Description
The Continental came in two basic models, each with its own variations. The basic models were the single manual Continental, and the dual manual, which was known as the Vox Continental II in England and the Vox Super Continental in Italy.
Vox Continentals were initially manufactured in the Jennings Musical Instruments plant in Dartford, Kent, UK, and by Vox Sound in Erith, Kent. Reportedly the English factories could not keep up with demand for VOX amplifiers and organs, and in 1964, a licensing deal was signed between Jennings and the Thomas Organ Company in the USA.
The Continental was very striking visually, and had features not often found in keyboard instruments, both then and now. The most obvious of these was its reverse-coloured keys (black naturals and white sharps) similar to a harpsichord. Then the chrome Z-shaped stand and bright vermilion (in some models grey) top made for a very distinctive and handsome piece of equipment. The Vox Continental used six slider-type, metered volume controls called drawbars instead of the stop-tab rocker switches seen on other combo organs. Two of the drawbars controlled the voices (flute and reed tones), and three of the other four controlled the footages (in reference to ranks of pipes on a pipe organ, but were essentially successive octave controls; the lower the footage number, the higher the octaves were pitched 8 foot being one octave higher than 16 foot etc.), the last of the four controlling a mixture of four higher pitches. There was a single-speed, single intensity vibrato, but the Connie had no other special effects or bass notes. Its simplicity was appreciated by many organists.
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