How to open the keyboards on my Allen 301B?

[Arden]

I want to open the manuals on my Allen 301B so I can clean all the way to the inside end. There's a lot of crud on the them, but when I tried to lift the manual, it hits the tambour top. Do I have to remove the top?

The speaker hooked to the flute/base channel volume is much diminshed compared to the speaker on the main channel. What should I look for to correct this issue?

Thanks,
Arden

[myorgan]

I want to open the manuals on my Allen 301B so I can clean all the way to the inside end. There's a lot of crud on the them, but when I tried to lift the manual, it hits the tambour top. Do I have to remove the top?

Arden,

In short, yes. When you open the back of the console, you will find that when the roll top is fully open, there are two screws that stop the cover from retracting completely. If you remove those screws (no need to remove them completely), you can allow the cover to come completely down. Be careful, though. The cover is extremely heavy, and it is reticulated (bends both ways), so be careful to not let it hit any of the organ's internals. It works best if you just roll it up as you take it out.

Another caution is to be sure when you raise the keyboards, you don't strike anything inside the console. Sometimes over time, the internals of the console will change with wiring changes, etc., and lifting the keyboards may tear some wires.connectors out somewhere. If you need to lift the bottom keyboard, I believe it is screwed to the console with a single screw at either end of the console under the key cheeks (i.e. inside the card drawer at one end). For what you described in your post, there should be no need to remove these and/or lift the lower manual.

The speaker hooked to the flute/base channel volume is much diminshed compared to the speaker on the main channel. What should I look for to correct this issue?

See my answer in your other post on this issue.

Arden, to simplify the ability to answer your question(s), should you post all your questions in one thread so there is a single source of answers? Posting different but similar questions in different threads may be confusing for you in comparing results. Just a suggestion.

Hope this helps.

Michael

[Arden]

Arden, to simplify the ability to answer your question(s), should you post all your questions in one thread so there is a single source of answers? Posting different but similar questions in different threads may be confusing for you in comparing results. Just a suggestion.

Hope this helps.

Michael

Thanks for your answers to my questions. In the future, I’m going to write them down as they arise and I’ll post a few at one time.

So far, I’ve opened my keyboards for cleaning, removed the power supply for the capture action (and found one of my wires has come loose from a battery), located and removed the burnt out bulb from the “Power On” indicator.
The swell pedal is responsive, but have not found a “master” volume pot. So one channel is way too soft, and one too loud. Still looking for a solution to that issue.

Thanks for your help and your patience!
Arden

[searchinferu]

There is a nice inside tour of a 301 on youtube

[Arden]

There is a nice inside tour of a 301 on youtube

Thank you. I've seen that one and two others that he posted, also. But in his video he didn't explain how to open the keyboards. I've done it by removing the roll top. Leaving it off till all repairs are done.
Thank you.

Arden