Conn 44C Chapel Spinet

[Max the Icie Owner]

Hi,

Came across a Conn model way down in Texas that I've never heard of (not getting it though, just find it interesting). Not much on the internet either. I've uploaded the pictures from the listing to my image hosting site, so we can discuss the model etc without having to worry about the ad disappearing and the thread being deleted. :-)

Here's what the people selling it said: "CONN 44C Chapel Organ with dual keyboards, pedals, sound select, twin speakers. Owned by small rural Lutheran church since new. Approximately 48 years of age." Dimensions: 44"W. x 34" H. x 25" D

Plenty of pictures











Cabinet pics in next post.



I can make out some of the stops in the close-up. It seems to have your traditional stops, but in spinet format. Interesting idea.

So, anything know anything about this model? History or sound perhaps? This isn't about buying it, I'm more interested in just finding out some information about it, and I thought it might be beneficial to others in the future for there to be some sort of info available online (found absolutely nothing at all).


Thanks,


-Max

[Max the Icie Owner]

Like the console design a lot.

[Silken Path]

Could it be this?

[Max the Icie Owner]

Looks right. I see there's a thread about that model from a ways back. Wonder if the "C" designation was a cabinet style?

[Silken Path]

I was impressed by the 32 in the pedals... Wonder if it had a BIG woofer.

[jbird604]

Interesting model! When I sold Conn in the 70's we had a spinet "chapel" organ that looked almost identical to that called the 461. it was quite popular with small churches. Had a full palette of nice "flute" stops (as was typical for Conn organs of the day) which sounded through the internal two-speed Leslie and therefore were quite beautiful and endearing. The other stops, of which there were several typical diapson, string, and reed tones, were not nearly as pretty, as they were produced by formant-filtering a so-called "pulse" output from the oscillators. Also these tones were keyed by the infamous vinyl rods, which tended to develop dead spots, thus weak or missing notes.

But overall it was a lovely little organ for small churches where they wanted a rich Gospel-ly tone but weren't concerned about making a huge pipe organ sound. I still see these models now and then in little churches in this area, though all are now 40 - 50 years old.

The one in your pics is somewhat different from the 461, and I suspect that it may actually be the 440 that Lamar found in his Blue Book. My Blue Book is older and doesn't have that model, but it appears that your tab count is close if not identical to the pic of the 440 in the book.

Since the 440 is said to be dated from 1980, that would mean it was built after Conn started making the quasi-digitally-controlled models such as the 717 and 653. These organs were vastly superior to the older ones in terms of having consistent keying on all stops -- no more of the vinyl rod nonsense -- along with proper attack speeds on all the stops, and couplers that really worked like true pipe organ couplers, affecting all the stops in a division, not just the pulse voices. The new control system allowed them to very easily provide more pitch levels in each manual, as individual pitch levels no longer required having separate keying rods for each pitch, just a few lines of code in the control system.

The pedal generator in this models is a real digital synth of some sort, so it was easy to add a 32' stop to the list. Again, just a few lines of code, not a lot of extra circuitry. Unfortunately, they didn't upgrade the speaker to really handle this 32' pitch range, so it's not that good, but might be quite impressive if the organ audio is enhanced by putting it into a bigger amp and speaker setup.0

So, this one may well have a much more flexible stop list, more authentic sounds, more comfortable playing features than the older Conn Chapel series that I used to sell. it's in a beautiful cabinet too, real wood, beautifully designed and finished. Conn keys and other hardware are generally very nice as well.

I'd love to see and hear one of these. I wasn't even aware that Conn ever made this one, and have never seen one locally. Of course this was in the declining years of Conn, and they probably built only a handful of these.

There is one major downside to these models though. As with the other Conn digitally-controlled organs, the circuitry probably suffers from the notorious solder-joint issues that can bring one of these completely down. The fix has been talked about extensively on the forum in other threads about late Conn models such as the 653. It could be quite a chore, or possibly even impossible to restore it to full working order, if it is afflicted with this trouble. But then, it may not be. Might be just fine as it is. Pretty box at least!

[Hamman]

I agree....if real wood and not laminate, that looks to be a very good wood console.
John...what year would you suspect that this was produced?

[jbird604]

If it's the 440, it was apparently introduced in 1980, per the Blue Book listing Lamar posted. Not as old as advertised. Close to 40 years old, not 48 or 50.