WEM Telstar

Ease of Use: 10
I should explain that I owned a WEM Telstar in 1974/75, so all of this is from memory.

It was very easy to use, being a pre-digital organ with clearly labelled drawbars and switches.

Features: 7
The WEM Telstar was a 4-octave combo organ. (See the http://rodak99.tripod.com/ website for a picture. According to that site it featured in the 1965 WEM catalogue. I guess mine dated from around then.) It was around the same size as a Vox Continental, with a black vinyl covering over a wooden case, and foldaway chrome legs. Quite a heavy beast.

The control panel above the keyboard had a matt metallic finish, with an on-off switch and rotary volume control. The keyboard had conventonally coloured keys (unlike the Vox organs which were reverse-couloured). There were small white plastic drawbars for around a dozen conventional organ sounds (flute, trumpet, etc.), and (if I remember correctly) red plastic drawbars for features such as Tremolo and Vibrato.

There was a switch for pitch-bend, which lowered the pitch of whatever was being played by one tone. Rather like the pitch-bend wheels on modern synths, except that it wasn't a graded bend, just an instant shift down by one tone.

There was also a "mute" switch which muted the bottom octave-and-a-half of the keyboard so as to play more quietly and with a different tone. Presumably this was to allow left-hand chord playing inder a right-hand solo.

It had a swell pedal. There were no on-board amp and speakers.

Not a bad range of features, all in all.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 5
The sounds were fairly conventional organ sounds - i.e. mainly modelled on a church pipe organ. There was no attempt at a Hammond sound or specifically "electric" sound. A fair variety of sounds could be accomplished with the different drawbar settings. The drawbars were all "additive". i.e. when they were all in there was no sound at all, and then you pulled out whichever ones you wanted for a composite sound.

In aband context, the sounds didn't "cut through" like a Vox or Farfisa would.

Reliability: 8
It was near on 10 years old when I got it and was reliable for the year that I had it. But I only used it at home.

Customer Support: N/A
No idea. Never dealt with WEM.

Charlie Watkins and WEM are still around, incidentally, selling loadspeaker drivers and cabinet designs and MIDI accordions.

Overall Rating: 5
If I still had this thing it would be a collector's curiosity, and I'd hang on to it.

As it is, if I wanted a genuine 1960s combo organ (I don't), I'd go for a Vox or a Farfisa. The WEM Telstar was fun, but not in their league.

Submitted by Peter Shields at 01/07/2001 15:44