the PEOPLE behind the Stylophone . . . .
Brian Jarvis
Burt Coleman
Ted Coleman
Burt Coleman (managing director), along with Brian Jarvis and Bert's brother Ted Coleman (artwork and finances); formed a company to take the project of the new 'Pocket Electronic Organ' on its journey. As the new company was built from their existing company at Moviecol; with their particular expertise being in the field of DUBing and RECording; the name D Ü BREQ was created. (The umlaut and Q in the name was added to make the logo more interesting).
electronics wizard
the marketing genius
The 'Stylophone' is born!
Design & Improvement
From its' initial design, improvements and alterations to the pocket Stylophone's 'insides' would be necessary for greater production...
In the early days, it became obvious the Stylophone was destined to be become a great seller, and this in itself brought about problems. The components used on the board contained relatively expensive transistors, which had to specially selected for the job. Also, each resistor used to control the tone of every key used non-standard values, again making the board more expensive to build. With the high number of components used, it was very easy to mix them up - especially the note resistors - which could lead to very odd sounds, and an instrument totally out of scale!.
David Muir was head of science at Midhurst Grammar Shool when he was recruited in 1967.
David's hobby at this time was electronics, and he was already designing audio equipment, such as radios and amplifiers. His knowledge and expertise would be a valuable asset to the Dubreq team.
David would go on to design the 350S, and the PianoMate.
The re-design of the circuit was in the hands of David Muir, who would not only greatly reduce the number of components that were required in the early Stylos, but also introduce a major move forward in circuit board design and assembly.... the keyboard resistor block.
This would cut down assembly time and testing significantly.
A very interesting point to note is that boards and components were sent out to 'home-workers', who would assemble the components to the board as 'piece-work', and then send them back to the factory to be flow-soldered and tested. David Muir's son Simon remembers carrying out some of this piece-work as a youngster... around 100 boards assembled at home for the grand sum of £7.00 !
the keyboard resistors used on early models, which had to be a precise value, and placed in the correct order!
2 versions of the keyboard RESISTOR BLOCKS used on the re-designed boards, containing the exact values required for correct keyboard operation
unmistakable artwork
It's very interesting to note however, that this name was not in fact new.
You could have walked into a store 100 years ago, and bought a Stylophone!....
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