synthesizers at the time, and an equipment review of the ARP Avatar in the January/February 1979 issue.

And Synapse wasn't the only magazine competing for guitar-synth eyeballs.

A 1/2 page advertisement in the Jan/Feb '78 issue of Synapse for 'International Musician and Recording World' magazine (IMRW) begins in big letters: How much do you know about guitar synthesizers?

And the ad-copy pushed the point home:

"Unless you're an expert you need International Musician and Recording World to explain. In a current issue [IMRW] has gathered together the Roland, the ARP and the Hagstrom and compared them. A panel of famous guitarists was invited to visit and test all three. Afterwords they were privately interviewed about their preferences..."

Also, at the end of my last blog post I talked a bit about 'Device' magazine - a 12-issue newsletter published in 1979 by Craig Anderton and Roger Clay that was directed squarely at "electronic guitarists". Even better, as you know from that last blog post - all the issues are scanned and online.

What? You still haven't gone over to read 'em?

Go to hammer.ampage.org now.

NOW!

BCD Technology Inc's Nebula Guitar Synthesizer, Synapse 1979

BCD Technology Inc's Nebula guitar synthesizer advertisement from page 44 of Synapse Magazine May/June (Summer) 1979.

This was a surprising find.

After my recent blog posts about the 360 Systems/OB-1 and 360 Systems/SEM advertisements from 1978, I started flipping through future issues of Synapse magazine to see just how far the guitar-synthesizer trend continued. Sure enough, not only were the big guns of the guitar-synth world like ARP and 260 Systems continuing to show up in Synapse both in articles and advertisements, new companies like BCD were also jumping onto the bandwagon.

I had never heard of the Nebula guitar synthesizer, so when I first saw this advertisement, I did a quick search to try and dig up some dirt.

I didn't find much.

I first tried looking for information on Wikipedia's guitar synthesizer page, but because the Nebula didn't use a HEX pickup or pitch-to-voltage converter (PVC) , I'm not sure that the Nebula may have actually fit in with this crowd. I'm still doing some deeper research into all the different tech behind guitar-synthesizers in general, so I can't really comment too much on this yet. But will hopefully be knowledgeable enough in this area in the near future.

There is the chance the Nebula was vaporware (although the ad does ask the reader to see their local dealer or write the factory, suggesting to me that the factory was actually creating something). But, my Google Images search (albeit an admittedly quick one) should have turned up at least one photo, no?

The top search results on Google's Web search linked me to a 1979 newsletter called 'Device'. The 'Info' section on page 11 of issue 2:79 provided a short description of BCD Industry and the Nebula:

"A new company has entered the guitar synthesizer/processor market, BCD Technology, Inc. (285 K Sobrante Way, SunnyVale, CA, 94608 - tel (408) 739 2880). Their product, the NEBULA, makes extensive use of the SSM chips designed by Dave Rossum and Ron Dow. The guitar signal is processed directly (no hex pickup, no PVC) and is modified by way of: an input processor (consists of compressor, fuzz, and octave divider/multiplier), a VCF, a VCA, envelop generators, and a parametric equalizer. List price is $795 + options"

Reading this, I completely forgot about the Nebula and became more curious about 'Device'. When did it start? Who was behind it? Why had I not heard of this newsletter?

According to the 'What's Happening' section of the 1979 Summer issue of Synapse, 'Device' was a relatively new start-up newsletter devoted to the electronic guitarist:

"...Craig Anderton and Roger Clay have begun a monthly publication of Device, a newsletter for the Electronic Guitarist/Musician. Included in the format are construction articles, equipment reviews, features on circuit design, and interviews.

What, you don't know who Craig Anderton is? Um.... where have you been? :o)

And want to know something *really* cool? You can find all the issues of 'Device' online. Seriously. Someone at ampage.org has scanned all of them. They aren't readily linked from the home page, but if you go to hammer.ampage.org and go to pages 10, 11 and 12, you can find all issues.

The ampage site describes the newsletter as:

"This was a newsletter for "electronic" guitarists that was published by Craig Anderton and Roger Clay in 1979, and lasted for 12 skinny but deep issues. Lots of useful info and nostalgia inside."

You have to check it out. I know it will keep me busy for quite a while. It's helping me with my guitar-synth tech research *a lot*.

Hint: Issue 12 includes an 'Index' of all the content - great for the reference fanatic like me! :o)

Oberheim OB-1 AND 360 System Slavedriver, Synapse 1978

Oberheim OB-1 synthesizer and 360 System Slavedriver guitar synthesizer interface advertisement from page 15 of Synapse Magazine January/February 1978.

Okay, I'll admit it. Now that you see this advertisement, you have probably figured out my last two posts were both part of a set up (I'll get back onto the Steiner-Parker roll in a few more posts). But, I figured I'd better catch up on each piece of gear separately by covering what were at the time the current OB-1 and Slavedriver's individual advertisements, before jumping into the deep end with this awesome piece of advertising history.

In fact, Oberheim's OB-1 advertisement (linked above) appeared in prime real estate in this same issue of Synapse - page 3 across from the Letters section.

Now lets take a closer look at this ad - what can you say except WOW!

You didn't see too many companies pairing up in those days. "The two most respected names in electronic music offer the finest guitar synthesizer system available today".

But Oberheim and 360 Systems knew they could hit a totally new market by combining their individual products. And since both companies were based in Santa Monica, it was probably very easy for them to get together and chat. Cooperation and all that stuff. Very Sesame Street. Very cool.

In fact, it was so unusual to see companies at the time pair up like this that Synapse even commented on it in the previous issue's What's Happening section when they got the news:

"If petty competition has got you down, take heart. A new advertising tact is being taken by 360 Systems and Oberheim Electronics. The OB-1 and the Slavedriver, a programmable synthesizer and a guitar/synthesizer interface, respectively, are being advertised as a package and may represent a first in synthesizer marketing."

And what better synthesizer to plug into your Slavedriver than Oberheim's awesome OB-1 synthesizer? It was one of their newest, less-costly models, had great sound, and could recall all those great sounds you needed instant access to on stage while strutting your stuff with your axe. Synapse's summer 1978 issue spoke of the OB-1 fondly in the What's Happening section:

"Although Oberheim is known by some as the "Rolls Royce of synthesizers", this time they have come out with the economy item model including the luxury options. The OB-1 is a completely programmable lead synthesizer. Parameters that are programmable include VCO tuning, waveform, VCF center frequency, VCF "Q", filter/keyboard tracking, envelopes, sync, noise, cross modulation, and volume. The system includes a switchable 12 or 24 db filter and an 8 patch memory. The $1895.00 synthesizer is available from Oberheim Electronics."

The pairing of these two companies isn't the only thing historically significant about this ad. Take a close look at the photo of the OB-1. The model used in the ad must have been a prototype. Compare it to this product model photo from synthesizers.de.

A few of the differences I can make out include:

• The prototype has that awesome Oberheim logo above the program section. In the production model, the programmer section was above the logo.
  
• The prototype has the 'write' and 'manual' touch-switches in the Program section beside each other. In the production model the switches are in separate top corners.
• The prototype is missing the freq-wave selector switches below the modulation dials of VCO 1 and 2.
• VCF section in the prototype is arranged differently than in the production model.
  
• The switches in the Keyboard section on the left hand side of theOB-1 is arranged slightly differently.
  

If the historic pairing itself and the OB-1 prototype don't make this ad awesome enough for you, I'll add one more.

The logos!

Look at them - almost total opposites in style but yet both still standing the test of time and worthy of a tatoo. A big chubby Oberheim logo standing next to that skinny 360 Systems logo.

Almost as if Oberheim's swingin' arms want to go over there and give 360 Systems a big bear hug.

I know I would.

360 Sysytems Slavedriver, Synapse 1977

360 Systems Slavedriver guitar synthesizer advertisement from page 2 of Synapse Magazine May/June 1977.

The Slavedriver was part of the first wave of guitar/synthesizer systems that allowed guitars to control synthesizers. I never really got into them, probably because I didn't have the talent or time required to learn to play a guitar. But I don't want to turn this blog post into a therapy session...

I really like this advertisement for a number of reasons. The first and second of which are the logos.

The '360 Systems' logo itself stands the test of time. It is a shame they still don't use that logo today. But then again, they are pretty much a totally different company today too.

And I have a love-hate relationship with the 'Slavedriver' logo (tipping towards the love side). Maybe I'm a bit sensitive about the stylized 'whip' that runs across the top of the logo - it's a bit too literal for me, but the Battlestar Galactica-like font used for the logo is fantastically futuristic.

I also really like the way the 'Slavedriver' logo blends in with another funky-font-tag-line that is cheeky enough to tell the bulk of the readers of this electronic music magazine (ie. keyboard players) to 'move over!'. Seriously - wouldn't most of the readers of this magazine be synthesizer fanatics? I'm sure many would have a synthesizer lying around, but also a guitar? Is this a good strategy in a Synapse ad?

The ad copy underneath the tag-line also directs a lot its attention towards guitarists. There are a few places where they kinda give equal billing to that smaller segment of readers that may own both synthesizers and guitars, but the copy as a whole should really have squarely targeted keyboard players. Or am I just reading into it because of my disgust at not learning to play guitar? This very well may be turning into a therapy session.

Could the logic of placing this ad in Synapse have been that synthesizers cost more than guitars, so it would be easier to make the case for a keyboard player to buy a relatively inexpensive guitar in order to get out to the front of the stage? But then why direct this ad at guitarists?

It also makes me wonder if 70s guitar magazines also had guitar-synth ads? I'd think so.

Sorry, I'm starting to ramble...

Pushing the audience argument aside, the ad-copy itself may be a bit crowded but the way it curves around the photo of the Slavedriver hardware really adds to the design and style of the ad.

Back in March I blogged about a brochure from another of the guitar-synths trying to make its way in the world. The ARP Avatar. The ARP Avatar brochure directed its attention towards guitar playerst too, and it too made a fatal error. It tried to tell egocentric rock-god guitar players that they could get more performance potential with synthesizer sounds. Probably the last thing a rock-god guitar player wants to hear.

So therein lies the problem. How do you market a guitar synthesizer back in the 70s when the majority of guitarists and synthesists may have been entrenched in two totally separate camps at the time? That's a tough sell. To me it's like bring matter and anti-matter together. Kaboom!

And maybe that is why Tom Mulhern's Web site includes a great article entitled 'The History of Guitar Synthesizers: Four Revolutions, No Clear Winner'. And he should know - he spent more than a decade at Guitar Player magazine.

Maybe I should contact him to ask about guitar-synthesizer ads in Guitar Player... hmm...