Multivox synths

[cornutt]

I was not aware until yesterday that Multivox, the company that made cheap knockoff guitars and amps in the '70s, also made some synths at some point. Has anyone ever come across one of these beasts?

[meatballfulton]

I've seen some string machines, organs, EPs and such but not for a long time. They also sold the Big Jam stompboxes and that goofy Firstman sequencer that shows up used now and then.

Their MX202 was a knockoff of the Roland RS202, the MX2000 was a knockoff of the Roland SH2000, hey they were the original Behringer!

Back before GC killed all the independent music stores in the USA, Mutlivox gear used to be easily found all dusty in the back of stores for peanuts I can't remember how any of them sounded, though.

[tim gueguen]

Saw one of their electronic pianos a long time ago in a pawn shop, but never had a chance to play one. A lot of their stuff seems to have been rebranded versions of equipment originally sold under the Hillwood and Firstman brands in Japan.

[AdamAnt316]

The only Multivox gear I have is a MX-2 Fullrotor rotating speaker simulator. Although not as nice as some of the more modern Leslie speaker simulators, it seems to do a decent enough job, as heard in my "Tomorrow Never Knows" cover. I've also seen at least one of their electronic pianos for sale, but the sound it produced didn't seem to match the asking price.
-Adam

[V301H]

I went to various southern California music stores around 1980 looking for a particular Multivox keyboard to try out and nobody carried the brand. After I told a salesman at one store that I couldn't find them anywhere he said that should tell me something about the product. He said Multivox was a company they were not happy with. I'm guessing the line was more prevalent on the east coast of the US although I've never actually seen one in the 25 years I've been here. Apparently there is little interest from Synth collectors.

[CS_TBL]

I have a custom-made MultiVox chorus effect in a case the size of a clockradio. The effect comes from an old organ that was about to be trashed, and was thus 'transplanted' by a technician.

One of a kind, R@R3, w000t!

[madtheory]

Multivox, the company that made cheap knockoff guitars and amps in the '70s, also made some synths at some pint.

I'm pretty sure they were not knock-offs, and were often not that cheap either. They were an importer AFAIK who rebranded other manufacturers stuff under license. The synths are all Korgs. IIRC Katoh mentions the deal in his autobiography, I'll check later.

[meatballfulton]

You're confusing Multivox with Univox (Unicord), who were the US importer of Korg and Marshall amps. Korg later bought the company.

[wiss]

Did you check here ?


YouTube has a few videos of their synths in action, even the elsusive MX-3000

[madtheory]

You're confusing Multivox with Univox (Unicord), who were the US importer of Korg and Marshall amps. Korg later bought the company.

Thanks

[Yekuku]

For some strange reason, all the multivox synths i have seen in real life had the most yellowish keys I have ever seen in vintage synths.