Dubreq Stylophone

A bit of history

HISTORY Envisaged originally as a ‘toy synthesiser’, the instrument’s unique method of play and classic synth sound, coupled with it’s uniquely small size, made it popular with professional musicians as well as the public, and it has become a truly cult instrument with fans in the very highest echelons of the music industry. The basic premise of the Stylophone design was simple; to create a keyboard instrument that was cheap to manufacture (by eliminating the need for physical keys and replacing them with the plated circuit board touch-pads it is now so famous for) and which was easy for anyone to pick up and learn. To intentionally cut out the esoteric ‘need to be taught’ that put so many youngsters and newcomers off picking up a musical instrument.

REMAKES, UPGRADES:
- Stylophone 350S (1971) a bigger versions with more sounds, octaves and effects
- Stylophone S1 (2007) digital with 3 sounds instead of 1.
- Stylophone S2 (2012) synthesizer with 2 VCO
- Stylophone GEN X1 (2017) 1 osc with sub
- Stylophone GEN-R8 (2019) semimodular synth 2VCO + sub

->In 1969 David Bowie famously used the Stylophone in the track ‘Space Oddity’ and it’s popularity sky-rocketed even further.

SOUND

OVERVIEW monophonic plastic case with conductive keyboard made of printed circuit board and played by touching it with its stylus—each note being connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator via a different-value resistor, simple eh?

CONTROLS just power ON/OFF and vibrato with fixed frequency

SOUNDS The Stylophone was available in three variants: standard, bass, and treble, each covering different octaves,(the S1 2007 editions includes all) see picture below, with Rolf Harrism famous Australian artist