I'm a Hammond B3 player and these organs are a dying art form. My Hammond has a very special history as it was previously owned by the late Jazz Organist Jimmy Smith. I'm the 2nd owner on it. The organ is a 1963. Jimmy was one of my mentors back in the early 90s.
I stumbled across a large organ collection in Illinois years ago. It was a big farmhouse with all three floors filled with organs. Many Baldwin, Wurlitzer, Yamaha, and other brands. The guy was an excentric, and his health failed, leaving family members to sell the organs on Craigslist. Most of the Hammonds were sold already, and someone gutted several leslie speakers for the parts, probably because they were too heavy to move. I also remember seeing some very strange organs, probably 70's with white fiberglass looking cabinets, sifi futuristic in design. I did save a small Technics because it's the only one I could move myself as I didn't have any help.
I restored a Rodgers 22D and built 3 pipe organs as a hobbyist. I can relate to this guy. Nice to know that there is somebody out there that likes this stuff.
My first organ was a Thomas. Then I had a Lowery genie, then a Lowery theater organ. They were great. Now I have a 1963 Hammond A100 with a Leslie 251 which I have completely restored over the years. They are like new and are awesome.
“Take me to church!!” Love these gems. This is a valuable video. Great to see a showcase of some of the features, all in one place. The multi button percussion thing is amazing and I’ve seen people add that feature to Casio/Yamaha keyboards. Imagine if these had multiple effect send and returns. Have a paddleboard up top, with external switches and expression pedals at the feet. Running effects through the percussion and through the separate key beds:) You could ride that puppy like a locomotive! A funkd up Cosmic Cowboy in a steam powered sled of Synthrimony. Thanks for sharing this creative cats sanctuary
For me, the Hammond and the Conn organs had the best theater organ sound. Rogers had the best pipe organ sound (up until Allen finally caught up and started making fantastic sounding instruments). Hammond B3, Hammond CV, Hammond RT and Hammond T-500 series are my favs. In terms of Conn, its the Artist series that was my fav.
I know this video is a year old. It is the second of yours that I have seen (first was Northlandz). My grandmother took me to church every Sunday when I was a child. There I developed my love of the organ and now I enjoy many videos about organs from around the world. Northandz was most interesting and I looked at your content and find it very informative. I'll catch them all soon.
Well these are at least a step up from the Magnus organ I had as a kid with the various chord buttons that sounded like a vaccum cleaner running at differet speeds. We actually had a vaccum with better harmonics I think.
0:27 I knew the instant I saw that panel swing out that it's a Rodgers. I used to repair Rodgers organs, and I have a model 870, circa 1980 in my home.
The 2nd organ is a Wurlitzer 4520. I currently have mine stripped down and gradually re capping. The tuning is based on mains frequencies so mine always sounded slightly flat as only had a step down 240 to 120v transformer running at 50Htz. When I get it all put back together will be using a sign wave 120 inverter at 60Htz so hopefully sound as it was designed to. Great video Pete Wolverhampton U.K.
@@russellhltn1396 Wurlitzer did not have a mechanical tone generator like Hammond did. As far as I know, only Hammond had that, and I'm sure they kept the patent to themselves. Eventually it got too expensive, and Hammond had to move to electronic tone oscillators or at least a top octave generator IC.
Wow this is probably my heaven where I will go to when I die, I'm a 30 year experienced organist and organ building just over 16 years, but these old golden treasures are amazing
Thanks D.J. for the demonstration of all the organs.. The Hammond T 262 was my practice organ over 30 years ago, still at my moms house which i play from time to time, the motor sound you were hearing was the tone generator, these organs require a certain oil to be added every so often.. solid organ , will last forever.. The Hammond Aurora and Colonade are next levels up from the T 262, i have the Hammond Ellegante in my own place that i use regularly for recordings etc.. i am in the process of purchasing an Allen digital pipe organ. Hammond's by far were the best built, it is sad that there has been a shift in these small type electronic organs, but hopefully in the future it will change...
I started repairing organs in about 1975, an young man and newly married. The store that I worked for sold Wurlitzer and Yamaha organs. For every one Yamaha that needed repair, there was probably 10 Wurlitzers. Wurlitzer was crap then, not just organs, but pianos also. I used to find piano tools in the bottom of brand new Wurlitzer spinet pianos.
Big fan of old transistor/home organs from that era! I had three organs in my house for a while (a Hammond M100, Hammond Aurora Classic, and a Kimball 700) they’re huge, heavy, most of them have dying capacitors, and the complex internal wiring is enough to make any electrical engineer wince! The Aurora died and I couldn’t troubleshoot it, so I parted it out. (contains a complete Hammond AV-64 drum machine!) I sampled the Kimball and sold it on, and the M100 I modded with bass manual foldback and some other things and I still have it. This is super cool, man, that Technics is awesome!
When I was a naive young child, I thought these organs were so cool in churches compared to those old pipe organs! Realized much later the unique beauty of pipes. Interesting evolution: churches are buying affordable computerized pipe organs that sound amazingly real, and these Hammonds, etc, have become wonderful popular jazz instruments. Hope the era of organ jazz never becomes a dying era.
I know The Catholic church was looking to buy pipe organs, wurlitzers and Hammond organs, some churches use them for worship music. Restaurants sometimes have musicians they might buy a electric organ and have a guitarist accompany. Or hire musicians accordian guitar, some type of drums for a famous Friday night fish fry famous in Wisconsin, Especially Milwaukee county, Meyers' restaurant has had musicians on busy Friday night fsh fry play wonderful music, Energetic, soothing. It is a great restaurant , busy.
The Orbit III was probably the first analog synth I ever played…my neighbors had one when I was a little kid. I was already obsessed with synths and they would basically have to make me stop playing and go home. lol. The synth section had a really creamy sound to it coming out of those speakers.
From what I know, the Yamaha Electone (C, D or E sizes pre FS and FX) organs, the Kawai E and DX organs, the Hammond models like the Aurora, Colonade, and Elegante; and the Lowery (mainly the late 70s models) organs are some of the more reliable instruments, and when they do break, are usually easy to sort out.
@@edwardjenkins5421 Yes, that is likely the case. I guess what the organ expert who looked at my Aurora said was that the components are very hard to get to. So it's not "hard to repair" per se, but "hard to disassemble". This is not the only case where that is the reason for a failed repair.
A real blast from the past and interesting programme. Wow, the old analogue sound, basically transistor dividers producing a square wave, really sounded bad when compared to current technology, especially when playing classical music.
I sold Wurlitzer and Kimball organs in the early 70s. The Wurlitzer with the orbit 3 is the FunMaker... it's a mono synth. I liked selling Wurlitzers. Kimball had design and quality control problems in those days, so our service guy would have got a chuckle when you turned on that first one with the stuck notes and the dirty trimpot rumble. I have a Hammond A100 now in the studio, but I really dig those old Wurlitzers. Even the ones from the 60s were pretty spectacular.
This man was just incredible! We sat down when I bought my Johannus and we had a WONDERFUL conversation about a million things. I only met him once, but he really left an impact on me ❤️
Ich liebe Orgeln 👑❤, danke für das Video, spiele in der Kirche Orgel und habe zwei elektronische Heimorgeln zu Hause, die ich hege und pflege und mit großer Freude spiele.🎼🎵🎶🎼🎵🎶🎼🎵🎶
These are all theater-style organs. I prefer the classic pipe organ, without all the percussion and rhythm features. Good ones would cost 3 times what these organs sold for in their day. For example, I play a modest Allen digital organ at church, which cost around $19K 20 years ago. A Thomas or Lowery home/theater organ could be obtained for perhaps $6k. Keep in mind that the console, stops, keys, etc. of the Allen are of the same materials and workmanship of giant pipe organs in cathedrals, and the home organs are made with press-board and plastic.
10:12 Is Hammond's last real tone wheel organ. Unlike the rest of the 'color tabs' Hammonds in the room this *Hammond T500* (looks like T512 iirc) will give you great Hammond sounds. Look up the Hammond T series videos.
I had a T-212 that I restored back in 2006 or so. It needed a little work on the tone generator and the tab stops, but nothing major. It also had a built in Leslie that actually worked. One of the last of the true tone wheel Hammonds, it sounded great, and I played it off and on for about 14 years after which I sold it to a neighbor of mine.😉
Designing your own analog organ from scratch is not that difficult. Most of the electronics is actually really simple. What makes analog organ building hard is that there is so much of everything: Many advanced analog organs had a circuit board for each key! So the idea was 'make a relatively simple circuit and then repeat it 44 times for a home organ and 61 times for a theatre/church organ.
@@organfairy the wiring is crazy indeed, this what stops me from repairing a C3. But I guess this is the price of analogue polyphony. Mine much more recent organ is mostly empty inside
@@CuLozus You can still have an analog polyphonic system with a few wires. I had another Elka organ that only had 45 wires to each keyboard - all the switching was done on a circuitboard so it only needs one connection to each key. It is also possible to use a serial communication system and still keep it analog - Wersi Comet uses this idea based on Siemens components. However, now we have moved the complicated part from wires to a jungle of components instead, which is often harder to handle as a hobby builder.
You made those old electronic organs come to life. Sadly, here in Florida, many of these end up on the curb, usually in pieces. Mostly an obsolete curiosity these days. The old parlor reed organs suffered the same fate. Thanks for the tour!
In all likelihood, they will be scraped as old organs are very much an enthusiast thing. And the small world of organ enthusiasts grows smaller by the day. Who knows, with the advent of VPOs, there may be some sort of rekindling of interest in the old electronic organs though good examples are getting harder find.
Pulling keys up on the Hammond like you did will actually destroy the keying action. It is not designed to be pulled on. It allows you to play a chord and take your other hand(s) to play along with the chord. Does this place still exist?
Problem is the cost involved in trying to sort them out ? I remember a guy bought a conn theatre electronic organ for a £2,000 and then found out it was going to cost £10,000 to sort out! that also was if it could be sorted out? So there is very little value there i would think?
Played nothing but Hammond organs. Different generations i have till the mid 1960s All the roller rinks have or had them ….. so i would be prepared to be ready no matter what model the business has
I play the pipe organ and the electric organ, and just see that place full of organs in there. I am so jealous😅😂 also, I'm just been so fascinated by the colored stops on the theater style of organs!
The Technics SX-EX60 is actually very state of the art for it's time, Technics were one of the first to use PCM digital sampling in home organs and for it's time this was a decent piano. I disagree with you saying it doesn't really sound like a piano, I have heard worse piano sounds on cheap and nasty toy keyboards like an Acoustic Solutions MK2054 which was so bad I very nearly took to the dump despite still working. This organ has different drum to what I'm used to hearing on a Technics organ of that era like the SX-C600 which has a tighter sounding snare.
Hi Ricky, if you rent a truck (like a U-Haul or similar), and get some strong friends to help you, you too can save one or more of these organs. Get a plane or train ticket to get out there, pick up the truck, and be sure to have your route planned out, as well as some motels or hotels picked out to stay on the trip home. Make sure you rent plenty of moving blankets (at least a dozen), and buy some ratchet straps to secure the instrument to the wall of the moving truck. Also at least two or three furniture dollies. Most electronic and reed organs are open in the bottom center (some are not), so two or more dollies under the corners are a must since a single one will not work. If you can find a pair of "roll and kari" (maybe "E Z Kari?" dollies, those are even better since they're specifically designed for home organs.
Also when you use the ratchet straps, try not to use the hooks over the wooden rails in the truck if you can help it: One slight jostle and they fall right off. Instead, I like to take the open end of the strap and thread it THROUGH the slot in the ratchet; AROUND the back of the wooden rail, and BACK through the slot in the ratchet. Be sure to leave just the right amount of slack in the strap- not too much and not too little, since when you tighten the ratchet, it will be double-wrapping the strap to tighten it, and the available space on the ratchet fills up quickly.
Also for the hook with the free strap end (before using the ratchet part), place the free end through the opening in the hook, to wrap around the rail. Then pull it tight so it totally wraps around the rail and you have a long strap trailing off. This can then be wrapped around the organ (with a blanket(s) and then through the ratchet as described in my previous post.
This is quite a collection of old electronic organs under one roof! I agree that the original Hammond Tone-Wheel Organs are by far the most valuable instruments in this collection. All of them deserve to be restored to fully operating condition. The rest are vintage curiosities - which, if they can be made completely playable again, it would be interesting to be able to hear all of their sounds demonstrated. Still there is nothing that can compare to the sound created by a real pipe organ. In this June, 2023 RUclips video, you can hear the superb quality of the Henry Willis Organ of Truro Cathedral, located in the U.K., which "Father" Henry Willis built in 1887. ruclips.net/video/rEcxZdYe_Uk/видео.html Here, also, is a demonstration of the sounds of another of Henry Willis's organs, this one in Salisbury Cathedral, also in the U.K.: ruclips.net/video/eytzltuZt7c/видео.html It is interesting to read the history of this particular musical instrument, and how and why it has survived for 136 years. It is because it had - and still has to this day - truly lasting value: FATHER WILLIS ORGAN The Father Willis Organ is one of three organs at Truro Cathedral. Delivered by boat and installed in 1887, it has an almost identical specification to the organ Henry Willis built a year earlier for the then parish church of St Michael, Coventry (later Coventry Cathedral). In terms of specification, both instruments revealed standard Willis hallmarks - tierce mixtures on Great and Swell, characterful gedackts on the cathedral choir, and a small but telling pedal division. Willis is considered one of the greatest organ builders there has ever been. At Truro we see the quintessence of his art as a voicer. We are most fortunate that the instrument has survived tonally intact. The fine position of the instrument in its own fan-vaulted chamber certainly adds to its impact and it matches the resonant cathedral acoustic perfectly. Note that the nave of the cathedral was not constructed until the first decade of the 20th century, so Willis voiced the organ for a building that did not actually exist in its entirety! Willis built an organ of superb reliability. Apart from the addition of the electric blower in the 1920s, no major work was done until 1963, when the grandson of the original builder carried out a conservative restoration, at a cost of some £17,000. Prior to this date, the organ console was situated high up within the main case of the instrument. This meant a walk of two or three minutes up a spiral staircase in the North Transept (perhaps this explains the longevity and fitness of F G Ormond, organist from 1929-70!). The action was a mixture of Barker lever, pneumatic and tracker. There were very few playing aids and contact between the organist and choir, some forty feet below, must have been almost impossible. In 1963, the organ committee, including Henry Willis, Guillaume Ormond, Sir John Dykes Bower and Mr Roger Yates, wisely decided to keep the original tonal scheme and voicing, and to move the console over on to the south side in a new gallery placed above the cathedral choir stalls to a design by the architect John Phillips. Here the organist can not only hear the instrument in its full glory, but also maintain close contact with Truro Cathedral Choir. In 1991, after twenty-eight years of splendid service, the organ was again fully restored, this time by the organ builders N P Mander Ltd of London. Managing Director of Manders, Ian Bell, summarised the aims of the 1991 rebuild: “The work on the organ in 1991 has included the renewal of all the low-voltage electrical equipment installed in 1963, both in the console and in the organ itself. The system is now entirely solid-state, and the opportunity has been taken to upgrade the controls available to the organist, to bring the instrument into line with present day standards. The outer cladding of the console, and all of the ivory fittings, have been retained and refurbished, but all of the internal equipment is new. “Up in the organ, again all electrical equipment and cabling has been renewed. All of the delicate leatherwork in the key mechanism has also been replaced, and several of the large reservoirs which store the wind pressure have also had their leatherwork renewed. The action of the stops, which was entirely operated by human power until 1963, was converted to a pneumatic system at that time. This has now been upgraded to powerful and silent electric solenoids. “The large soundboards which support the pipes, and supply them with wind-pressure, have all been taken back to London and completely overhauled. The access ladders and walkways have been improved, and the humidification system enhanced. “The organ has once more been left completely unchanged tonally; damaged pipes have been carefully repaired and cleaned, but the sound has been jealously preserved. Only one modification has been undertaken - the loudest solo stop, the Tuba, has always received criticism for being uncharacteristically modest. In a Willis organ the Tuba normally balances the Pedal reed in power, but at Truro this has not been the case, since the pipes were rather buried in the depths of the instrument. “It was therefore decided not to alter the Tuba, but to move it to the front of the organ where it could be heard to rather better effect. This has resulted in a considerable improvement, but all of the original mechanism has been left in place in case anyone wishes to move the pipes back in future. In every other respect the instrument sounds exactly as it did when first built 136 years ago.” Christopher Gray is the tenth organist of Truro Cathedral. Before him were G R Sinclair 1881-1890 (later organist of Hereford Cathedral), M J Monk 1890-1920, H S Middleton 1920-1926 (later organist of Ely Cathedral and Trinity College, Cambridge), John Dykes Bower 1926-1929 (later organist of New College, Oxford, Durham Cathedral and St Paul’s Cathedral), Guillaume Ormond 1929-1970, John Winter 1971-1988 (Organist Emeritus), David Briggs 1989-1994 (later organist of Gloucester Cathedral and now International Concert Organist) and Andrew Nethsingha 1994-2002 (now Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge), Robert Sharpe 2002-2008 (now Director of Music at York Minster).
This is interesting but it seems to me to be completely irrelevant! Why talk at length about a Willis pipe organ here? These are small electronic home organs!
@@bertspeggly4428 I included this article and the videos about Henry Willis's pipe organs, because your video talks about conservation and restoration in your examples, which you describe as "small electronic home organs." The man who collected these organs thought they were worthy of preservation - just as people in England thought highly enough of the work that "Father" Henry Willis did way back in 1887 were willing to go to considerable effort and expense to conserve and preserve it, nearly a century before there WERE electronic organs of ANY kind or size. They realize that Willis' organs are irreplaceable - they were created by a one-of-a-kind master builder. I know there is a vast difference in the scale and size of the organs in your man's church here and that of the two large cathedral pipe organs described above - but the IDEA to PRESERVE and MAINTAIN them - and the EFFORT put in to do just that - which has continued for more than a century for Willis's instruments - forms the common bond with your video here. These "little" organs have their place in history, too, and it will be interesting to learn what ultimately happens to them. The BEST of them SHOULD be preserved and fully restored.
Im sorry but that is NOT the way to play an organ, you have to show the specs and the pedal technique too, not just dabble along with the keyboards, how about the bass? which is most essential???
Well I think the purpose of the video was to briefly survey the oddity of a collection of organs not present a sales demo, technical review or a musical concert. And while at it, there are many well-known high-paid professional musicians out there, mainly on Hammond, outside of the classical world who do not play pedals.
@@georgeb1364 A lot of these organs are home spinets, with short, staggered manuals, and abridged pedal boards. You're not playing a Bach fugue on any of them.
The only real value for an old organ are the old Tone-wheel Hammond's. I have been restoring them for maybe 30 years. A Hammond can be back working or restored with little effort and basic skills, most of the others are not worth trying to fix. It's too bad as some 70's and 80's organs cost really big $$ and are now worth nothing. Try to tell that to someone selling grandmother's $25,000 when new organ for $5,000 and a thrift store will not even take it.
That is true. I had a 1977 Lowery Theater organ that was 5000 new....a little more than my 77 Buick...lol. I kept it like new and everything worked, but I knew it was worth basically nothing when I wanted to get rid of it so I would have room for the 63 Hammond A100 and 251 Leslie I wanted. I wanted a good home for it and gave it to a young man in Detroit who was learning to be able to play at church. It was his practice organ at home....not the Hammond at church, but better than nothing to learn on.
Wonderful to see. I had the Hammond Aurora until recently . Like an idiot I changed it for a modern digital piano / organ which just doesn't compare . How I miss my Hammond .
Well, except for the console that was taken apart towards the main door of the church. This church pipe organ console or electronic organ console looked to be in the beginning of the process of restoration.
Nice video for someone who doesn't know much about an organ. I'm 72 and play a theatre pipe organ, as well as several Conn's, Wurlitzers, Kimballs Lowery's and Hammonds. Get some lessons on how to register an organ. I wanted to see some good organs but, alas, your lack of demonstration ability left me lacking. I wouldn't drive from TX to PA based on your video. Nice collection but not my cup of tea!
If it wasn't made between 1955-1975 and doesn't have an electromechanical tonewheel generator courtesy of Mr L Hammond then.....ITS NOT A ORGAN. Even Arnold says that in one of his moofies. 🤣🤣👍
Hope someone take care of this collection! Thanks for showing us 😎👍
I'm a Hammond B3 player and these organs are a dying art form. My Hammond has a very special history as it was previously owned by the late Jazz Organist Jimmy Smith. I'm the 2nd owner on it. The organ is a 1963. Jimmy was one of my mentors back in the early 90s.
Fantastic. That would be something i’d NEVER EVER get rid off.🤙
Phenomenal. You have a goldmine! Wow!
The Hammond B3 is the greatest instrument ever invented.
Cool. Check out "Milt Buckner' too.
Nice video of those beautiful organs.
thank you.
I stumbled across a large organ collection in Illinois years ago. It was a big farmhouse with all three floors filled with organs. Many Baldwin, Wurlitzer, Yamaha, and other brands. The guy was an excentric, and his health failed, leaving family members to sell the organs on Craigslist. Most of the Hammonds were sold already, and someone gutted several leslie speakers for the parts, probably because they were too heavy to move. I also remember seeing some very strange organs, probably 70's with white fiberglass looking cabinets, sifi futuristic in design. I did save a small Technics because it's the only one I could move myself as I didn't have any help.
What an amazing site. The organ collection and the church are both absolutely beautiful. What an absolute treasury of items!
I restored a Rodgers 22D and built 3 pipe organs as a hobbyist. I can relate to this guy. Nice to know that there is somebody out there that likes this stuff.
My first organ was a Thomas. Then I had a Lowery genie, then a Lowery theater organ. They were great. Now I have a 1963 Hammond A100 with a Leslie 251 which I have completely restored over the years. They are like new and are awesome.
“Take me to church!!” Love these gems. This is a valuable video. Great to see a showcase of some of the features, all in one place. The multi button percussion thing is amazing and I’ve seen people add that feature to Casio/Yamaha keyboards. Imagine if these had multiple effect send and returns. Have a paddleboard up top, with external switches and expression pedals at the feet. Running effects through the percussion and through the separate key beds:) You could ride that puppy like a locomotive! A funkd up Cosmic Cowboy in a steam powered sled of Synthrimony. Thanks for sharing this creative cats sanctuary
For me, the Hammond and the Conn organs had the best theater organ sound. Rogers had the best pipe organ sound (up until Allen finally caught up and started making fantastic sounding instruments). Hammond B3, Hammond CV, Hammond RT and Hammond T-500 series are my favs. In terms of Conn, its the Artist series that was my fav.
My late dad had a Conn 652 he played at home most of the time I was a kid.
I know this video is a year old. It is the second of yours that I have seen (first was Northlandz). My grandmother took me to church every Sunday when I was a child. There I developed my love of the organ and now I enjoy many videos about organs from around the world. Northandz was most interesting and I looked at your content and find it very informative. I'll catch them all soon.
Well these are at least a step up from the Magnus organ I had as a kid with the various chord buttons that sounded like a vaccum cleaner running at differet speeds. We actually had a vaccum with better harmonics I think.
LOL … That’s all the crap I played growing up in the 60’s through 80’s
🥳🥳 I’ve known many crazy old organ nerds, and I salute him!
0:27 I knew the instant I saw that panel swing out that it's a Rodgers. I used to repair Rodgers organs, and I have a model 870, circa 1980 in my home.
The 2nd organ is a Wurlitzer 4520. I currently have mine stripped down and gradually re capping. The tuning is based on mains frequencies so mine always sounded slightly flat as only had a step down 240 to 120v transformer running at 50Htz. When I get it all put back together will be using a sign wave 120 inverter at 60Htz so hopefully sound as it was designed to. Great video Pete Wolverhampton U.K.
I assume it's motor driven like the Hammonds - you can't change out the motor for 50Hz?
@@russellhltn1396 Wurlitzer did not have a mechanical tone generator like Hammond did. As far as I know, only Hammond had that, and I'm sure they kept the patent to themselves. Eventually it got too expensive, and Hammond had to move to electronic tone oscillators or at least a top octave generator IC.
Wow this is probably my heaven where I will go to when I die, I'm a 30 year experienced organist and organ building just over 16 years, but these old golden treasures are amazing
Thanks D.J. for the demonstration of all the organs.. The Hammond T 262 was my practice organ over 30 years ago, still at my moms house which i play from time to time, the motor sound you were hearing was the tone generator, these organs require a certain oil to be added every so often.. solid organ , will last forever.. The Hammond Aurora and Colonade are next levels up from the T 262, i have the Hammond Ellegante in my own place that i use regularly for recordings etc.. i am in the process of purchasing an Allen digital pipe organ. Hammond's by far were the best built, it is sad that there has been a shift in these small type electronic organs, but hopefully in the future it will change...
This place is the organs' paradise!!!!
Interesting well presented video. Thanks.
I started repairing organs in about 1975, an young man and newly married. The store that I worked for sold Wurlitzer and Yamaha organs. For every one Yamaha that needed repair, there was probably 10 Wurlitzers. Wurlitzer was crap then, not just organs, but pianos also. I used to find piano tools in the bottom of brand new Wurlitzer spinet pianos.
Big fan of old transistor/home organs from that era! I had three organs in my house for a while (a Hammond M100, Hammond Aurora Classic, and a Kimball 700) they’re huge, heavy, most of them have dying capacitors, and the complex internal wiring is enough to make any electrical engineer wince! The Aurora died and I couldn’t troubleshoot it, so I parted it out. (contains a complete Hammond AV-64 drum machine!)
I sampled the Kimball and sold it on, and the M100 I modded with bass manual foldback and some other things and I still have it.
This is super cool, man, that Technics is awesome!
Only now I'm realizing, how different all brands and models of electric organs sound. Absolutely loving them.
When I was a naive young child, I thought these organs were so cool in churches compared to those old pipe organs! Realized much later the unique beauty of pipes. Interesting evolution: churches are buying affordable computerized pipe organs that sound amazingly real, and these Hammonds, etc, have become wonderful popular jazz instruments. Hope the era of organ jazz never becomes a dying era.
Knowing jazz musicians, they're always going to find something new to do with the organ!
I know The Catholic church was looking to buy pipe organs, wurlitzers and Hammond organs, some churches use them for worship music. Restaurants sometimes have musicians they might buy a electric organ and have a guitarist
accompany. Or hire musicians accordian
guitar, some type of drums for a famous Friday night fish fry famous in Wisconsin,
Especially Milwaukee county, Meyers' restaurant has had musicians on busy Friday night fsh fry play wonderful music,
Energetic, soothing. It is a great restaurant , busy.
The Orbit III was probably the first analog synth I ever played…my neighbors had one when I was a little kid. I was already obsessed with synths and they would basically have to make me stop playing and go home. lol. The synth section had a really creamy sound to it coming out of those speakers.
From what I know, the Yamaha Electone (C, D or E sizes pre FS and FX) organs, the Kawai E and DX organs, the Hammond models like the Aurora, Colonade, and Elegante; and the Lowery (mainly the late 70s models) organs are some of the more reliable instruments, and when they do break, are usually easy to sort out.
The Hammond Aurora is not so easy to repair.
@@vintagepearlguitars I heard that the tone generators are discrete components though.
@@edwardjenkins5421 Yes, that is likely the case. I guess what the organ expert who looked at my Aurora said was that the components are very hard to get to. So it's not "hard to repair" per se, but "hard to disassemble". This is not the only case where that is the reason for a failed repair.
A real blast from the past and interesting programme. Wow, the old analogue sound, basically transistor dividers producing a square wave, really sounded bad when compared to current technology, especially when playing classical music.
I sold Wurlitzer and Kimball organs in the early 70s. The Wurlitzer with the orbit 3 is the FunMaker... it's a mono synth. I liked selling Wurlitzers. Kimball had design and quality control problems in those days, so our service guy would have got a chuckle when you turned on that first one with the stuck notes and the dirty trimpot rumble. I have a Hammond A100 now in the studio, but I really dig those old Wurlitzers. Even the ones from the 60s were pretty spectacular.
This man was just incredible! We sat down when I bought my Johannus and we had a WONDERFUL conversation about a million things. I only met him once, but he really left an impact on me ❤️
wow. collectively, that collection is worth tens of dollars.
Maybe
Haha
Priceless ye tw**t!
Tens of dollars yes, tons of dollars no!
Maybe...on a really good day 🤔🤣
Very impressive collection. Hope they aren't going to be lost to time.
Great video. I really adore the old Hammonds because the B3 , and RT3 are just great !!! 😎😎😎
Ich liebe Orgeln 👑❤, danke für das Video, spiele in der Kirche Orgel und habe zwei elektronische Heimorgeln zu Hause, die ich hege und pflege und mit großer Freude spiele.🎼🎵🎶🎼🎵🎶🎼🎵🎶
These are all theater-style organs. I prefer the classic pipe organ, without all the percussion and rhythm features. Good ones would cost 3 times what these organs sold for in their day. For example, I play a modest Allen digital organ at church, which cost around $19K 20 years ago. A Thomas or Lowery home/theater organ could be obtained for perhaps $6k. Keep in mind that the console, stops, keys, etc. of the Allen are of the same materials and workmanship of giant pipe organs in cathedrals, and the home organs are made with press-board and plastic.
Very interesting
10:12 Is Hammond's last real tone wheel organ. Unlike the rest of the 'color tabs' Hammonds in the room this *Hammond T500* (looks like T512 iirc) will give you great Hammond sounds. Look up the Hammond T series videos.
That's not a T500 but the Aurora. LSI technology, not tonewheel. Autovari rhythm was not fitted to any T series.
@@beaufighter245 There is a Hammond T200 series tone wheel organ at 7:57.
@@richardhallum9935ag
Agreed, but at 10.12, that is not a T500 and that is what the previous post was referring to.
I had a T-212 that I restored back in 2006 or so. It needed a little work on the tone generator and the tab stops, but nothing major. It also had a built in Leslie that actually worked. One of the last of the true tone wheel Hammonds, it sounded great, and I played it off and on for about 14 years after which I sold it to a neighbor of mine.😉
@@danw1955 I'm restoring a t500 at the moment along with a Leslie 145. Should make a sweet combination.
That was a Hammond Colonnade Organ. I played one before.
I have 2 Kimballs 1 conn 1 hammond 1 lowry they are great fun
Designing your own analog organ from scratch is not that difficult. Most of the electronics is actually really simple. What makes analog organ building hard is that there is so much of everything: Many advanced analog organs had a circuit board for each key! So the idea was 'make a relatively simple circuit and then repeat it 44 times for a home organ and 61 times for a theatre/church organ.
wire distribution
@@CuLozus Yes. I had an old Elka organ that had 78 wires in a thick bundle going out to the keyboards.
@@organfairy the wiring is crazy indeed, this what stops me from repairing a C3. But I guess this is the price of analogue polyphony. Mine much more recent organ is mostly empty inside
@@CuLozus You can still have an analog polyphonic system with a few wires. I had another Elka organ that only had 45 wires to each keyboard - all the switching was done on a circuitboard so it only needs one connection to each key. It is also possible to use a serial communication system and still keep it analog - Wersi Comet uses this idea based on Siemens components. However, now we have moved the complicated part from wires to a jungle of components instead, which is often harder to handle as a hobby builder.
You made those old electronic organs come to life. Sadly, here in Florida, many of these end up on the curb, usually in pieces. Mostly an obsolete curiosity these days. The old parlor reed organs suffered the same fate. Thanks for the tour!
What will happen to those wonderful organs now that their original owner has gone to heaven?!
In all likelihood, they will be scraped as old organs are very much an enthusiast thing. And the small world of organ enthusiasts grows smaller by the day. Who knows, with the advent of VPOs, there may be some sort of rekindling of interest in the old electronic organs though good examples are getting harder find.
Pulling keys up on the Hammond like you did will actually destroy the keying action. It is not designed to be pulled on. It allows you to play a chord and take your other hand(s) to play along with the chord. Does this place still exist?
Pretty neat-dig old organs --I have some old Vox combo's-and a Farfisa
Problem is the cost involved in trying to sort them out ?
I remember a guy bought a conn theatre electronic organ for a £2,000 and then found out it was going to cost £10,000 to sort out! that also was if it could be sorted out? So there is very little value there i would think?
Played nothing but Hammond organs. Different generations i have till the mid 1960s All the roller rinks have or had them ….. so i would be prepared to be ready no matter what model the business has
I play the pipe organ and the electric organ, and just see that place full of organs in there. I am so jealous😅😂 also, I'm just been so fascinated by the colored stops on the theater style of organs!
The Technics SX-EX60 is actually very state of the art for it's time, Technics were one of the first to use PCM
digital sampling in home organs and for it's time this was a decent piano. I disagree with you saying it doesn't
really sound like a piano, I have heard worse piano sounds on cheap and nasty toy keyboards like an Acoustic
Solutions MK2054 which was so bad I very nearly took to the dump despite still working. This organ has different
drum to what I'm used to hearing on a Technics organ of that era like the SX-C600 which has a tighter sounding snare.
But still the SX-C600 was only partially digital. The drums, bass, solo voices, and the reverb was digital, the rest was still analog.
I wonder what will happen to the church. Those stained glass windows were very pricey in their day.
im rather poor but could i buy one of those? i live in illinois
Hi Ricky, if you rent a truck (like a U-Haul or similar), and get some strong friends to help you, you too can save one or more of these organs. Get a plane or train ticket to get out there, pick up the truck, and be sure to have your route planned out, as well as some motels or hotels picked out to stay on the trip home. Make sure you rent plenty of moving blankets (at least a dozen), and buy some ratchet straps to secure the instrument to the wall of the moving truck. Also at least two or three furniture dollies. Most electronic and reed organs are open in the bottom center (some are not), so two or more dollies under the corners are a must since a single one will not work. If you can find a pair of "roll and kari" (maybe "E Z Kari?" dollies, those are even better since they're specifically designed for home organs.
Also when you use the ratchet straps, try not to use the hooks over the wooden rails in the truck if you can help it: One slight jostle and they fall right off. Instead, I like to take the open end of the strap and thread it THROUGH the slot in the ratchet; AROUND the back of the wooden rail, and BACK through the slot in the ratchet. Be sure to leave just the right amount of slack in the strap- not too much and not too little, since when you tighten the ratchet, it will be double-wrapping the strap to tighten it, and the available space on the ratchet fills up quickly.
Also for the hook with the free strap end (before using the ratchet part), place the free end through the opening in the hook, to wrap around the rail. Then pull it tight so it totally wraps around the rail and you have a long strap trailing off. This can then be wrapped around the organ (with a blanket(s) and then through the ratchet as described in my previous post.
Just a shame the guy had to die for somebody to show up and take an interest
Where is this?
This is quite a collection of old electronic organs under one roof! I agree that the original Hammond Tone-Wheel Organs are by far the most valuable instruments in this collection. All of them deserve to be restored to fully operating condition. The rest are vintage curiosities - which, if they can be made completely playable again, it would be interesting to be able to hear all of their sounds demonstrated.
Still there is nothing that can compare to the sound created by a real pipe organ. In this June, 2023 RUclips video, you can hear the superb quality of the Henry Willis Organ of Truro Cathedral, located in the U.K., which "Father" Henry Willis built in 1887. ruclips.net/video/rEcxZdYe_Uk/видео.html
Here, also, is a demonstration of the sounds of another of Henry Willis's organs, this one in Salisbury Cathedral, also in the U.K.: ruclips.net/video/eytzltuZt7c/видео.html
It is interesting to read the history of this particular musical instrument, and how and why it has survived for 136 years. It is because it had - and still has to this day - truly lasting value:
FATHER WILLIS ORGAN
The Father Willis Organ is one of three organs at Truro Cathedral. Delivered by boat and installed in 1887, it has an almost identical specification to the organ Henry Willis built a year earlier for the then parish church of St Michael, Coventry (later Coventry Cathedral). In terms of specification, both instruments revealed standard Willis hallmarks - tierce mixtures on Great and Swell, characterful gedackts on the cathedral choir, and a small but telling pedal division.
Willis is considered one of the greatest organ builders there has ever been. At Truro we see the quintessence of his art as a voicer. We are most fortunate that the instrument has survived tonally intact. The fine position of the instrument in its own fan-vaulted chamber certainly adds to its impact and it matches the resonant cathedral acoustic perfectly. Note that the nave of the cathedral was not constructed until the first decade of the 20th century, so Willis voiced the organ for a building that did not actually exist in its entirety!
Willis built an organ of superb reliability. Apart from the addition of the electric blower in the 1920s, no major work was done until 1963, when the grandson of the original builder carried out a conservative restoration, at a cost of some £17,000. Prior to this date, the organ console was situated high up within the main case of the instrument. This meant a walk of two or three minutes up a spiral staircase in the North Transept (perhaps this explains the longevity and fitness of F G Ormond, organist from 1929-70!). The action was a mixture of Barker lever, pneumatic and tracker. There were very few playing aids and contact between the organist and choir, some forty feet below, must have been almost impossible.
In 1963, the organ committee, including Henry Willis, Guillaume Ormond, Sir John Dykes Bower and Mr Roger Yates, wisely decided to keep the original tonal scheme and voicing, and to move the console over on to the south side in a new gallery placed above the cathedral choir stalls to a design by the architect John Phillips. Here the organist can not only hear the instrument in its full glory, but also maintain close contact with Truro Cathedral Choir.
In 1991, after twenty-eight years of splendid service, the organ was again fully restored, this time by the organ builders N P Mander Ltd of London. Managing Director of Manders, Ian Bell, summarised the aims of the 1991 rebuild:
“The work on the organ in 1991 has included the renewal of all the low-voltage electrical equipment installed in 1963, both in the console and in the organ itself. The system is now entirely solid-state, and the opportunity has been taken to upgrade the controls available to the organist, to bring the instrument into line with present day standards. The outer cladding of the console, and all of the ivory fittings, have been retained and refurbished, but all of the internal equipment is new.
“Up in the organ, again all electrical equipment and cabling has been renewed. All of the delicate leatherwork in the key mechanism has also been replaced, and several of the large reservoirs which store the wind pressure have also had their leatherwork renewed. The action of the stops, which was entirely operated by human power until 1963, was converted to a pneumatic system at that time. This has now been upgraded to powerful and silent electric solenoids.
“The large soundboards which support the pipes, and supply them with wind-pressure, have all been taken back to London and completely overhauled. The access ladders and walkways have been improved, and the humidification system enhanced.
“The organ has once more been left completely unchanged tonally; damaged pipes have been carefully repaired and cleaned, but the sound has been jealously preserved. Only one modification has been undertaken - the loudest solo stop, the Tuba, has always received criticism for being uncharacteristically modest. In a Willis organ the Tuba normally balances the Pedal reed in power, but at Truro this has not been the case, since the pipes were rather buried in the depths of the instrument.
“It was therefore decided not to alter the Tuba, but to move it to the front of the organ where it could be heard to rather better effect. This has resulted in a considerable improvement, but all of the original mechanism has been left in place in case anyone wishes to move the pipes back in future. In every other respect the instrument sounds exactly as it did when first built 136 years ago.”
Christopher Gray is the tenth organist of Truro Cathedral. Before him were G R Sinclair 1881-1890 (later organist of Hereford Cathedral), M J Monk 1890-1920, H S Middleton 1920-1926 (later organist of Ely Cathedral and Trinity College, Cambridge), John Dykes Bower 1926-1929 (later organist of New College, Oxford, Durham Cathedral and St Paul’s Cathedral), Guillaume Ormond 1929-1970, John Winter 1971-1988 (Organist Emeritus), David Briggs 1989-1994 (later organist of Gloucester Cathedral and now International Concert Organist) and Andrew Nethsingha 1994-2002 (now Director of Music at St John's College, Cambridge), Robert Sharpe 2002-2008 (now Director of Music at York Minster).
This is interesting but it seems to me to be completely irrelevant! Why talk at length about a Willis pipe organ here? These are small electronic home organs!
@@bertspeggly4428 I included this article and the videos about Henry Willis's pipe organs, because your video talks about conservation and restoration in your examples, which you describe as "small electronic home organs." The man who collected these organs thought they were worthy of preservation - just as people in England thought highly enough of the work that "Father" Henry Willis did way back in 1887 were willing to go to considerable effort and expense to conserve and preserve it, nearly a century before there WERE electronic organs of ANY kind or size. They realize that Willis' organs are irreplaceable - they were created by a one-of-a-kind master builder.
I know there is a vast difference in the scale and size of the organs in your man's church here and that of the two large cathedral pipe organs described above - but the IDEA to PRESERVE and MAINTAIN them - and the EFFORT put in to do just that - which has continued for more than a century for Willis's instruments - forms the common bond with your video here. These "little" organs have their place in history, too, and it will be interesting to learn what ultimately happens to them. The BEST of them SHOULD be preserved and fully restored.
My kind of guy!
Im sorry but that is NOT the way to play an organ, you have to show the specs and the pedal technique too, not just dabble along with the keyboards, how about the bass? which is most essential???
Well I think the purpose of the video was to briefly survey the oddity of a collection of organs not present a sales demo, technical review or a musical concert. And while at it, there are many well-known high-paid professional musicians out there, mainly on Hammond, outside of the classical world who do not play pedals.
If you want to hear a good demo of the analog Wurlitzer organs check out some of John LaDuca's old recordings that were made back in the day.
@@georgeb1364 A lot of these organs are home spinets, with short, staggered manuals, and abridged pedal boards. You're not playing a Bach fugue on any of them.
Ditto.
The only real value for an old organ are the old Tone-wheel Hammond's. I have been restoring them for maybe 30 years. A Hammond can be back working or restored with little effort and basic skills, most of the others are not worth trying to fix. It's too bad as some 70's and 80's organs cost really big $$ and are now worth nothing. Try to tell that to someone selling grandmother's $25,000 when new organ for $5,000 and a thrift store will not even take it.
That is true. I had a 1977 Lowery Theater organ that was 5000 new....a little more than my 77 Buick...lol. I kept it like new and everything worked, but I knew it was worth basically nothing when I wanted to get rid of it so I would have room for the 63 Hammond A100 and 251 Leslie I wanted. I wanted a good home for it and gave it to a young man in Detroit who was learning to be able to play at church. It was his practice organ at home....not the Hammond at church, but better than nothing to learn on.
Certainly not the type of instruments to provide accompaniment to the liturgy of the traditional church.
More like accompaniment to a club atmosphere.
Wow…what a museum of organs. There were so many manufacturers at one time. Sad.
Speed is for Reiteration.
Wonderful to see. I had the Hammond Aurora until recently . Like an idiot I changed it for a modern digital piano / organ which just doesn't compare . How I miss my Hammond .
Not a church organ in the lot.
Well, except for the console that was taken apart towards the main door of the church. This church pipe organ console or electronic organ console looked to be in the beginning of the process of restoration.
Buy a Kenneth Baker book for organs !!
Pronounced “La-were-ee” not “low-were-ee”. Wurlitzers, Lowerys, and Hammond are nice.
And spelled LowREY
There was a 3 manual theatre organ, why did you not show that one. That is what I was waiting for.
It looked to be a modified Rodgers 321 Trio (someone added pistons to the solo manual), really versatile and great sounding instruments.
It's so sad that these incredible things are totally obsolete now....
No Farfisa? No Yamaha?! tsk tsk tsk....
Nice video for someone who doesn't know much about an organ. I'm 72 and play a theatre pipe organ, as well as several Conn's, Wurlitzers, Kimballs Lowery's and Hammonds. Get some lessons on how to register an organ. I wanted to see some good organs but, alas, your lack of demonstration ability left me lacking. I wouldn't drive from TX to PA based on your video. Nice collection but not my cup of tea!
Brings new meaning to the term, "organ donation". ...(Sorry...)
These are " Electronic substitutes " . Pipe organs are Organs as are " reed Organs "
Cool demos, but like the song says, "I Love a Piano". - Acoustic - Like 🚂
Obviously you aren't an organist or professional musician
They are not organs they are electronically synthesized keyboards.
Ugh, a whole bunch of obsolete electronic "toasters" as we call them in the real organ world.
As opposed to ... what was the term ... “blowhards” ...
If it wasn't made between 1955-1975 and doesn't have an electromechanical tonewheel generator courtesy of Mr L Hammond then.....ITS NOT A ORGAN.
Even Arnold says that in one of his moofies. 🤣🤣👍
I played a few Yamahas that were a bit more modern than that. Also JVCs and even a Kawai.