Members filtersweep Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 Curious to know if the GEM keyboards of recent years are from the same company that made my first combo organ (sort of a Farfisa wannabe) about 35 years ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cydonia Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 Yep, just like Korg, they began by selling organs. GEM = Galanti Electro Music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members filtersweep Posted June 3, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khazul Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cydonia Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM BTW, bad day today? Pretty nice tone for a moderator, I like the warm welcome, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 Well blame Wikipedia, not me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM BTW, bad day today? Pretty nice tone for a moderator, I like the warm welcome, thank you. I apologize 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members filtersweep Posted June 3, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 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 forGeneral Music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cydonia Posted June 3, 2007 Members Share Posted June 3, 2007 I apologize 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bobsax Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 GEM still exists as well, GEM nowadays stands forGeneral Music This site doesn't work well with a Mac , at least not mine running Safari OSX.4 . I can't get and distributors for USA , let alone San Francisco dealers . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 This site doesn't work well with a Mac , at least not mine running Safari OSX.4 . I can't get and distributors for USA , let alone San Francisco dealers . try this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HairyScaryMark Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 I live in the UK, been to many music shops and never seen a GEM keyboard in any of them. I have however seen Nord, Access and even Kurzweil (also a european company). Only time I have seen GEM is in videos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChipCurtis Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 I have however seen Nord, Access and even Kurzweil (also a european company). Kurzweil is an American company now owned by a Korean company (Young Chang). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bobsax Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 try this When I sent an email my mail said ;" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HairyScaryMark Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Kurzweil is an American company now owned by a Korean company (Young Chang). Right enough. Apologise for my mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members r33k Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 When I sent an email my mail said ;" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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