VOX V251 GUITAR ORGAN with Dick Denney a great innovator and a true gentleman.

I've got a secret show 1967

[@Syntox]

SERIOUSLY. How many Les Paul reissues does the world need? MAKE THESE!

[@cindyhurd8982]

At the time, it was a disaster, because it rarely ever worked right. With today's technology, it could probably succeed.

[@shaungreer3350]

Or just any of vox’s phantoms. Love the phantom 4, 6, and 12. If i had the money i’d have a dozen of each

[@ChruthFabian]

It's called the gr-55 and it took till 2011 to get anything close to stage ready

[@tmoss89]

I know man

[@syn707]

@@ChruthFabianYou ain’t kidding. I had the GR 700 which I could never get ready for live performance..however, many pros did. But I am sure the Roland company had their techs set it up. I have the GR55 now and it was a bit of work to set up but I use it for live performances weekly.

[@cpkelley]

Vox should bring back the guitars they made in the 60's. Ultrasonic, Teardrop, Phantom, etc. People are killing each other trying to get their hands on those guitars...it would be smart to start making them again. Innovative, yet classic!

[@flamey70]

13 year old comment....but still relevant today unfortunately.

[@theothertonydutch]

@@flamey70 They actually did and they didn't sell well.

[@giulioluzzardi7632]

You can find new ones and there are some from UK that were assembled from original parts from the Pescara Factory in Italy. Look up ",Brandoni".

[@flamey70]

@@theothertonydutch oh really!? Didn't know that 👍

[@MikaelLewisify]

My very first guitar was a vox teardrop. I really wish I still had it.

[@tommibjork]

"a weapon from a more civilized age..." ;D

[@jmikeperkins]

Just amazing to actually see and hear Dick Denney! He was a genius inventor. He invented the classic Vox AC15 and AC30 guitar amps, the Vox fuzz pedal the "Tone Bender" and the Vox guitar organ you see here. He was a friend of both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and gave Paul McCartney the Vox Tone Bender you hear on the Beatles record "Rubber Soul." It's too bad the original Vox company went out of business after 1967 when both Denny and owner Tom Jennings left the company, but their products live on.

[@jensenbell]

Dick Denny on TV!! The man that invented the AC30, arguably the most MUSICAL sounding guitar amp ever made.

[@user-un9go4qe5i]

At the request of Hank Marvin from the Shadows. ua-cam.com/video/8p_rgaUkVbQ/v-deo.html

[@pjmuck]

Excellent note tracking. I play midi guitar and it's always a challenge tracking or keeping it from playing misfired notes and glitches.

[@billyhendry8369]

pjmuck they have resistors inside the neck, and as the guy said the strings complete a circuit when they touch the frets, the lower the note the more resistors in its way and the higher the resistance, so each note has its very own distinct resistance and that's how it tracks so well

[@alanlf1394]

@@billyhendry8369 trying to imagine how they managed to do that in the 60's and understanding why a reissue is impossible for a fair price....

[@morbidmanmusic]

Easy tech even then.

[@alanlf1394]

@@morbidmanmusic not for a large scale selling guitar, the amount of routing and soldering you have to do would make it way too expensive
Remember, gibson sell their basic guitar for a thousand and they have shitty hardware these days…

[@richsackett3423]

0:55 Steve Allen let's an amazing "D'ohhh!" rip. Homer would be jealous.

[@jimdep6542]

He let something else rip at 1:21

[@mobile-to6rz]

Mid or late 70's i ran into a guitar player on the holiday inn circuit. He had a Gibson 335 model re-worked to a Organ guitar. Had the Leslie cabinet and his guitar amp and bass pedals. Perfect B-3 sound. After hours he let me play it. Very Heavy ! & very complicated circuits. A blast to play tho

[@JROD082384]

Not only did he invent a guitar that can sound like an organ, the man invented tapping…

[@syn707]

Well, no, he didn’t but he was very adept at it. And when that commercial came out no one was aware tapping had been going on for a long time. Jazzers didn’t do it or rockers at the time which is why it seemed new.

[@valley_robot]

@@syn707well said, when I tell so called musicians that synthesis and synths were a thing way before the electric guitar they don’t believe me

[@syn707]

@@valley_robot OMG…well I am not surprised. Musicians, hmmmm. That name applies to someone who continues to hoan his craft, to challenge themself….it also applies to someone who plays two chords badly.

[@valley_robot]

@@syn707 the theramin is from 1928, a VCO or voltage controlled oscillator, pitch and volume controlled by proximity to the the two antenna, it's a synthesiser

[@cliffords2315]

not really, Spanish guitar teqnique of Tapping goes back hundreds of years,

[@IAmKillEveryone]

Godfather of the synthaxe.

[@jimdep6542]

Steve Allen was great . Back when TV still had class.

[@fritzthedog007]

Yeah, the repartee is pretty sharp. Smart people being funny.

[@markbowles2382]

Jimdep642 .... you told that right.... loved that, "you wanna take it outside, cause there's no room for it in here"....

[@Bradfiddle]

The patent for the Guitorgan was 1st registered in 1954 by a man from Newark NJ. I tried to file a similar patent in the late 1970s and it cost me $500 to find that out . Hahaahaaahahha!

[@jimdep6542]

After the curtain came up and he started playing, it sounded like the beginning of Beautiful Dreamer. Love to hear more .

[@8toesleft]

Dick Denney : LEGEND !!!

[@psichedelyc765]

that;s pure psichedelyc sound !!!

[@turnsufficient4971]

Love it !!! Vox made wonderful instruments and amplifiers !

[@frankconti6591]

The ‘Great and ‘Very talented ‘Steve Allen ‘ 🤓🎶🙏🏼❤️🎭🎈

[@yeahproductions]

About 19 of these instruments were imported to Australia by Nicholsons music store, in the late 1960's. So, not too many around.

[@steby123]

Almost a synthesizer guitar.

[@wbfaulk]

It's hard to come up with a reason why this wouldn't be considered a synthesizer, albeit one without a lot of tone manipulation options.

[@garyssimo]

I have an Electro Harmonix guitar pedal sounds just like this. very adjustible with many sounds.

[@murgatroid1034]

so, EVH saw this video??

[@simonderycke7545]

My thoughts exactly!

[@shable1436]

I bought a wah pedal at a pawn shop, and took it home and took back off of it, the board said Thomas organ company on the green board, it was made in sixties, later i learned that it was one of the very first wah wah pedals ever made

[@jfinester]

Most of the Vox amps in the US were made by the Thomas Organ Company. Early ones, before 1965, came from England. I bought a Vox Cambridge Reverb amp in mid-‘66 that was a Thomas product. At the end of 1966, I got a Vox Phantom XII guitar that was made by the Eko guitar company in Italy. Most of the Vox guitars that made it to the US were Italian.

[@ArkyMalarkey]

Steve Allen, Dick Denney, they sure don't make 'em like they used to...

[@user-bt8zk8jj8n]

The way Americans spoke English sixty years ago is completely different from the Contemporary American English. I enjoy listening to these people because they speak correct English

[@johntate5050]

What a sensational instrument.

[@popogast]

Few musisicians bought it.

[@cmerton]

more like a cheesy toy

[@ricaard]

Two handed work, speedy classical themes, he was the package before there was a package!

[@neebinmakwah349]

This is THE GUY who invented TAPPING. Ok now we know 1967,wow!

[@wingracer1614]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that whoever built the first stringed instrument with a fingerboard also invented tapping. EVH just popularized it and brought it to the hard rock/metal world.

[@morbidmanmusic]

It's been popular since the 1800s in written music. Ugh...

[@rjwh67220]

Classical guitarists have been “tapping” since the late eighteenth century.

[@DavianSinner]

There's a video here on YT called "Eddie Van Halen's Dad" of some guy in the 1930's or whenever, tapping like mad on a ukelele or something.

[@zebdoz333]

id like to try one for a jam session might be interesting , tho i realize there are pedals but to play a VOX like that would be really cool

[@gabiotta]

Dick Denning should be in the tags of this video. He was a great innovator and a true gentleman.

[@teacherofteachers1239]

When I was very young I saw what was either a white Phantom VI or a copy (this was around 1975ish) hanging behind the counter of the musical instrument store. I never tried it out, but I never forgot it. It really enchanted me.

[@thevoiceguyschannelofficia9051]

I have an 80,s Yamaha EZ AG it leaves this for dead!! Tonaly and much more dynamic but also very rare now

[@binxbolling]

Steve Allen was the original host of the Tonight Show.

[@marcraygun6290]

When I bought my gretsch at music ground they had two of these one black and one white , was so cool

[@--..-...-..-.--....]

Dang this is actually funny. I wish they would actually make this damn thing today

[@careful__Icarus]

I'd love to hear Yngwie playing one of these.Then he could be Blackmore AND Lord.

[@edwincancelii2917]

This was before I was born.

[@ArkyMalarkey]

Bring back the Vox Guitar Organ AND Steve Allen!

[@NeutralGravity]

That message was quick and colorful

[@johnl1685]

TRANSISTORS! They make immediately recognizable distinctive sounds.

[@cmerton]

DOUCHEBAG! It makes immediately recognizable distinctive comments.

[@MindTheDrift]

0:55 interestingly, i remember dan castellaneta describing taking "D'oh!" and shortening it down to how it came known to be, but he adopted it from an older laurel & hardy actor, i didnt know it was universally known and used as this is exactly how i heard dan castellanetta express how it originally sounded

[@retinalcircus]

The Casio DG20 digital guitar does a similar thing in terms of infinite sustain and two types of organ on it. However the Casio DG20 is both a midi controller and early digital guitar, like having a Casio keyboard activated by a guitar that's basically fretless with plastic strings. Whilst this vox organ guitar is totally unique it can do organs, flute like sounds, arpeggiator rapid fire, and normal guitar sounds

[@kindabluejazz]

The Casio DG20 came out in 1987, 20 years after the VOX V251. By 1987, we had all sort of computerized synths and synth guitars.

[@dougkenny6548]

Some try to say Eddie Van Halen invented finger tapping. This guy was doing it in 67 and I'll bet he wasn't the first.

[@wbfaulk]

The way the organ part of this guitar works is not really how tapping works in the Van Halen sense. That said, Eddie was still not the first, but he probably came up with the idea on his own. It's the sort of thing that anyone playing around with an electric guitar and a relatively high-gain might stumble onto.

[@OldWhitebelly]

Tapping goes back centuries. Eddie, Steve Hackett, etc. (who was there before Eddie), they all used it but it was an established technique long before they came along. @@wbfaulk

[@ReLaX-CHiLL.]

Organ that looks like a gee tar..lemme see the corn on the cob version.

[@BossGuitars]

Thank you very much for posting this. Really a historic moment in Vox history.

[@picure]

WOW, Ive been wanting to hear one of these go off for so long! Damn!
Kewl!

[@CadillacL]

WHEW! How awesome is that. I want one.

[@EMWoodworking]

the first hammer ons recorded for television Pre Van Halen

[@EdVanMeyer]

Dick Denney was a great innovator, this guitar was way ahead of its time and the great thing here is you get the keyboard like 'infinite' notes which you can't get on a guitar without some sort of feedback device like an E Bow or a mega distortion. Jimmy Webster mad the 'two handed tapping' method famous in the 50's demoing Gretsch guitars.

[@retinalcircus]

There's sustainer pickups

[@johnjohnson9093]

Way before its time

[@Patrick33194]

amazing

[@martincaz7772]

Too bad we can't have shows like this nowadays becasue nothing you show us can suprise us the way this could in those years.

[@n.miller907]

Today's mass media is aimed at the lowest common denominator viewer. In today's highly complex world, specialized devices like this one would go way over the heads of most viewers.
That's why internet streaming sites like UA-cam exist. If you are a drummer, guitarist or whatever, there's a UA-cam channel available for each instrument. That's where they show us all the myriad of "toys" and studio magic used to create unique sounds.
Television can never return to its glory days. They are over and done with. The Learning channel has nothing educational, the History Channel is effectively useless, and MTV has little to do with music. UA-cam and other streaming services have killed whatever good material was left on TV. Podcasts have also decimated whatever audience TV had left. It's still a mystery to me why television still exists at all.

[@gabiotta]

It has just been pointed out to me that his name is actually Dick Denney. I knew him when I was a teenager and even bought an amp from him once, but the host got it wrong and caused me to have a brain fart. Thanks. :)
Sorry to be such a pain in the arse...

[@fireballninja01]

wow! amazing!!

[@stratocat9999]

I actually remember watching this show! Cheers!

[@jeremykershaw]

I want one!

[@rjwh67220]

I knew a guy that had one of those back in the day, and there’s a good reason they never caught on.
EDIT: And I had (still have) a Vox Phantom and I never understood why they didn’t catch on.

[@michaelt.wardlespider2496]

I would love to have one of these.

[@cherylharrell1961]

That is such a neat & cool sounding instrument. Would love to play one...

[@youdaman5069]

New “Eruption” lead into “You Really Got Me”!

[@ckelly5141]

The worlds first looper! 🎼🎸

[@rickdeckard1075]

just BAAAAAAAD-ASSSSSSS

[@dougobrien4877]

There was a guitar that came out in early 1970’s…it was called the “guitorgan”.

[@mrpositronia]

It's the future of guitars. They will all be like that soon.

[@Pogo616]

Very impressive, very beautiful fot that years

[@MaestroBlight]

All these years later EHX makes it possible to have so many organ effects. As Maestro Blight I employ sustain and Leslie and harmonies.

[@mjh5437]

One of these sold at Auction in England this month for £2,400.

[@matiasechazu785]

damn that shredding

[@drewhart2]

Really cool! Thanks

[@kylebourne6839]

Dude doing some Eddie Van Halen hammer-ons before his EVH was born!! lol

[@iparracine]

wooooooow 1967!!

[@sk8chkn]

This is the most painful interaction I’ve ever encountered

[@alanwebbguitar]

Here he was tapping on the guitar neck about the time Eddie Van Halen was born…

[@Gary-zq3pz]

Well, that guitar is probably in a museum by now, or in a Very private collection.

[@taipo101]

Theres always one Prima Donna in the team

[@Skiptracer1981]

It's the FUTURE!

[@Twangabilly]

Makes me laugh when he goes “It can sound like a Hawaiian guitar” and plays it in just standard guitar mode

[@jimdep6542]

but it sort of did anyway LOL

[@afractalchild]

I NEED IT. NOW. I WILL MAKE SACRIFICES.

[@tjw88keys]

Del Shannon used the Guitorgan on his hit Runaway.

[@JaketheGreat123456]

Pink Floyd + That Guitar = too much awesomeness for the human race to handle....thats why

[@tenorbanjoguy]

Brilliant!!!

[@jrpipik]

A $600 instrument in 1967 would be $5400 in 2023. I can see why they didn't sell many of them!

[@jlennon80231ify]

I think your all missing the point here, I've seen and played one of these before. The fret bored is the keyboard, the whole purpose is that you can play a keyboard part but you can also play guitar at once

[@gabiotta]

Brilliant. :)

[@markauckland666]

Hardly surprising it didn’t catch on

[@dukeuke1]

I wanted this VOX Guitar when I was a Kid,ARE there any out there ??

[@smasica]

This kind of blows holes in the belief Eddie Van Halen 'invented' tapping.

[@1954telecaster]

because they already had Richard Wright!

[@avanm420]

1967?! Squaresville

[@Jones9guitars]

This is the first time I have heard someone make it sound like an organ....sort of.

[@jingo114]

damn that's tapping

[@jamiemorgan4146]

Dick was a genius.
I’m mainly a guitar player and don’t want my guitar to sound like an organ.
The organ guitar, not really good.
If I want to play keys, I’ll play keys on keys 🎹, which I do.
Of course, how Dick managed it in an analogue world, was amazing.
Now, guitar synths can bring it all to a guitar in guitar form.

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

Not every guitar player has learned to also play keyboard, and this thing could be used as additional accompaniment voice if you play alone on stage.

[@paulprice6330]

it's not midi but direct to the jack, to the amplifier. they already have the technology 50 years ago. What else are they hiding from us. Now they sell us crappy clones of this 50 year old technology.

[@old_romans]

These are now worth upwards of $10k!

[@GraemePryceUK]

@Awesomo4003 You'd have trouble finding a right handed one!

[@MultiSkyman1]

Star Trek guitar!

[@Aenima308]

The presenter seems completely unimpressed by this. It goes without saying it was ahead of its time.

[@cmerton]

ONLY GULLIBLE TEENS ARE IMPRESSED BY THIS TOY.

[@davidjorgensen877]

$600-$800 new in 1966, ten times that today used, if you can find one - basically, a cost-of-living equivalent. Pretty cool tech for the day.

[@thefoxygrandpa638]

just wondering, did any other guitar company replicate this, if not, wow, vox should get much more credit than it got

[@taterlysaladman9377]

Yes several and many organ pedals that you can use with any guitar

[@Quicksilver_Cookie]

There's no need to replicate this. There are things like piezo pickups for every individual string, with direct to midi output etc. Very niche, but replicating something like this would be pointless because we simply have better tech to achieve same goal - turn guitar into synth.

[@wingracer1614]

I can't think of any that were done like this. This is a ridiculously complicated device that was horrendously expensive to make. It wasn't long before people came up with much simpler ways to do it.

[@jfinester]

There was an Italian-made guitar/organ in the early ‘70s called a Godwin. Had abouut a million switches on it. In the ‘60s and ‘70s a guy from Waco, TX, named Bob Murrell (I think) had something called a Guitorgan. The early ones had the tone generators and circuitry built into Japanese Gibson Barney Kessel copies, because they had full body depth and all the organ electronics would fit inside. Later ones were built into Japanese ES-345 copies. They made one called a B-300, which they claimed sounded like a Hammond B-3 organ. All these things had wired frets to trigger the organ sounds. I think the Guitorgan predated both the Vox and the Godwin, but I’m not 100% sure about that. All of them definitely predated the Casio.

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

​@@Quicksilver_Cookie The frets work more like a Stylophone (in a bad or good sense), so this could likely produce certain sounds a midi guitar can't.

[@RileyNagle]

there are LP' with this in it. that should be a reissue!

[@MrArtEffete]

@guitarjur Because Gilmour wouldnt have known what to do with it with Richard Wright in the band

[@jojgarlic]

hahah, that guy is pretty much doing two-handed tapping years before all of that shredding started!

[@DetVen]

Is this the first Neo-Classical shredder?

[@GilbertPot1971]

no