Is This The World's First Commercially Available Synthesizer? (Hint: It's Not a Moog or Buchla)

Sweet water are holding their much anticipated GearFest this coming weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And if you weren’t already excited about joining 10,000 other musicians to experience workshops, gear demos and giveaways, then this might swing it.

On show at GearFest will be (possibly) the world’s first commercially available hardware synthesizer. No, it’s not a Moog or a Buchla synth… Here’s what Sweetwater tell us about this restored 1941 Hammond NovaChord…

"Here’s a hot tip on an amazing must-see at GearFest here at Sweetwater this weekend: see and hear a beautifully restored 1941 Hammond Novachord — widely considered the precursor to the modern synthesizer. Joseph Fill of Indianapolis spent over 2,000 hours refurbishing this historic vacuum-tube-oscillator keyboard."