Baldwin Electric Combo Harpsichord CW-8-S Solid Body Keyboard Organ 1960s

Late 1960s Baldwin Electric Combo Harpsichord- the same model that was used on famous recordings by the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Jimi Hendrix. These are pretty rare and have a very distinctive look and sound. When I first picked it up, I had my regular piano tuner go over it and get everything in top shape. I used it on a few recordings at the time, but it’s just been sitting in a storage unit for close to ten years at this point, so you’ll have to have it gone over. These were notorious for going out of tune quickly, which is one of the main reasons that I put it in storage in the first place.

I purchased this in the very early 2000s from Moogy Klingman, Todd Rundgren and Utopia’s principle keyboard man throughout the seventies. This was used at the Secret Sound recording studio that they shared together during the early Utopia years. The RMI Electra Piano was featured prominently on the A Wizard, A True Star record, but Todd apparently found its harpsichord sound to be lacking, which lead to the purchase of the Baldwin. Moogy told me that he remembered layering this on tracks such as “Lord Chancellor’s Nightmare Song” and “Sidewalk Cafe” from the Todd album, and also that Todd initially recorded a version of “A Dream Goes on Forever” with this harpsichord on the intro rather than the Clavinet that’s on the final recording. It was also being used on some studio recordings for what would have been the second Utopia album that were shelved when that incarnation of the band started to fracture and the Another Live record was put out instead (tracks like Moogy’s “A Night in New Orleans” and the middle sections of “The Seven Rays”). Around that same time, Todd wound up purchasing a very early RMI Keyboard Computer, which lead to the Baldwin basically being put on the back burner. I don’t know if Todd or Moogy purchased it initially because they basically just kept whatever keyboards and synthesizers that they both owned at the studio, but Moogy told me that Todd left the majority of his stuff behind when he relocated to Upstate NY. When Moogy sold off his share of the studio in the late-70s, he decided to hold on to this.

It’s fairly heavy and cumbersome, so I think that local pickup is the only feasible option for this. If you’re interested but not near NYC, we can possibly try to arrange some kind of shipping but I’m sure that it will be pretty expensive.

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