Rodgers 330 keyboards & pedalboard

[LTDan]

Hello:

This is my first post to this forum however I have been reading many threads over the past few years. So today I actually have a few questions:
I am working on a nice Rodgers 330 console (3 manuals, lighted drawknobs) the keyboards feel fine except they each have a slightly different key dip! The Choir and Swell are somewhat close but the Great (middle keyboard) has more dip. This is easily shown by holding the same white key down simultaneously on all three manuals and observing the amount of exposed wood of the adjacent key. So I'm guessing replacing the down felt would even these all out? Maybe just for the Great? If so, how hard of a job would that be and where can you purchase keyboard felt? Finally there is a 'secret' flat switch hidden under the Choir manual. Does anyone recall what that is for?

The pedal board bumper felt is very hard. Where can I purchase replacement felt for it?

Thanks in advance,

Danny B.

[jbird604]

Welcome to the Forum! I hope you'll find us a friendly and helpful group.

The differences in key dip could be due simply to the great keys not being screwed down all the way at the metal up-stop bracket which sits right on top of the keyboard itself and holds all the keys of a given keyboard level in the up position. Lift the swell keys out of the way and see if you can correct the dip by screwing the four or five screws in the metal bar down just a little. Try to turn each one the same amount in order to maintain the level appearance of the keys in the up position.

Of course it's also possible that the downstop felt is more worn on the great. You'll be able to see it if you remove the key slip (piston rail) of the great manual.

The pedals wold have originally had foam rubber up and down stop bumpers, but that stuff typically degrades in a decade or two (depending on usage and on the climate). We replace it with a type of premium felt that I get from Schaff Piano Supply. It is actually grand piano hammer rail felt, but it happens to be the exact same dimension as the foam rubber in the Rodgers pedals. We peel or scrape the old foam stuff away, cut pieces of the Schaff felt to size, and glue them in with hot glue or silicone sealant. It's quite a job. You have to remove ALL the pedals to access these bumpers. Then you put them back in (in the correct order -- number them before taking them out) and then adjust the pedal tension with the tensioning screw at the back end of each pedal.

[LTDan]

We replace it with a type of premium felt that I get from Schaff Piano Supply. It is actually grand piano hammer rail felt, but it happens to be the exact same dimension as the foam rubber in the Rodgers pedals.

Thank you for this information John! The pedals are functional just a little noisy and this job can be done at a later date so I'll probably wait. Do you recall what the 'secret' flat switch hidden under the Choir manual. is for?

Danny B.

[jbird604]

That's the "Air Sound" switch. In one position the addition of white noise to each pitch is supposedly enabled. It is a pretty subtle effect though, and you may not even hear the difference unless the speakers are fairly close to your ears.

[twnelson]

John,

Rodgers pedal boards on all their analog organs used felt strips. The foam bumper strips weren't used until the Roland era, and then only on the Roland-built/derived models. All models with pedal boards built in Hillsboro were always felted, at least originally.

However, that certainly doesn't mean that the felt on a 40+ year old pedal board isn't badly compacted. Highly likely.

--- Tom

[jbird604]

thanks for the correction, Tom. It's been a long time since we rebuilt an analog pedal board. We do have one coming up first of the year though, so I'll have to see what kind of felt it is under there. I keep several kinds in stock, including some actual pedal board felt from OSI, which happens to be just right for Allen pedal boards.