Puzzled needs your help...

[Guest]

Hi all! I'm new to your forum, and totally ignorant about organs, so that is the reason for my post--please be gentle with this ignorant newbie!

My father died in July, 2010, and left my mother a W.W. Kimball model 285 that he acquired at an auction. We know NOTHING about this organ! I have searched on the web and can't find ANYTHING about this organ, so I hope someone here will take pity on me and tell me something about it, or steer me toward where I can find information about it. I'm not even sure that I've posted this thread in the correct forum, but the organ looks too large to be a home organ, so I'm assuming that it is a church organ. Please, HELP ME! I'm puzzled! :-P

[OGC5]

Kimball 285

Kimball Corp. stopped making organs in 1983 and Pianos in the 1990s. The Organ market in the USA is almost non-existant today as very few people want to take the time and effort involved to learn to play. Some churches still use organs but many have gone to "praise bands". If you are wondering what the Organ is worth the answer is almost nothing because of no buyers.
OGC5

[crossyinoz]

My father died in July, 2010, and left my mother a W.W. Kimball model 285, but the organ looks too large to be a home organ, so I'm assuming that it is a church organ. Please, HELP ME!

G'day,

Firstly, W.W. Kimball (Chicago) was the name of the original company that manufactured pipe & pump organs, later acquired by sawmiller cum furniture manufacturer Jasper Corp. of Indiana that was responsible for the majority of electronic organ production until its demise in 1983. I often wondered whether Kimball were more concerned with the appearance of their cabinets than what went on inside.

There were 2 Kimball models designated 285, & I'm thinking if yours bears the name W.W. Kimball it's a console model from 1960, one of the very first electronic Kimballs built. Unusual for its time, it employed a system of photocells to generate tone. Whether you'd call it a church organ or not is probably a moot point, but it' certainly a big beast & does have an AGO 32 note pedal board.

For what it's worth the other model 285 dates back to 1974, a small spinet instrument loaded with automatic features and visually umpleasant fluoro rocker switches etc.

Cheers,
Ian