Useful looking electronic instruments for sale

[organforumadmin]

Hi!


A friend asked me to keep my eyes peeled for an instrument on which to practice at home and there are some useful instruments appearing -


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290416065911
This is, or is similar to, one that was for sale on ebay a few months ago. It's based on the Content 220 Midi expander, a useful an competant device which features facilities to change into at least half a dozen temperaments - Equal, Pythagorean, Meantone, Werckmeister, Kellner and from memory I think Vallotti. How and how well this has been incorporated into the console will need examining, but it could be interesting. Good features - the pedal Bourdon and Bombarde, the Swell Voix Celeste which is excellent, the Swell Sesquialtra and Vox Humana / Krumhorn. Perhaps the Great Principal is not as full as some people would want a Great Diapason to be and, throughout the instrument, the chiff is of a semitone variety, of which I tire. Whilst some real pipes chiff with a semitone, others chiff with a quint and a puff of air and it's that variety that makes a pipe instrument more interesting than an electronic. Nevertheless, a servicable home instrument which, with a midi output one could drive Hauptwerk or other midi expander boxes to good effect.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280482145967
I know nothing about this one, but at least it looks like a cheap console to convert to Hauptwerk if the electronics aren't outstanding.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280483070689 A Viscount Vivace . . . and the price indicates that it must be thought of as being good . . .


Finally if you're looking for a Pedal board to midify for Hauptwerk or to upgrade a standard instrument http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170461450967 looks good.


Best wishes


Forum Admin

[organforumadmin]

Hi!

An analogue Johannus
ebay item
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260577317358

"Some stops unreliable" - this is probably on account of oxidisation of contact wires on the switches - a bit of sandpaper will do the trick, and I have used plating solution on a bank of such switches I got from a scrap instrument.

Ideal keyboards and pedal board for Hauptwerkification - and if anyone buys it, i'd be interested in the power supply with the wires still connected (not random cut) to the main circuit boards as if it's got a reverb board, it will be a bucket brigade type on which I'd be interested to experiment with artificial room reverb!

Best wishes

Forum Admin

[dragonser]

Hi,
I just saw the following instrument on ebay.
290443037076
Viscount Empire electronic theatre organ
no picture, but the start bid is 99p !   and if it was new in 1997 it probably does have midi ...

regards Peter B

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290446790700 looks a competant 3 manual . . .

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

And if you are too cheap to actually buy a toaster, one can dig around on Craigslist and find free ones :o ;D  ;)

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/zip/2096936910.html

orhttp://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/zip/2084297555.html

Eric
KB7DQH

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Or, even better, you can save the electricity money and not have a toaster at all  ;D

(Pace David, whose toaster is quite extraordinary, albeit still not quite as satisfying to hear as a good pipe organ)

[KB7DQH]

Or, even better, you can save the electricity money and not have a toaster at all  ;D

In my case with enough pipework to build the real deal I suppose I could run the bellows with a water wheel ;D http://www.organmatters.co.uk/index.php?topic=264.0

The "family toaster" was of "valve" technology-- and that thing could literally heat the room it was in when it was running, when it ran.......... Four valves with dual-filaments per note, (48)  another dozen or so scattered about the "stop generator" and the audio PA/rectifier had another dozen :o

Fast-forward a half-century and the electric bill isn't that severe.  Elsewhere on this forum an electronic  instrument paid a visit to "Burning Man".  Literally 40000 people camped in the middle of a dry lake bed, the nearest mains power 20 miles away--  ran on deep-cycle car batteries for a week of two-hour nightly concerts...  using essentially the same technology as parts of David's roaster, and a surplus console not unlike what some people no longer have use for, and are giving  away :o  http://www.bobrichardson.com/desert_organ_1.html
http://www.organmatters.co.uk/index.php?topic=133.0

I still think it would be really fun albeit a logistical nightmare of biblical proportions to set up a real pipe instrument there, winding with human power if necessary...  The Northern-Nevada high-desert
being a rather unforgiving environment in late summer.

Granted, most home "toaster" organs suffer with "staggered" manuals and a single-octave straight
pedalboard... hardly an acceptable configuration for "serious" home practice :(  but one of the freebies  listed actually has a 32 note AGO concave-radiating pedalboard ;D :o and a standard 2-manual configuration.  I didn't count but looked like 62 note at first glance.  The Conn I linked to is
a "church" instrument... and no picture in the "free stuff" ad, so I am guessing at this point.

The purpose of bringing these to the attention of the viewers of this forum is to demonstrate that the need for $$$ (and time)  to construct a suitable home-practice instrument regardless of the technology used to produce the tone can be significantly reduced by "policing up" someone else's "white elephants" 8) 8) ;)

Granted, as the purposes of this forum are met, this may become increasingly difficult ??? ;) :) ;D 8)
That "invisible hand" :-X

Eric
KB7DQH

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Yeah, but will a toaster that someone is prepared to give away for free actually not sound like total crap?

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Why should it!  There's very little market for any sort of electronic organ more than a few years old these days (with a few exceptions), and many people would rather give an instrument away than take it to the tip!

Agreed, the sounds of early digitals and some analogue organs aren't as realistic as some modern digitals - but they have their own charm, and are often adequate for practice, if nothing else.  More recent versions with MIDI can be used directly to control Hauptwerk or similar, and MIDI retro-fits to pre-MIDI instruments aren't that difficult - although personally, unless the generaotrs, etc are totally shot, I'd prefer to retain them and add MIDI rather than rebuilding completely.

Every Blessing

Tony

[KB7DQH]

Not far from me, an Allen TC3, with speakers included in the bargain...

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/msg/2184354600.html

and a FREE Yamaha...http://www.2good2toss.com/kitsap/?site_id=17;content=ad.view.category;listing_id=328343

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"  ;)

Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

The Allen TC3 has been relisted... Ad actually has pictures, the price has dropped $50.00 ;D

Good but small photograph looking into the back of the "gyrophonic" speaker cabinet... What some folks will do to get around patents :o ;D

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/msg/2217896462.html

If you are "local" to Puget Sound and are interested but don't have truck and trailer, let me know...

Eric
KB7DQH

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Eric

There comes a time when electronics that we cursorarily dismiss in purism snobbery (often with some justification however - it's a matter of horses for courses) become museum pieces to be cherished in their own right. . . . 

Bearing in mind the excellence of that huge beast that was only just being made redundant from the 1960s, the one that had the whole room full of electronics, perhaps this one in its small way might bear some similarities and be worthy of not being sneezed at, particularly for a home practice instrument.

There are two distinct philosophies to home instruments - one which concentrates on the small, use of the musicality of whatever small resources are available in the most musical way, and the other which is a simulation of something much larger, often impossibly so, perhaps for playing in the real place on the real instrument one day.

Bearing in mind that this Allen is based on three sets of oscillators, perhaps it comes within that first category rather than the second . . . and may well be worthwhile musically on that basis. Certainly a good $450 worth . . .

Incidentally, for those wanting a simulation organ such as that which Hauptwerk can provide, the other day I heard some Ruark Crusader speakers in a small room that really shook the whole room on low organ notes. One would only need a pair for a home Hauptwerk installation.

Best wishes

David P

[KB7DQH]

Judging by the "size" of the speakers supplied, and if one includes the "gyrophonic" device...
The electronics in the console could be absolute rubbish and the whole of the package for someone wishing to construct a suitable "Hauptwerk workstation" would be "cheap at twice the price" :o ;D

And with the stop controls and combination system still functional this console could very well be used to control a three rank "unified and extended" real-pipe instrument! 

Someone looking to bring back to life a "TP" (Tubular-pneumatic) (or if you prefer, "Terribly Problematic"
action instrument this may aid greatly in its "electrification" at very little cost.

Some ideas...

Eric
KB7DQH

[dragonser]

Hi,
I think I have only heard the Allen cabinets live once, back in the early 1990's but I did think that they sounded better than a Leslie speaker for trying to simulate a couple of effects you get with the many ranks of pipes on a Pipe organ.
that isn't to say that I don't like the sound of a Leslie cabinet but I felt the Allen Gyrophonic cabinet does have a nice character of its own.
of course being in a large room can help with both the sound of a Pipe Organ and Electronic Organ.
I think that Compton also did something similar with a speaker called I think the rotophon ?
but I've never heard one live.

regards Peter B

Good but small photograph looking into the back of the "gyrophonic" speaker cabinet... What some folks will do to get around patents :o ;D



Eric
KB7DQH

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

Yes, Compton did have a rotating speaker unit - the Rotophon.  Same principles as the Allen (and Leslie) units - IIRC, Allen speakers rotate in the plane of the front baffle, Compton ones at right angles to it (presumably to circumvent patents - and it also gives a more prominent effect, and allows the unit to produce vibrato when run faster.  Both are subtler than the Leslie.

Every Blessing

Tony