Ondioline

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The Ondioline was a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented by Georges Jenny, which was a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard from side to side with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever.

One of the much-repeated myths is that the Ondioline was used on Del Shannon's 1961 hit, "Runaway". In fact, the famous solo was recorded on a Musitron, another small electronic keyboard of the Day. However, the Ondioline was used many other recordings, including the soundtracks to "Sparticus", and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."

According to former Ondioline demonstration salesman Jean-Jacques Perrey, less than 700 of the instruments were sold, mostly in Europe, but a handful made it to the States. It is estimated that less that 2 dozen Ondiolines currently exist.

Jean-Jacques Perrey first acquired an Ondioline in the mid-1950s ^[1], and used it on all his older albums from the late 1960's.