From the pages of various musician’ mags of the late 70s: The Collected Works of the PAiA Electronics marketing department. PAiA is, and has been for decades, the standard-bearer for good-quality kits for musical instruments and musical accessories. I am not aware of any other company that spanned the original DIY electronics era with the modern ‘circuit bending/group DIY ing/ craft-boutique-audio etc’ eras. They are still very much alive+ kicking and I’m glad for it. When I was in school I built a PAiA theremax theremin – it cost $175 complete at the time and went together with no issues in 6 hours – i used it on a ton of recordings, both as an audio source and as a dual-control-voltage generator for dramatic filter-frequency cut off in live performances (this was the Electroclash era, after all). Anyway. The other weekend a fellow was selling a decent-looking but untested PAiA 4700 modular synthesizer system from the mid 1970s. He was asking $800, seemed ready to take $500, and eventually got his $500 on eBay from an eager Swede via eBay. Let’s take a look back on what else this venerable company was offering in that era…
The PAiA Drum Percussion Synthesizer circa 1979 – seems to be like an 808 minus the sequencer
The PAiA GNOME micro-synth c. 1981
The PAiA programmable drum set c. 1979
The PAiA Proteus Synthesizer circa 1981
If you ever come across old used PAiA gear: remember: most were user-built, and usually by people with little or no experience in electronics assembly. So caveat emptor.
7 replies on “PAiA : Synth DIY circa late 70’s”
I built a couple of PAIA kits, but they weren’t terribly well designed. There was the Pygmy amp, their version of the Pignose: the Pignose was better in every way.
The most impressive electronic kit for music was the German WERSI organ, but they were expensive and not well suited to rock and roll. Heath sold the Schober organ, but never in a combo version, and the sound wasn’t rock oriented either, but they were decent electronically.
Kit organs were quite common and a half dozen companies made them: they would contract out the woodwork, buy Pratt Read AGO keyboards that were better than many prestiege brands (and REAL organ keys, not piano keys like Hammond carpet oilers!) and copy each others’ circuits with tweaks to dodge patents. Most used their own amps the offered in kit form and that tends to be the part that survives. Most were copies of Dynaco, or transformer manual designs and many had excellent transformers.
Kinsman was a common brand and their amps even looked just like a Dyna except they were painted rather than chromed.
Definitely, positively not a kit….Allen Organ used an amp of their own design that is every bit the equal of a Marantz 2 or 5 or several other prestiege stereo amps for stereo service. They were mounted in the Allen version of a Leslie that has a washing machine motor, jackshafts like a 1920s lathe, and three cone speakers that work great in little guitar amps. Churches often throw these out and they go to the dump, sadly.
The AO tube amps were excellent and the solid state replacements they used later were also surprisingly good. Several other companies like Maas-Rowe and that other bell/carillion/etc outfit used OEM McIntosh amps, but Allen Organ located in Macungie, PA (about two hours from Binghamton) never did.
It is often possible to get these amps for free when a church throws out the cabs.
I have one of the Theremax kits I built a loooong time ago and I still use it quite a bit. I made a custom box for it, but used the faceplate and antennas from PAIA. Sounds great, looks great. Always a big hit with drunken friends too, just let ’em loose on that thing. haha. I wouldn’t mind building a few more of their kits.
I have a Paia drum synth 5700. I want to sell it. Some of the pots are dirty and it needs the screws on face plates replaced-but it works. I looked on ebay a number of times-nary a one. Can any one give me an idea of just a fair price, I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
Hi Norman, I would you want to sell your Paia drum synth 5700? Do you have all 4 modules?
I have a PAiA 2700/4700 modular that started as a ready-built system that I found in a Norman/OK pawnshop, in 1982. Since then, I have added additional modules I built, and 2 friends built. I LOVE this system! It works well with the Korg SQ1 sequencers.