Allen ADC-4300DKC - Adding Toe Studs

[myorgan]

I need a little help here. I hope to add 6 toe studs to my Allen 4300 that did not originally come with the organ. The toe studs to be added already have corresponding thumb pistons on the manual. My wish is to add the following:

• Gt.>Ped. Reversible
• Sw.>Ped. Reversible
• G1-General
• G2-General
• Tutti I
• Tutti II

This brings up a few questions from me for any techs in the audience. There are 2 connection rails mounted in the back numbered from top to bottom 1-30 on the left of each rail, and 31-60 on the right of each rail--one set of rails is on the console wall, and the other one on the swinging panel next to the USCM-2 board. Looking at the attached photos, here are the questions:

• To which rail (console or swinging panel) do I attach the wires coming from the toe stud for each of the afore-listed pistons?
• To which pin(s) do I attach the wires coming from the toe stud for each of the afore-listed pistons?
• Does polarity matter?
• Where should the ground wire (gray?) be attached for each toe stud?
• What gauge is the wire?
• Are there any other considerations I should keep in mind?
• Where might I get labels made for these toe studs to affix to the console above each respective stud?
• What the heck are the wires not stripped, and just wrapped around one of the rail's posts (i.e. 47-48 next to the USCM-2 board)?

Thanks in advance for anyone's expert assistance.

Michael

[circa1949]

In my case, I added toe studs to an ADC-1140 under the different circumstances of increasing the number of available pistons. This is because the small MADC organs only had 7 generals, but the DM4 capture card was for any configuration of 2 (maybe even 3) manuals...minus "Recall" and maybe G1 & G2 that came out later in the last series of large ADC organs, like your 4300.

I can't imagine yours would work much differently though. I don't think the polarity matters. Basically, when that circuit leg goes to ground, STATE=TRUE. I used rather thin kynar wire wrapping wire and everything worked fine. It's not a lot of amperage, needless to say. Of course, the polarity will matter in determining which side of the momentary SPST switch -is- ground and which -isn't-. To find which position does what, just ground the pins one by one. AT least with my existing pistons, it didn't take very long to figure out, the grounds are all ganged to one pin, of course, it would be silly to use a bunch of pins for ground. When you ground ground, nothing happens. :-> When you ground the other pins, something will happen. Maybe I'm being too cavalier about it...be careful not to ground a power rail.

[myorgan]

Thank you for your reply. I guess I just have to be a bit daring. I'm just hoping not to damage anything in the process!:-P

Michael

[myorgan]

Well, I was daring, and just a few days after I posted, I actually did the toe stud additions. It was quite a process! Below is the first part in a 3-part narrative. Sadly, the photos won't work well here, so I've attached a PDF file with the photos. Enjoy.

Toe Stud Project

Background
When I purchased my Allen ADC-4300DKC, I was pleased to finally have digital 2-manual with moving drawknobs, but I was also a bit disappointed there was no 32’ Pedal reed or toe studs for anything other than combination pistons. I had been toying with the idea of adding the toe studs that were missing, but didn’t have any idea how.

Some time ago, I had purchased 6 toe studs on eBay, so when I had vacation time recently, I decided to add the toe studs after posting to the Forum, and receiving word of successful implementation by other members.

Questions
1. What toe studs to add? Well, the pistons I had available w/o matching toe studs were:
• Recall
• Swell to Great
• Swell to Pedal
• Great to Pedal
• General 1
• General 2
• Tutti I
• Tutti II

I didn’t know if any of the rocker-tabs could be duplicated, so I stayed with the pistons only. Since I only had 6 toe studs, I had a decision to make—which ones to use? After e-mailing the following picture to a trusted advisor on organ repair/modification, I made my decision:
• Recall
• Swell to Great
• Boxes
• Great to Pedal
• Swell to Pedal
• Tutti I
• Tutti II

2. Where should the toe studs be placed?
• Is it acceptable to have a 3rd row above a double row? If so, should the labels for the 3rd row be placed below the toe studs or above (standard). I’ve still not made that decision.
• Should the Pedal-related studs be placed above the Pedal divisional pistons, or should they be placed with the Great to Pedal on the right of the boxes, and the Swell to Great to the left of the boxes?
• Should all 6 toe studs be placed on the right-hand side? If so, that would have taken the most distant toe stud at the edge of the organ, behind an amplifier.
• If the toe studs were placed on either side, should there be a space between the Tutti studs and the Pedal couplers, or could the Tutti studs be placed next to the Pedal couplers?
Because of my short legs, I decided to place the Tutti pistons next to the Pedal couplers because I couldn’t reach much further.

3. The next question was determined by the pistons I had purchased. They were from an older MOS or analog instrument, so I wondered if they should/could be painted to match the present piston color, or if I should leave them alone. I decided to paint them.
• Not realizing the current pistons were not black, I chose Rustoleum Flat Black and painted the base of the toe studs and then the tips of the screws.

The next post will describe in detail how I went about obtaining hardware and preparing the toe studs for mounting.

Michael

[toodles]

Michael,

Nice to hear about your mods. I look forward to the rest of the story. Did you separate out the Great & Pedal outputs to independent channels instead of shared? I might consider doing that on my 6300--I certainly have enough speakers!

Toodles.

[Jan Girardot]

Hi, Michael;

You wrote, in part with: 2. Where should the toe studs be placed? I have a copy of the AGO console spex and will be happy to send it if you will contact me at [email protected]

. . . Jan
the OrganGrinder

[myorgan]

Nice to hear about your mods. I look forward to the rest of the story. Did you separate out the Great & Pedal outputs to independent channels instead of shared?

Toodles,

Thanks for the input. I did separate the Great from the Pedal into different channels, and found that the overall volume (amplitude) of the sound increased. However, I would have to re-voice the organ to account for the extra speakers. It's not a modification I could make lightly or temporarily (like the sub-bass).

You wrote, in part with: 2. Where should the toe studs be placed? I have a copy of the AGO console spex and will be happy to send it if you will contact me at {email}

Jan,

Thank you for the offer. Unfortunately, I never thought to check the AGO specs before I made the choices, and now they're permanently attached and soldered. I guess that means without running significantly more wire or re-wiring, I'm stuck with what I decided. I may have that document still from another post you made a year or two ago (or someone else). Thank you, though.

Michael

P.S. Jan, you already have my e-mail address.

[myorgan]

Painting & Hardware
Once I had decided to paint the toe studs, I purchased Rustoleum Flat Black spray paint, and used a light Gray primer I had left over from another project.

Since the toe studs were chrome, I knew they had to be scuffed up to receive a coat of paint, so I first attempted to do it with 0000gauge steel wool. I quickly learned that using steel wool was a good way to polish the toe studs—NOT scuff them up! After a few tests with sandpaper, I finally settled on 220 grit sandpaper to rough up the shanks.


When it came to the painting process, I had to paint the shanks without getting paint on the tip of the toe stud. I finally decided to wrap the tip of the toe stud in plastic wrap, and use a twist tie (like those on bread bags or trash bags) to hold them on. The excess plastic wrap made a great handle so I didn’t have to get my hands covered with paint!

In retrospect, if I had to paint toe studs again, I would place a piece of tape on each electrical contact tongue to keep the paint from straying there. Once a couple of coats of primer had been applied and dried, I then painted them with a couple of coats of Flat Black paint.

Now it was time to paint the heads of the screws, so I ran them across the 220 grit sandpaper, and then sprayed a bit of primer in a milk jug (or bottle) cap, and dipped the head of each screw in the primer. To dry, I placed a piece of plastic wrap over the crack between two boards, and poked the screws through the plastic wrap until they dried. I repeated the process for the flat black paint. The only problem is because most of the weight of the screw was above the plastic wrap, gravity tended to tip them over. Next time, I would choose a bit thicker material like the cardboard from a cereal box.

For the touch-up of the toe studs (where the paint had missed) or screws, I used a Q-tip, dipped in the paint from the milk jug (or bottle cap).

To decide what to purchase for mounting screws, I unscrewed one of the existing toe stud screws and took it to the hardware store. There, I chose either stainless or zinc screws (#4-3/4"), with an oval top, and Phillips-head (some call it cross-head).

In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I’d get some exam gloves (either latex or non-latex) from the local pharmacy and use those to handle the toe studs while painting. That would have kept my hands free from overspray.

The next post will be about drilling the holes and wiring the toe stud project.

Michael

P.S. The attached PDF file has the photos from this article. It is a 6.2MB file.
P.P.S. I guess the attachment is too large, so you'll just have to imagine the photos. Sorry!:-(

[myorgan]

You wrote, in part with: 2. Where should the toe studs be placed? I have a copy of the AGO console spex and will be happy to send it if you will contact me at:

Jan,

I just checked my article, and it is the Wicks Organ article, so if you could e-mail the AGO specs, that would be great & swell! Thanks in advance.

Michael

[Jan Girardot]

Hi, Michael;

Email me off-forum at [email protected] and I'll send the spex.

. . . Jan
the OrganGrinder

[myorgan]

I found a fellow who made me toe stud labels that matched Allen's closely enough so one couldn't tell. I took photos tonight, but will post them tomorrow night.

Michael