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origin of GEM keyboards?


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GEM = Galanti Electro Music.

 

 

That is B.S. It's ''Galanti Egidio Mondaino S.r.l,'' (GEM). Galanti is the last name, Egidio is the first name of the founder of the factory, and Mondaino in the Emilia Romagna region is the town where their first factory was. (S.r.l. means societa' a responsabilita' limitata, similar to the american Ltd.) This is info readily available at the Generalmusic site. Just don't spread made up information, please.

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You are right, of course. I just did a little internet research myself. I could not figure out why I never heard of the company for like 25 years and all of a sudden (so it seemed), 10 years ago they were making high end keyboards, something my GEM definitely was not. I had become convinced it was just a coincidence that another Italian keyboard manufacturer had come along and called themselves GEM. Turns out they have always sold a line of console organs (Galanti) and in the early 90's they bought Elka which may have marked their big move back into portables / synths. They are now the biggest electronic keyboard manufacturer in Europe.

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They are now the biggest electronic keyboard manufacturer in Europe.

 

Right!.. and thats with Nord and Access being european as well? Seems nearly every synth junkie here has had a virus or a nord at some time or other.

 

 

If they are the biggest in europe, then I have to wonder what the hell happens to all those boards they must make... must be in some land fill somewhere :)

 

Noone I know has one, I have only ever once seen a GEM box (thier top of line stage piano - cant remeber the model) in a shop in the UK, never actually seen one of any flavour of GEM out to play in a shop...

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That is B.S. It's ''Galanti Egidio Mondaino S.r.l,'' (GEM). Galanti is the last name, Egidio is the first name of the founder of the factory, and Mondaino in the Emilia Romagna region is the town where their first factory was. (S.r.l. means societa' a responsabilita' limitata, similar to the american Ltd.) This is info readily available at the Generalmusic site. Just don't spread made up information, please.

 

Well blame Wikipedia, not me. :evil:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM

 

BTW, bad day today? Pretty nice tone for a moderator, I like the warm welcome, thank you. :rolleyes:

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Well blame Wikipedia, not me.
:evil:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM


BTW, bad day today? Pretty nice tone for a moderator, I like the warm welcome, thank you.
:rolleyes:

 

I apologize :D I was not happy because I was waiting for a Fedex shipment of an Oberheim OB-8 and they never showed up!! But really, that tells you something about Wikipedia.

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Right!.. and thats with Nord and Access being european as well? Seems nearly every synth junkie here has had a virus or a nord at some time or other.



If they are the biggest in europe, then I have to wonder what the hell happens to all those boards they must make... must be in some land fill somewhere
:)

Noone I know has one, I have only ever once seen a GEM box (thier top of line stage piano - cant remeber the model) in a shop in the UK, never actually seen one of any flavour of GEM out to play in a shop...

 

That's a good point, and you would have a better sense of this than I, since you live in the UK. I just took that info from an internet site that has lots of info on old combo organs, pretty interesting site, actually ( combo-organ.com ). I have never played one, rarely seen one, and wouldn't know where to buy one in the Boston area, as opposed to Nord and Access which are everywhere. Maybe they just sell well in Europe, or the info is just plain wrong.

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I just read on that wonderful combo organ site (posted above) that GEM was later renamed to "Generale Elettro Musica", and allegedly GEM manufactured several organs that were sold under different brands such as Thomas, Baldwin, Howard, Vox and others.

 

The GEM company was established in 1959. GEM built and developed the first electronic organ made in Italy. The first technology used sound generators with neon lights. In 1969, Marcello Galanti left the company and founded Intercontinental Electronics S.p.A., to design and manufacture electronic organs. This company still exists as Viscount.

 

GEM still exists as well, GEM nowadays stands for

General Music

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I apologize
:D
I was not happy because I was waiting for a Fedex shipment of an Oberheim OB-8 and they never showed up!! But really, that tells you something about Wikipedia.

 

That's alright. For your penitence, you have to give me a full size pic of that girl shown on your avatar. ;)

 

:wave:

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