Rodgers i577 issues

[smp]

Hi

A local church I often play for has one of the i577 organs. Nice little 2 manual. We didn’t have any issues really until we hooked-up and amp and two speakers through the auxiliary out facility. A local sound technician did that, and they had no idea about organs or balancing etc so I had to sort all that out on my own- and it took a while.

Anyway, what we started doing to avoid loud speaker noise when turning off the organ was to leave the organ switch at the ON position all the time, and basically turning the instrument on/off from the electricity socket switch (UK). This has probably caused some electrical issues in the organ as we occasionally had ciphers where one note would continue sounding and the entire organ system would crash. Only way out was to turn the organ off and on again. We since stopped turning the instrument on/off that way and decided to use it properly (ie from the organ switch). However, we still occasionally, although much less frequently, get a cipher on the bottom manual. The system won’t crash but I will physically need to deactivate the great manual stops and also remove the swell to great coupler to stop the cipher during a service! Really need to get it serviced. Also, two keys on the great manual click very loudly on their return. I guess if I asked the tech to check all voltages and then clean all keyboard/pedal contacts and board contacts/connectors then we should be fine?

Would definitely appreciate some help!
Thanks

[arie v]

Hi,

Adding any old amp to a digital organ, can cause a fairly loud bang sound. The problem is generally the organ power supplies collapsing before the ampfliers go down.
Best thing to do is either get a Rodgers or Rodgers approved amp. Or manually turn amp off before turning the organ off.

Your other issues could very well be keyboard problems.

I believe those organs have Fatar keyboards. These keyboards have 2 sets of strips in them. One is a dual contact, 12 note strip, where one contact switches ahead of the other. This is for the velocity timing. If on triggering a note, or releasing is not sequencing correctly, you could end up with a dead note or a stuck note or notes.

The second strip is for tracker touch. It has collapsable domes. After a certain amount of playing, these domes start to rip around the top. The first thing one usually encounters is a slow release with a snap sound. Eventually the rip along the top of the dome is so far gone, the snap sound disappears. But you lose that top resistant feel as well.

Fatar supplies many organ companies with keyboards, and they all use the same contact strips and tracker touch strips, so replacement parts should be easy enough to find.

AV

[smp]

Thanks a lot for your input! Just now we are looking at getting a technician out but unfortunately our “local man” who is well over an hour and a bit away has a keg injury. Just very worried that I’ll have the cipher during this weekend’s masses again!

[jbird604]

Have to wonder if that's a typo -- keg injury -- or if the poor overworked tech has taken to the jug!

[smp]

Definitely a typo, although he may well have done the latter!