What are the most iconic "looking" (not sounding) keyboards?

[S_Gould]

[Old No7]

I can't believe Keith's modular Moog hasn't been shown yet!

 

Old No7

 

[Paul Woodward]

Who can forget this design classic? 😜

[DJkeys]

On 12/15/2023 at 2:55 PM, mate stubb said:

God, I wanted one of these so bad when I was starting out-

 

-dj

[16251]

1 hour ago, Old No7 said:

I can't believe Keith's modular Moog hasn't been shown yet!

 

Old No7

 

I thought of this when trying to add to this thread. I ended up going with Arp 2600 cause it was a patch cord synth more for the masses.

[The Piano Man]

I’ve always thought it would be great if there was something designed like this, but with a built in piano sound and with a lighter weight action that got the board under 20kg. It really takes the acoustic piano design in terms of the polished finish, clean design, lack of buttons and the Kawai logo. Come on Yamaha!

[Mike Martin]

[jerrythek]

 

And yes, I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek, spurred on by Mike's post above.

 

But I used to demonstrate this for Casio... w did shows at CES, NAMM and later Musik Messe with two players (Ed Alstrom and myself, and two vocalists), doing tribute show to Gershwin, Stevie  Wonder and The Beatles. And I had one at home for a number of years. 

[Legatoboy]

[Moonglow]

[cassdad]

13 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

 

Wow, brings back memories!  This was my 1st band keyboard…. and I remember playing my 1st song I ever tried to do with a “rock band” = “Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye” (“Kiss Him Goodbye”)!

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

Gateway drug into synthesis. 

 

Joking apart, that thing's bossa nova rhythm helped me get my head around polyrhythms.

 

And it's a calculator. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[David Emm]

19 hours ago, S_Gould said:

 

Let me take a wild guess: probably NOT going to be offered as a softsynth. 🤨 Great inclusion! 👍

 

[The Real MC]

On 12/15/2023 at 5:55 PM, mate stubb said:

 

Bought one cheap at a pawn shop years ago (before eBay) and fixed it up with the intention of using it for a recording.  I never did.  Before I relocated it was one of the music gear I purged, just did not have a use for it.

[The Real MC]

Oberheim experimented with the "reverse color" scheme back in the late 1970s but Tom did not care for the look.  However the ones that did get made were bought through employee purchase plans, including this one-of-a-kind drool-worthy dual manual eight voice.

 

 

[The Real MC]

These "sparkletop" Rhodes pianos from the 1960s looked so cool.  This one is my piano after I restored it.

[o0Ampy0o]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:52 AM, AnotherScott said:

 

So they are to blame for the keyboards that have rounded edges that make them unnecessarily more difficult to pick up from any angle...

 

They make them EASIER to drop though.

[Synthaholic]

I don't know about iconic, but I ran across this the other day. I couldn't find any identifiers as to what it was.

[Floyd Tatum]

7 minutes ago, Synthaholic said:

I don't know about iconic, but I ran across this the other day. I couldn't find any identifiers as to what it was.

I've seen one of those before.   I believe it's a pedal-operated mini pipe organ.   My friend had one, or he inherited it or something.    You had to pump the pedals to produce air to blow over the pipe embouchures or whatever they're called - at least that's how I think it worked.

[CyberGene]

^ Those are called harmoniums. We've had one such at our church and I played it as a kid. It was used in an auxiliary rehearsal room and my grandmother said it used to be the main church instrument in her youth when there was no electric organ. You have to constantly pump the bellows with the two pedals while playing. It had some registrations. But basically sounded more like an accordion and I remember everybody hated it 😀

[dglcomp]

Theres a few for me, starting with the Generalmusic Promega 3, the slanted front panel just makes it look classy.

GEM/Generalmusic S Series, love my S2 and the "flush" front panel is a great design decision, difficult to break off a knob or slider, and the unique pitch/mod wheels.

The Technics PX-1, one of the first sampled digital pianos

Roland RD-1000, a fairly common early digital piano, one of the first good ones, looks so sleek with it's stand and pedal power supply.

The Hohner ADAM looks pretty interesting,

Something I own, the Motif XS line with it's beautiful duck egg blue colour scheme rather than the more common silver or black,

and naturally the DX1 with it's displays.

[Paul Woodward]

The DX1 is a fascinating piece of hardware, but the depth of the thing. You need to stand up to reach the back.

[Paul Woodward]

Back in the 80’s, I was in love with the black and blue styling of Korg offerings such as the Poly 800 II, DW8000, DSS1, DS8 etc. As an eagle eyed teen, I could spot one of these a mile off on stage or in music stores. Not iconic as such, but I listed after many of them in the late 80’s.

[16251]

Interesting thread. I guess every keyboard is iconic. 

[retrokeys]

I  suppose for us any keyboard we once had and now miss, or once we gassed over, has become "iconic."   Simply, That stetches the definition too far.   Might I suggest, for fun, keyboards your guitarist might see as emblematic.  I would wager on the B3, the Vox, the Farfisa ( if they are "of a certain  age") and a few telephone swithcboard looking synths.  The lights or colors that fascinate us, and tickle our memories, let's face it, mean nothing  to the  average Joe.

[ABECK]

5 hours ago, dglcomp said:

 

 

Roland RD-1000, a fairly common early digital piano, one of the first good ones, looks so sleek with it's stand and pedal power supply.

 

Elton definitely added to the hip factor

 

[kpl1228]

Iconic, not unique or interesting. I keep seeing those here.

Iconic: Vox Continental, Minimoog, DX7, all of the red Nords. Oh, and the Jupiter 8 with the brightly colored switches on the faceplate. So Iconic Roland used that look in its Jupiter re-dos.

[kpl1228]

On 12/16/2023 at 7:53 AM, CyberGene said:

I really love the military design of the Soviet Polivoks:

 

 

In Soviet Russia synth plays YOU

[AnotherScott]

32 minutes ago, kpl1228 said:

Iconic, not unique or interesting. I keep seeing those here.

Iconic: Vox Continental, Minimoog, DX7, all of the red Nords. Oh, and the Jupiter 8 with the brightly colored switches on the faceplate. So Iconic Roland used that look in its Jupiter re-dos.

 

Yes, the thread has veered from iconic designs to beautiful and/or unusual or otherwise interesting or trend-setting... though it's been a nice trip. 🙂

 

In the iconic-looking category... unless I missed them... I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Mellotron 400 or Clavinet D6. 

 

To nitpick your comment, I'm not sure I'd see the DX7 as an iconic design. It's an iconic instrument, for sure, but I don't find anything so distinctive about its visual design. It's almost distinctive in its lack of distinctiveness. 😉 And while the Nord color is identifying distinctive, I don't know that I'd say any particular Nord model has an iconic design.

[kpl1228]

7 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

To nitpick your comment, I'm not sure I'd see the DX7 as an iconic design. It's an iconic instrument, for sure, but I don't find anything so distinctive about its visual design. It's almost distinctive in its lack of distinctiveness. 😉 And while the Nord color is identifying distinctive, I don't know that I'd say any particular Nord model has an iconic design.

I was thinking of the iconic-looking touch panel and the lack of knobs, influencing every synth touch panel design thereafter for a decade----for better and for worse.