Yamaha’s first organ was the D-1 home organ introduced in 1959. It began development of a line of organs for the home, stage performance and portables that carries on to this day. The portable compact organs from Yamaha began with the A series in around 1965. These shared the Electone name with their home organ siblings, but they don’t seem to have been pushed as a product for professionals or outside of Japan.

The YC series followed the A series in 1969 with the launch of the YC-10. With the YC-10, Yamaha decided to take the compact organ seriously and built a line of durable, flexible musical instrument that would ultimately find their way into the hearts and hands of professional musicians across the world. Let’s explore each model chronologically and in depth.