Fender Contempo Organ

The Fender Contempo Organ is a combo organ made by Fender during the late 1960s. It was designed to compete with similar instruments such as the Vox Continental and Farfisa Compact, and was only in production for a few years.
History.
In the early to mid-1960s, there was an influx of inexpensive portable combo organs introduced by companies such as Vox, Gibson and Farfisa. Fender wanted to diversify from their established guitar and amplifier market and create more musical instruments. The Fender Rhodes was already entering production, so a combo organ seemed the next logical step. The Fender Vibratone, a copy of the Leslie speaker, was introduced at the same time.
The Contempo featured a keyboard built by Pratt-Read, who also helped construction with the Fender Rhodes. By the time the instrument was introduced on the market, combo organs were on the wane and the Hammond organ and electric pianos were becoming more popular. There was a limited amount of trade interest, and production ended in 1969.
Features.
The Contempo was enclosed in a black vinyl cabinet similar in appearance to the Fender Rhodes piano. It was single-manual instrument with 61 keys. The bottom octave's keys were reverse-colored as on a Harpsichord which could be used as a separate bass section or act as an additional octave to the main tones. A series of rocker switches allowed selection of 16', 8', 5⅓' and 4' tones, and vibrato and tremolo options. The 5⅓' stop allowed the Contempo to sound closer to a Hammond organ than similar instruments. Each voice had an additional "boost" switch that changed its volume. The instrument had individual output jacks for the treble and bass sections.
Sonically speaking, the instrument lay somewhere between the thick weedy "buzz" of a Farfisa Combo Compact, and the breathy, piercing flutey tones of the Vox Continental. The Contempo set itself apart with the inclusion of the 5-1⅓' stop tab (often not included on combo organs, though seen on a Hammond), a tremolo effect and a unique triple axis volume pedal, which controlled both volume on the up and down motion, and tone on the left to right motion. This pedal was adapted from the triple axis tone\volume pedals sold with Fender Pedal Steel guitars at the time.
Users.
The Contempo was commercially unsuccessful and few models were manufactured, and was not used by many professional musicians. One of the most famous users is Keith Jarrett when he played in Miles Davis group. The organ can be heard played together with Rhodes piano on the Miles Davis record Live-Evil and by itself on some live recordings with the Miles Davis group, when Chick Corea took over the Rhodes and Jarrett only played the Contempo.
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