Reed organ introduced in the band

At the moment of writing this, The reed organ has found its place in our rehearsal studio, where it will bring songs of Neil young. We recorded two songs with it that are posted on http://www.reverbnation.com/yellowmoonrising.

The next plan is to fix some minor issues regarding keys that get stuck sometimes. I also want to amplify the organ by aid of some electret microphones. This requires some electronic circuitry, but is quite easy to manufacture.

Visit to local reed organ Museum

Very funny. Merely 20 km from my home, there is a decent harmonium museum in an abandoned church.
So I went for a visit, to have a look to similar organs.
I found out there are two sorts of reed organs. basically you have pressure and vacuum organs.
The oldest are of the vacuum type and are often called American organs. Mine is clearly of that type.
The pressure type organs have a totally different character. They're more powerfull
I took some pictures of simiral "American" type organs.

Canadian Vacuum type reed organ

American vacuum type organ manufactured by Estey. Neil Young owns an Estey, being a more luxuary type.

Overview of the "pressure" type side

Vacuum type reed organs

Volume valves and lever installed

Valves put in place. Side panels not glued yet

As the organ is constructed with natural materials, I found it appropriate to use natural tools too ;-) Side panels are drying

 

 

 

 

 

Side panel glued with wood glue. They were screwed which was not as designed originaly. So I omitted the screws

Side panels dryed

Valve lever positioned and checked for good operation

Lever mounted and fixed.

The unit before it could be mounted in the organ

Some guides needed to be fixed first before the unit can slide back into the organ

Update : Treble coupler restored

I had a lot of work restoring the couplers. From dusty, rusty peaces of wood and iron to shiny neat peaces of fine mechanic

Restored treble coupler. Hinge cotton strip replaced. Coupler levers more ore less sanded well. Guides provided with fresh red filt.

Put in place on the organ unit

extractable reeds, yes they are!!!

How naive I have been. An instrument constructed in a genius way, with reeds that were not reachable? I thought it was the case. How wrong I was! Really.
This is such an interesting story. I bought a dust covered instrument for 80 Euro, just because my greatest musical inspiration "Neil Young" uses it in quite some of his songs.
As a guitar player, I didn't have the "keyboard" connection before but I was so fascinated by Neil's passion for this old instrument.

But I'm very interested in history, you know. Things that got lost, since interest has been refocused to technological evolution. I've been into 1900-1945 piston engine aircraft, am a Royal Enfield motorcycle driver and am fond of the English pride about there heritage. Old Warden is one of my favourite places I have visited twice, and want to visit a couple of times more.

Back to the organ.

Let me show the elephant and mouse :

Big Elephant and small Mouse (both ends of the keyboard) extracted with a 5 cent Euro coin

Air valves for reeds restored and installed

The built-up has started. Since I do not dare to break open the wooden construction holding the reeds on the base panel, I'll leave it for what it is. The whole construction is glued together. Reeds are nailed with very small nails on the base panel.

I chose for a technical restoration. This means :

• Wood treatment for long durability. Unprotected wood tends to pick up a lot of dust. Most of the wooden parts have been painted with a rosewood colour varnish.
• Worn felt parts are replced
• Broken steel rods were reproduced
• Hinges were cleaned up
• Old varnish has been waxed

Reeds are visible when air valve is lifted to open position. They can be extracted!!!!

Felt "guides" are replaced. My children go to a Steiner School, where felt is commonly used.

 Hinges cleaned up with copper polish

 Reproduced steel rod. Here my experience in model aviation comes out very handy.

Overview of the "base" unit. Long red felt strips are kept original since they are glued and not worn badly

Overview of the "workshop"

First lever for opening the air valves cleaned up and installed

Dismantling

The "core" of the organ removed. Actually it is an independent "unit". Those days modular systems already existed. Note the damage on the cabinet. Plan is to replace the back of the cabinet completely with a new plywood.

It is clear that the organ has been overhauled once with "modern" materials. The white strips are plastic tape. Normally leather was used to seal airflow containers.

 The "unit" seperated from the cabinet. The actual "break-down" can start. Brrr, hope everything will fit again together, after every part has been cleaned up and/or repaired.
The best way to know how to re-assemble is to take pictures, pictures, pictures. Glad these days they are instantly available and are darn cheap.

 Side View Treble Side. The levers are connected to the stop knobs above the keyboard and actuate different valves or couplers (Bass and Treble)

 Side View Bass Side

 Front View. Mention the lever at the right side. It is basically actuated by the right leg and open two big valves for volume increase. One at the front side, one at the back side.

A reed organ is a very human instrument. You have to do everything yourself

• Producing the air flow
• Playing the keys
• Using the stops during play
• using your legs to open valves

 The actual "valves" of the organ. They are hold in place by springs.

 The levers are removed here. Carefully named by their stop knob. Names are

• Bass Coupler
• Diapason
• Principal
• The broken one (I HAVE to find out what the name might have been)
• Dulcet
• Dox Celeste
• Melodia
• Treble Coupler

The broken one is connected to a kind of "hamond" style rotator which gets air from the "basement by opening a valve.

 The "control unit"

 The bare keyboard. At the back the hamond style Unit

 All keys removed, The heart of the organ start to show up

 All the keys piled up

 Key frame removed

 Couplers for bass and treble removed. They can use a major overhaul. Every lever is corroded quite badly. Felt "bearings" are worn out and need to be replaced (the red stuff)

 The organ push rods. They open the valves on the very bottom of the organ unit when a key is pressed. These are the push rods that are not part of the couplers. They are different in shape

 The push rod guide

 The bass coupler push rods. They are also actuated by the bass coupler unit. One is broken, but can be re-manufactured easily. Felt is worn here too.

 Treble coupler push rods. They're all intact, although one if them is mysteriously black. Felt has to be replaced.

 The pile of coupler push rods

 The actuators for reed valves. When opened the volume is increased

 Close-up if actuator

 This needs a small explanation. The fact that the core of the organ is glued, might indicate it was a cheaper model. I would guess a more expensive organ might be unmountable to the bone. So I was not able to reach the reeds themselves. They are nailed doen to the base plate, while the wooden construction on top of it is glued indeed. This is clearly visible at the bottom side, when the valves are removed. So we decided to keep it like it is. With a vacuum cleaner I removed as much dust as possible

 Another view on sucking out the dust

 A mysterious number "20" was found back on the base plate of the organ.

 Since all varnish is probably very old, it is quite dull. So I used the car polish I use for my Royal Enfield Motorcyle to give it a new shine

All the valves removed.
Actually these are the actual valves making the sound possible.
The reeds produce the sound. But the valves allow the air to reach the reeds. The base plate is screwed against the base of the bellows in the cabinet. The seal avoids air escaping.
The whole chamber as seen above is under vacuum. All valves are closed when there is no key hit.
When a key is hit, the push rod is pushed down, opening the valve, allowing air flowing from the atmosphere via the reed element into the bellows, causing the sound. It's not clear to me yet, on how the bass dispason works though. When activated, a supplement of lower octaves are added on top of the bass notes.

The valves themselves are built up with natural materials, being wood, felt and presumably deer leather. As clearly visible, they are polluted by soot dust. The outmost 3 right valves were cleaned with a brush. They have an imprint due to the long lasting pressure. Question here is. Do they need to be overhauled, or can we keep them as is?

Here I need some experts in organ restoration to provide a correct assesment. In the motorcycle world, they discourage to replace valve seats if this is not necessary, since the valves adapted themselves into the seats. Don't know if this is valid for organ valves though.