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Messages - Lucien Nunes

#1
Thanks for the update and it's good to hear that you are getting some use out of it. The Lancaster organ came up in conversation with Hugh Banton about a year ago and we wondered what was going on. We were both puzzled that no-one had been in touch with him for help and advice in restoring it.

What has become of the original electronics? As with a pipe organ, the tone generators are the heart and soul of an electronic, so the organ you are playing is arguably a brand new (and much better) organ re-using the console, while the Lancaster Priory organ is wherever the original electronics are.
#2
To celebrate the 80th birthday of the largest original Compton in the land, we invite you to our Open Day event featuring:

* Special interactive demonstration with mobile camera in the chambers and an organist at the console; showing on-screen, describing and demonstrating the organ's 50 ranks and many features.
* Insights and demonstrations of Compton's ingenious original technologies including the Melotone, luminous stops and the remarkable electrical combination data memory.
* Short open-console sessions for players to try out the beast for themselves.
* Performance by Richard Hills - a master of this uniquely versatile civic-hall instrument.

There should be plenty of Compton Boffins on hand to answer any questions you've ever had about the man and his instruments.

At the 02 Southamption Guildhall, West Marlands Road, Southampton SO14 7LP. 2pm 1/10/17
Tickets £12 / £10 concs. from the box office: 023 8063 2601
or at https://academymusicgroup.com/o2guildhallsouthampton/events/1014825/compton-organ-open-day-featuring-richard-hills-tickets
Refreshments will be available during the interval

Look forward to seeing you at the SGH

Lucien

#3
Hi Ruth
Sorry I have been so snowed under with work for months that it has been impossible to keep up with everything. I will PM you in case you still have them.
Thanks
Lucien
#4
Thank you for offering these, I've only just seen your post so I'm not sure if you still have them. If so, I would be interested as we already have a Wurli 4100, Hohner 33 and some of the Grundig TK range, and a Philicorda is on the shopping list. I will gladly pay for the postage if you would PM me details.
Thanks
Lucien
#5
Thanks David, I'm working abroad at the moment but will be back in a few weeks and will drop you a line to arrange coming over to see it. In the meantime I'm intrigued about the technology inside; in his talk PV describes it as mainly valve whereas you referred to it having transistors and ICs. Did he perhaps record that while it was in an earlier stage of development, later to replace the valve guts with solid-state? I imagine it to have been a perennial work-in-progress as many home-builds are, serving the dual role of musical instrument and test-bed for each new development.



#6
Not yet Barrie; it has been out of use for some years and needs general maintenance. So far I have repaired the motor and amplifier, next to do are some relay faults where damaged contacts are causing ciphers etc. Hearing it will not be quite as revealing as it might have been, because when Compton overhauled it in 1965 they replaced the 1951 generators with a later design. To hear it exactly as it would have sounded at its inauguration, the console would need to be coupled up to the FTH generators, which Richard and I look forward to doing in the future. To avoid drifting this thread too much, I'll put a quick history of it up separately.

The ultimate idea of Electrokinetica is for it to become a permanent, publicly visitable exhibition operated by a trust. At the moment it is a private collection but there are a few of us behind it of varying ages, so if any one of us expires there are others to continue. Organs are a featured technology here because a) they are substantial examples of diverse electronic technologies that can be seen and heard as living demonstrations, b) I like them and I pay the rent! Visitors are very welcome by arrangement but we are a work in progress and you have to take us as you find us. Organs are split between four sites at the moment (home, workshop, future museum building and dead store). Last year we set out an 'organ showroom' with 12 instruments, but this month it is barricaded by some power station switchgear awaiting a work party to move it into its proper position. We'll only have room in the museum space to display part of the organ collection at once but the remainder will hopefully be accessible for study / maintenance without too much effort.
#7
David are you saying you are trying to find a home for this? It might fit in well here at Electrokinetica. Tony mentions the need of an electronic organ museum - we're not exclusively an organ collection although it's one of the specialist areas that Dave Cope and I have built up over the last few years, now standing at 31 models (plus some variants) from 1947 to 1977. 18 of these comprise the Compton Electrone collection, assembled with the invaluable assistance of Robert Cook, including the 1951 3m Rowton Castle sister instrument to the FTH and RFH Electrones, a 3m 'Draper model' (horseshoe console theatre style) and the unique CL72, along with all their popular models. Amongst the other makes are electrostatics by Dereux and Parie, a 3m Burge valve divider, the old favourite theatre-style Wurli 4520 transistor divider and perhaps the most spectacular, the valve individual-oscillator Miller Classic IV with 348 valve oscillators in a cabinet the size of a phone kiosk. All are commercial products unlike Percy's organ, but that compares very favourably to the best of them. Do you think it would  be in good company?

Having mentioned the Miller, I should add that its rescue was spurred on by a totally audacious project to make it work and present it at a rather prestigious event just five days later. Ridiculous, but inspiring and totally worth the extreme effort expended. It still needs a 'deep' restoration but it plays pretty well. If you enjoy nail-biting dramas where 'the show must go on' in spite of drifting capacitors, open-circuit anode coils and mysterious hums, grab a coffee and have a read of my writeup here on the vintage radio forum: http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=121108
I promise it will keep you on the edge of your seat towards the end.
#8
Yes I think you're right, I'm in London UK, but thanks anyway. I have had a number of contacts from people in the US with suitable models, I will hold out a while longer but it is beginning to dawn on me that I might have to import one eventually. A nice 4800 perhaps?
Lucien
#9
Electronic Organs / Re: Compton "Cantata" organ
September 29, 2012, 08:58:16 PM
Perhaps there's some swaparound potential! I mentioned to Mike that I would be interested in conserving the Electrone, but I do trek about the country in vans lugging organs (and other, larger pieces of vintage technology) here and there so if you're not in a tearing hurry I could possibly bring something suitable for your purpose in your direction. OTOH there are so many 1970s and 1980s electric organs up for sale at the moment that one can often bypass the transport issue by waiting a few weeks until an instrument appears in the locality.

Compton actually made two models just as you describe, with single manual and auto bass intended for non-organ-experienced pianists. The first was model 354, which had in addition a 'Melodic diapason' that accentuated top notes. This was superseded by the Sonatina, that had a single splittable manual with separate stops for the treble end. The 354 is so rare that I have never seen one except in the catalogue, although you might chance upon a Sonatina as I have. I cannot honestly recommend it though, it is just a bit too basic!

Lucien
#10
Electronic Organs / Re: Compton "Cantata" organ
September 29, 2012, 12:57:09 PM
One of the interesting things about the late 2-manual Electrones is that all the classical models that sold well were technically similar. They were all based on the 7-octave additive synthesis generator and voicing system, keyed directly in most cases or via relays in the case of the 363. Taking the model 357 as the archetype, what you have is a number of minor variations on a theme, as regards stoplist, console dimensions, speaker layout etc. From a cynical viewpoint one might say that these models were the only ones that offered value for money to the average buyer, once the solid-state revolution began to leave the electrostatic technology behind.

The Cantata is a good example. It seems to have taken over from the model CH/2 as a half-way-house between the traditional deep-console format of the 357 and the short-compass home models. The CH/2 used a condensed pedalboard to minimise the console dimensions and incorporated speakers making it self-contained. The 357 was of much larger and sturdier build, with a 32-key RCO pedalboard and external speakers only. The Cantata has a 30-key radiating and concave pedalboard necessitating a console midway between the two, however it offers internal speakers making it self-contained for domestic use and small room settings. A socket was provided for connecting external speakers such as a Rotofon, hinting that Compton foresaw its use in churches too. Conceptually it is to the 357 as the Hammond A100 is to the B3.

Unfortunately like all of Compton's work in the late 1960s, it was derivative from their earlier success and out of step with the state of the art. Retrospectively we might see merit in Compton's dogged adherence to earlier principles of longevity and tradition but that was not the way to sell small electric organs in 1970. Hence it is one of the less well-known models making yours worthy of conservation as it appears to be in good condition.

Lucien


#11
Electronic Organs / Re: Compton "Cantata" organ
September 26, 2012, 12:19:49 PM
Hi Mike
That looks interesting, it seems to be a very late example. I will write more later but in the meantime have you seen my Electrone pages at http://www.electrokinetica.org/d8/1/index.php ? If not, click your way along the tabs and sub-headings for an approximate chronological tour of the post-war models.
Lucien
#12
Robert's search for Electrones on behalf of us electrostatic fiends reminds me that there is another type of electrostatic organ that needs to be found and added to our museum collection by way of comparison and contrast. That is the Wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ, successor to the Everett Orgatron, either of which I would be interested to acquire, working or not.

Models of interest are as follows:

Original Everett Orgatron eg. models 600 & 700
Wurlitzer keyed-reed models 20, 21, 25, 30, 31, 45, 46, 50
Free-running reed spinet models 44, 4410, 4420, 4430, 4460, 4462
Free-running reed console models 4600, 4601, 4602, 4800

This is the last of the main technologies of the era that we don't yet have represented, so if you know of one of these looking for a home you could fill in one of the blanks.
Thanks
#13
Electronic Organs / Re: 5m Compton
August 12, 2012, 06:34:23 PM
Once redundant, the RFH job was promptly dismantled reportedly at the instigation of Compton himself as he was dissatisfied with its performance. Its nearest relatives that were probably technically similar (although I am unsure whether the generators were actually the same) were the Electrones at Rowton Castle Shrewsbury and the Manchester Free Trade Hall. The fate of Rowton Castle I have been unable to trace. This leaves us only the FTH, which sadly suffered exactly the same fate as the 5m in the original post. It survived complete (although heavily modified) until a few years ago, having been extensively overhauled and tweaked in the 1970s by Whitfield Lewis, its first private owner. A more recent owner attempted to sell it complete but finding no takers, repurposed the console for a digital and passed the generators over to an enthusiast.

The current owner of the generators is committed to returning them to a playable configuration. It is his ultimate aim to make a replica console, at the moment the cabinet is wired up to another Electrone console whilst he works on the major overhaul again required. Once complete, it will probably be the closest approach to the sound of the RFH Electrone that we will ever hear. What FTH shares with the 5m is the use of a dual generator system; in most other respects it is different, so we must consider these two orphaned generator cabinets the sole surviving representatives of their particular generator designs.

Lucien
#14
Electronic Organs / Re: Compton CL72 - what was it?
August 12, 2012, 06:07:38 PM
True enough, however what is significant about the CL72 is that in over 30 years of making electric organs, Compton had never yet produced anything with drawbars. They knew it was possible and Wally Fair had at Acton a self-contained remote voicing control box with what amounts to 21-step drawbars used for testing and voicing new stops. Yet in their advertising they went to some pains to point out the advantages, to an organist, of sticking with the tried and tested method of registration using ordinary recognisable stops. Whether this was due to Hammond's patents on the drawbar system, a way of distinguishing the Electrone from the 'imported' competition, or simply inertia (an attribute that seems to have held back the Electrone despite JHC's typically forward-looking approach) I don't know.

Compton did not make great inroads into the low-cost home organ market. Their production methods and underlying design were more suited to making church organs such as the successful 357, 363, CH/2 models. Their main contenders against the solid-state electronics in the late 1960s were the models HE/ 1, 2 & 3 all of which share the standard stop tab voicing system, with more or less additional gimmicks. The CL72 appears to break the mould, even the model number does not sound like a Compton number. I have not seen one nor do I know of any survivors, hence my question - does anybody know what was inside it?

Lucien
#15
Electronic Organs / Re: 5m Compton
August 06, 2012, 01:19:37 AM
That would probably be the Electrone built c. 1960 for Tony Lucas, originally as a 4m. From memory, it was later modified and a new console built at the suggestion of Arthur Lord, with 5 manuals of which the 5th was coupler only as there was no 5th manual relay in the generator cabinet. It changed hands and survived complete until around a decade ago, when the console (in poor condition) changed hands again and was modified almost beyond recognition into an extensive VTPO. The redundant dual-generator cabinet was given to someone else and is currently operating on one generator only as a substitute for a Melotone.

I think it is a great shame that this unusual instrument was broken up, I would gladly have had a new 5-manual console built for its previous owner in exchange for it, to allow it to live on as a record of one of the high points in the Electrone's history, but for the fact that I had not then begun to collect the history of the Electrone and knew nothing of its impending fate. The current owner of the generators has kindly offered me access to them so that I can reverse-engineer the instrument and its specification for reference purposes. There is of course then the possibility (very remote, I must add) of constructing a complete replica.

In the meantime I'd be very grateful for a scan of the advert, if possible...

Lucien
#16
Compton Electrones / Re: Compton Electrones
May 20, 2012, 04:25:25 PM
I will begin by saying that I don't have a clue about trains, stationary steam being much more my cup of tea. Returning to the topic of finding Electrones...

Quotethey were wondrous things of their time and opportunities should be taken to preserve examples

I agree, the Compton Electrone is a museum-piece nowadays; some would argue that they were museum-pieces back in the 1960s when solid-state tone generation was becoming a practical reality. It will be the end of an era when the last one in a church is finally decommissioned but that time will surely come. The Electrone story will not quite end there, because at Electrokinetica we are conserving a selection, and there are a few others doing likewise. See http://www.electrokinetica.org/d8/1/index.php for a tour!

In this connection it is fair to say that Robert Cook of Compton Organ Specialists has been very helpful and supportive of the project. Although many of the Electrones he encounters are only fit to be stripped down for parts, he singles out the best examples for enthusiasts and collectors such as ourselves to be kept complete and will go to some lengths to prevent these being broken up. Indeed only last week I got a call from Robert with the enthusiastic message that he had obtained an instrument with an unusual type of action that we had been looking for, which I now need to pick up. He has also kindly sent us all sorts of information, brochures, pictures, spares etc. Any reluctance on his part to provide information regarding Electrones is, I am sure, down to the customer-specific nature of the information requested. Clearly Electrones are just a sideline for Robert now that they are thin on the ground, however I know nothing of his main business selling digital organs as I have never been in the market for one.

We are also indebted to David Fetterman of Makin Organs for technical information etc. His wilingness to answer my many questions reflects well on the company's support policy and I suspect that it was again just the particular details being asked for that they would not give out.

To conclude, I would say that most of the large instruments are now gone, many broken up relatively recently. Please help us find and document for posterity any sleepers that you know of - I'm thinking of 3-4 manual jobs or ones with drawstops or external generator cabinets. In the meantime if you visit the Electrone Pages at Electrokinetica I hope you enjoy seeing what we have done so far to conserve the marque.

Lucien
#17
If for any reason you get stuck without a solution, give me a shout. The timing is very bad and I might be abroad during the move week, however it would be sad to see this destroyed for want of a bit of input. I am happy to give it a home, although this should be a last resort because my interest would be to conserve it as a working museum piece, rather than use it for concerts or services.

I have quite a bit of experience moving large old electronic kit and making it work again afterwards, so might be able to offer a bit of moral and technical support to whoever gets lumbered with the actual move, however I don't know the analogue Makin circuitry specifically. I hope it turns out to be possible to enlist the help of David Fetterman as he will work wonders on it I am sure.

Lucien
#18
I hope you like the CD -  its sales will contribute towards keeping the organ playable. At the moment the organ has to pay its own way for maintenance, however this is a considerable advance on the situation a few years ago when it wasn't really usable.  A full rebuild was out of the question and will probably remain so for the time being, however the council did not turn their back on it and let it simply fall silent, choosing instead to work closely with HWS to see what could be done with the available resources. All has worked out well because it is being played and heard, on a budget of which their stakeholders would approve, without deviating from the conservation approach that it deserves due to its originality.

Credit for overhauling the Southampton Melo actually goes to John Leeming who did the obligatory hours of poring over the tracks with a magnifier. It's still a work in progress, we want to have another go at the disks fairly soon to iron out some crackles but when it comes to switching it on and playing it, the Melo is actually pretty reliable.

Lucien
#19
The Southampton Guildhall Compton has not been recorded for a long time. Now, to mark its 75th anniversary, we're proud to bring you 'Grand Variety' with Richard Hills at the (two) consoles of Compton's magnum opus - playing classics, show tunes, novelties and more. The Guildhall organ is a comprehensive 50 rank + Melotone instrument with two entirely different 4-manual consoles, one designed for performing classics (the Grand console) and one for light music (the Variety console). Richard has masterful control of this beast whichever console he is seated at, but I need not eulogise any further as a review has just come in from Carlo Curley...

Review of Grand Variety by Carlo Curley: http://www.ssfweb.co.uk/silverst/html/carlo_curley_review.html
Hear samples and buy the CD online: http://www.ssfweb.co.uk/silverst/html/grand_variety.html
Guildhall organ's own website: http://www.guildhall-compton.org.uk/
See us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/211948242234668/

Enjoy the music!

Lucien
#20
Quoteenthusiasts of these instruments
Um, is that me by any chance?
Thanks for the tip Tony. It's one of the very late 363s as it has the (nasty) 40+40W transistor amp. I have half an eye on it as I must have one Electrone in the collection with this amplifier to prove that Compton just about made it into the transistor age before folding. At the moment that role is played by a very scrapppy 357 that I would like to get rid of, hence the interest in this one. The things we do in the name of conservation...

Lucien