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Hi all. I found this forum on the net while searching for "Rodgers 835". I'm going to volunteer to help do what I can (if I can) to address some issues with a Rodgers 835 at a local church. The history of this particular organ is like this --- some years ago, a storm hit the city, and the old location of the organ was at a church close to the sea. I was told that salt air/salt spray got into the air and went through the church, which not only led to pitting of metal of the candle holders etc, but caused track/circuit corrosion on the circuit boards.
I took a look at the organ for the first time today to assess the situation. The head-phone audio output still works, which is some good news.
The lower keyboard is fully functional. All keys are working and I can hear the notes through the head-phones.
The not-so-good news is that the upper keyboard works beginning with (and including) the very central 'F' key and above. All keys on the upper keyboard that is below the central 'F' key do not work ---- that is, we can press those keys normally, and the action looks good..... but no sound comes out through the head-phones.
Also, the auxiliary outputs (L and R, left and right) are reported to no longer work. That is, no output to drive speakers. So something has failed with those auxilliary outputs.
My original plan was to just use the head-phone outputs to drive a sound system. In that way, at least audio can get to loud-speakers ---- provided we set suitable audio levels.
However, the upper keyboard has that described problem..... all notes below the central 'F' key don't play any sound.
I have reasonable electronics experience, but have never tackled repairing a digital church organ where it looks like it could take a while just to figure out what wooden panels to pull out from the back of the organ.
I was told that some work had previously been successfully done to repair the old circuit-board corrosion issue (such as using wires to patch corroded sections). I was also told (from word of mouth) that the previous person that worked on it had indicated that the corrosion issue would likely continue over time. So the church is thinking of trying to at least get that upper keyboard working again - and use it for students to practice on this nice instrument.
At the moment, nobody is certain that the repair is going to be possible, or even easy. I can only think of getting to the circuit boards (after figuring out how to open up the organ), and testing for electrical continuity between tracks as much as I can. And maybe possibly also work out which circuit board is linked to the upper keyboard.
This could be a sizeable task, and there doesn't appear to be any urgency for getting this organ fixed, since the church needed to purchase a different organ to use already. But I agree that it would be a real shame if such a grand Rodgers 835 needed to be thrown out without some attempt to do some fault-finding.
My first point of call is this forum, as I can see some people talking about Rodgers instruments repair here. Does anyone have circuit diagrams/schematics and instructions on what covers to remove from the back of the organ in order to get to the circuit boards?
At this moment ..... I recall seeing 2 (two) separate and relatively large horizontal green circuit boards inside the organ (apart from other smaller vertically oriented boards). The horizontal boards certainly do have signs of track corrosion and I can see wires patching some points together.....which could be from previous repairs.
The church music director told me that the previous repair people are no longer around, and/or can no longer be contacted - since it has been a number of years since the last repair.
I'm just trying my luck here. If someone can help in any way here, I'll genuinely appreciate it! I might also try emailing the Rodgers company, which I have never done before. But I thought I'd try the forums first.
Thanks all!
I took a look at the organ for the first time today to assess the situation. The head-phone audio output still works, which is some good news.
The lower keyboard is fully functional. All keys are working and I can hear the notes through the head-phones.
The not-so-good news is that the upper keyboard works beginning with (and including) the very central 'F' key and above. All keys on the upper keyboard that is below the central 'F' key do not work ---- that is, we can press those keys normally, and the action looks good..... but no sound comes out through the head-phones.
Also, the auxiliary outputs (L and R, left and right) are reported to no longer work. That is, no output to drive speakers. So something has failed with those auxilliary outputs.
My original plan was to just use the head-phone outputs to drive a sound system. In that way, at least audio can get to loud-speakers ---- provided we set suitable audio levels.
However, the upper keyboard has that described problem..... all notes below the central 'F' key don't play any sound.
I have reasonable electronics experience, but have never tackled repairing a digital church organ where it looks like it could take a while just to figure out what wooden panels to pull out from the back of the organ.
I was told that some work had previously been successfully done to repair the old circuit-board corrosion issue (such as using wires to patch corroded sections). I was also told (from word of mouth) that the previous person that worked on it had indicated that the corrosion issue would likely continue over time. So the church is thinking of trying to at least get that upper keyboard working again - and use it for students to practice on this nice instrument.
At the moment, nobody is certain that the repair is going to be possible, or even easy. I can only think of getting to the circuit boards (after figuring out how to open up the organ), and testing for electrical continuity between tracks as much as I can. And maybe possibly also work out which circuit board is linked to the upper keyboard.
This could be a sizeable task, and there doesn't appear to be any urgency for getting this organ fixed, since the church needed to purchase a different organ to use already. But I agree that it would be a real shame if such a grand Rodgers 835 needed to be thrown out without some attempt to do some fault-finding.
My first point of call is this forum, as I can see some people talking about Rodgers instruments repair here. Does anyone have circuit diagrams/schematics and instructions on what covers to remove from the back of the organ in order to get to the circuit boards?
At this moment ..... I recall seeing 2 (two) separate and relatively large horizontal green circuit boards inside the organ (apart from other smaller vertically oriented boards). The horizontal boards certainly do have signs of track corrosion and I can see wires patching some points together.....which could be from previous repairs.
The church music director told me that the previous repair people are no longer around, and/or can no longer be contacted - since it has been a number of years since the last repair.
I'm just trying my luck here. If someone can help in any way here, I'll genuinely appreciate it! I might also try emailing the Rodgers company, which I have never done before. But I thought I'd try the forums first.
Thanks all!