Rodger Organ Analog I think?

[jasonbark1949]

I just purchased a Rodger's Organ (Analog I think) from a church is in the process of moving to their new building. The organ had been disconnected from its four speakers (M13, L2 100 and 2 others) When I plugged the console in and pressed the presets, nothing happened. Their organist told me that he had cleared all the presets. I turned the preset key for the second memory, pushed the presets and they all worked well, quick and quietly. The preset buttons lit up and the stops dropped down from the faceplate. However the lights on the music rack would dim when I hit the preset buttons. (Is this normal?) Also one of the led lights is burnt out on the music rack (how do I get that fixed?) They had replaced one of the amps.
1. What do I have?
2. How old do you think it is?
3. I am loaning it to my church to use (where I am the organist) while our pipe organ is being rebuilt and enlarged. Will it handle an Episcopal Church Service?
4. Do you know of any Rodger techs in the Pittsburgh, PA region?

[Pipeorganbuilder]

Could you provide us with a photo and model number? This will help us to give you more information. Great to hear that you are having the pipe organ rebuilt and not removed as many are doing. I know the church will appreciate your effort.

Michael

[arie v]

Hi,

To find out the model designation, find the plate mounted underneath the keydesk. It will give the model or model number, serial number etc.
From the model, someone here will be able to tell you how old the organ is.

AV

[toodles]

Light dimming a little when a piston is pressed is normal on most Rodgers with moving stop combination actions.

[jasonbark1949]

Thank you for the information. I will be getting the organ in two week and will check for the model. I do have a picture of the organ and will try to post it. I hope that this helps.
Thank you.

[arie v]

Hi,

Just a guess here, I think you may have a Scarborough 110, an organ from the mid to late 70s. If it is not a 110 it may be a 750.

AV

[jbird604]

It's actually an 800, which is the 750 with toe studs and external speakers. Rather decent for the 70's and will sound good as a temporary organ if it's well set up and if the acoustics in the church are favorable.

You should go to mitatechs.org and scroll down a bit, on the left you'll see a place to click to "find a servicer near you" or something like that. Enter your address (city is sufficient) and you will get a list of qualified techs near you. You do need someone who understands these old Rodgers analogs to correctly hook it up and balance the stops. It will need tuning too after being hauled around, and could have a few other needs, considering the age. But it should serve you quite well.

[toodles]

Probably an Alexandria 145 model.

Unless the music lamp light have been changed to LEDs, they are a #19 bulb. These have become difficult to find, but Amazon.com has a pack of 10 for a reasonable price: https://www.amazon.com/19-Miniature-...ure+Light+Bulb

Before buying the bulbs, open up the music lamp desk (remove the center screw, and slide out the plastic panel) to verify that the bulbs have not been changed to something else.

I believe the 800 replaced the 145 as a later model, but I think the 800 had a 32' stop--does this organ have a 32' stop in the pedal?

[toodles]

Definitely an Alexandria 145. The Alexandria 800 is the same organ, with a few different names for the same voices, but adds a 32' Contra Bourdon in the Pedal, and 8' Oboe in the Swell, and a dual memory on the combination action. This adds 2 pistons on the lower stop rail that are missing in the photo. Also, the indicator panels on the left and right side of the stopboard are placed above the level of the stops on the 800; they are at the same level as the stops on the 145, as in this photo.

Basically, a 4-voice unit organ: flute, principal, trompette, and cromorne plus celestes, harp, and carillon.

[jbird604]

Now that we've determined the model, to answer your four questions:

(1) Alexandria 145, a perfectly decent analog Rodgers from the 70's.

(2) Between 40 and 50 years old. That's old, but they were well built, using mostly off-the-shelf parts, so these things can just keep on playing indefinitely. Could have various issues, such as worn out pedal upstops/downstops, sticking tabs if they are of the type prone to that, and other things that go wrong with electronic stuff after half a century. But probably will work well enough.

(3) Yes, it will handle an Episcopal service about as well as any electronic organ if it is adequately installed. With only the minimal speaker set you describe, it should fill a medium size church, at least if the acoustics are good. It will probably need some skilled voicing to sound its best.

(4) Go to mitatechs.org and click on the box to find a servicer in your area.

[jasonbark1949]

The specs for the organ is: Pedal: 16 Principal, 16 Bourdon, 16 Lieblick Gedeckt, 8 Octave, 8 Flute , 4 Choralbass, 4 Flute, 2 Piccolo, II Mixture, 16 Fagatto, 4 Clarion, Gt to Ped 8, Sw to Ped 8.
Great: 8 Principal, 8 Bourdon, 8 Gemshorn, 8 Flute CelesteII, 4 Octave, Flute, 2 Fifteenth, 2 Piccolo, 1 1/3 Larigot, II Mixture, 8 Cromorne, Harp Carillon, Sw to Gt 8.
Swell: 16 Lieblick Gedeckt, 8 Geigen Principal, 8 Gedeckt, 8 Vox Celeste II, 4 Octave, 4 Flute, 2 2/3 Nazard, 2 Piccolo, 1 3/5 Tierce, 1 Fife, II Mixture, 16 Basson, 8 Trumpette, 4' Clarion

Can Conn Pipe Speakers be added to the Rodgers?

Thank you for all your help

[jbird604]

Your basic standard Rodgers stop list, almost identical to my Rodgers, which is 20 years newer, and not very different from most Allen organs either. This is of course the set of stops you'd expect on any standard classical/church organ built in the last hundred years. So it should be capable of registering any music you'd throw at it in an ordinary church service.

It's a "unit" organ of course, and many of these stops are not independent, just the same sounds as the 8' flute or 8' principal or 8' reed transposed higher or lower. But that is OK, you just learn to live with the known limitations of unit organ design. Many people never even notice this.

As to the Conn pipes, you can of course use them just as you would use any other set of 8 ohm organ speakers. Though they vary in external appearance, all Conn pipe sets contain nothing but 6x9" speakers similar to the car speakers that were popular back in the 60's and 70's. Pretty good speakers, but not capable of much bass, and especially with the constrictions imposed by the pipes.

So, if you want to try a set of those on one of the channels, try any channel except the pedal channel. Be aware that all the Conn pipe speakers are somewhat inefficient. In other words, they do not produce as much volume as ordinary speakers do with the same amount of driving signal. So you will probably need to boost the volume of the channel you run through a Conn pipe set, unless you also have a conventional speaker on the same channel with it.