Shamanczarek Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Though he rarely used it Jon Lord had an RMI on stage in 1972-73. He seemed to only use it for some left hand notes on "Space Trucking'". I saw Deep Purple in 1972 and he had it then. The RMI can be seen here and in other live performances from around this time: Quote C3/122, M102A, Vox V301H, Farfisa Compact, Gibson G101, GEM P, RMI 300A, Piano Bass, Pianet , Prophet 5 rev. 2, Pro-One, Matrix 12, OB8, Korg MS20, Jupiter 6, Juno 60, PX-5S, Nord Stage 3 Compact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Rocky Mount Instruments. The manufacturing site was just a couple of miles from my home. I purchased mine in the early seventies as my first "combo organ". I also bought the RMI 140A amp. Inside were two 15" JBL woofers and a couple of Allen organ tweeters. https://books.google.com/books?id=wgoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=rmi+140a&source=bl&ots=fNgWLgiSHr&sig=ACfU3U14EJthxDw1ncVQZoBtf5i_ho9E4g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4wvOt9r3qAhXionIEHSGGD9AQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=rmi%20140a&f=false I got to know Dave Kirk, their salesman. He often played as a guest organist at our church. Of course he tried to sell us an Allen organ when we were looking to replace our old electronic organ (I forgot the brand we were using at the time. Perhaps it was a Baldwin.) The church decided to raise the money to purchase a custom made pipe organ instead. It was a beautiful thing. I also got to know an engineer at RMI and asked him if he had a Leslie effect I could add to my Electra Piano. He gave me an outboard unit that was a prototype. Very cool. Of course I disassembled it to see how it worked. It had an oil tank inside it! To this day I still don't understand the technology, but it was a lot of fun. The RMI and Allen organs truly are built like tanks. Very impressive when you look inside. In Rocky Mount, they built the cabinets for the Electra Piano as well as some of their Allen organs. They also had the first solder bath I had ever seen. They were producing circuitry for the RMI and their organs. I was about 16 years old and, for me, this was very, very cool. I later purchased a Wurlitzer 200. When I got to college I bought a used, then a new Fender Rhodes. I replaced the RMI transistor head with a Fender BandMaster head to use with the JBL cabinet from RMI. It was big and heavy, but the sound of the Fender Rhodes playing through the tubes of the BandMaster going into those 15" JBLs was gorgeous! Music is cool. Stay safe! Tom Quote "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.