A closer look at the keytar
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25.09.2024

A closer look at the keytar

Keytar
Words by Mixdown staff

While the key(board gui)tar doesn't really resemble a guitar besides how it hang across your shoulder, it's an instrument steeped in showmanship and nostalgia while being largely misunderstood as a novelty.

Probably the earliest version of the keytar as it has become known as these days was from Weltmeister, a German company that produced an instrument called the Bassist in 1963, designed to allow bass players to add keyboard lines with a somewhat familiar feel to the added instrument they would use. It wasn’t long after this before anyone and everyone was jumping on the trend, with plenty of compact synthesizers in the 80’s having optional hand grips and strap pins to allow them to be converted into the guitar styled instrument. Korg released the RK-100 and Yamaha brought out the SHS-10, these two proving to be of the more popular units, both gathering cult status and still fetching good money on the second-hand market today. This is especially so when you look for rarer revisions that came in the less common colours. You can often pay premium prices for some of these keytars which are often not much more than museum pieces these days.

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Before the keytar, there was the orphica, designed as a portable piano that resembles a larger version of the keytar, having a few octaves of keys and a uniquely shaped soundboard. The orphica, being invented in Vienna in the late 18th century, was of course entirely acoustic.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the keytar borrows from the more traditional piano accordion, and while the functionality of the acoustic elements are very different, the design, being a mobile, piano-focused instrument, are there for all to see.

The 80s saw the introduction of a few key players in this story, namely Roland, Korg and the PMS Syntar. The 70s had seen Edgar Winter performing with a keyboard strapped around his neck, and while not explicitly a keytar, it moved the keyboard from a horizontal orientation to a held one, and following this, the PMS Syntar was unveiled at the 1979 NAMM Expo in Atlanta.

Edgar Winter Keytar

Another popular name in synthesis is Moog, and they released the Moog Liberation in 1980, famously sported by Devo in Moog ads.

But, about a decade ago, Korg got everyone’s attention with the announcement of the RK-100S, a revised beast that would share plenty of the cool factor of the original, but was a totally new instrument in its own right. The RK-100S was an instant hit, with pop culture junkies, hopeless old romantics and the new wave of kids all wanting a piece of this cool new instrument. Well, that was short-lived as demand far outweighed production capabilities and the Australian market in particular suffered greatly with very few units ever actually making it to our shores. Plenty of us were kept waiting, and wait we did.

With manufacturing issues in the painting process, later releases of the RK-100S were stalled and stalled again. Korg were not keen to continue production until everything was perfect with this keyboard, as was the case with the slow release of both their MS-20MINI and the ARP Odyssey re-issues. There is one thing Korg are always on top of and that is getting their quality in manufacturing and design the way they want it. Early Japanese production runs ensure the device is built to an exacting standard and because of this, later releases of the RK-100S were not seen in Australia until late this year, with certain quantities starting to dribble through. So, almost 40 years after its original releases, Korg made the RK-100S available again. What you get now is a more modern take on a classic design. The look and feel of the old model is still there, but with sharp new lines and smooth edges that take the previously futuristic look and bring it into the present, if that makes any sense at all. Two ribbon controllers have been included for pitch and modulation control, and a vocoder is also on board because Korg seem to be making a habit of that fun tool in the last ten or so years, and why not really. The RK-100S is all about having fun.

What is most notable about the revised model compared to the older one is the fact that is does have its own inbuilt sound model. It is not a MIDI controller, but an analogue modelling synth engine in a very cool casing. With sounds that have a very MS-2000 sort of feel to them, and a whole heap of more modern sounds too, this is undoubtable recognisable as a Korg synthesizer, just in a less recognisable shell to what we have been use to lately. The addition of the favourites button allows you to recall sounds that you love quickly and easily, because after all, this is a performance keyboard. Sure, it might get some use in the studio from time to time, for at the end of the day, the RK-100S wants to be on a stage and demands to be seen.

The Roland Ax-Synth is a market leader, read more about it here.