Pedall question

[libraryguy]

In my quest for another organ I've seen Lowrey organs with 20 note pedal boards. I would still prefer my 25 note but I like the idea that there is some space saving advantage with with 20. Please help me here.

If I understand correctly when you move from a 13 to a 25 you gain and octave below on the 25. Does this occur if you move to a 20? Or is a 20 like a 13 but with another half octave above?

Some of the Lowreys I've seen on ebay have 25 notes but use the short pedals and 61 note keyboards. What are these like to play? I've read the posts about how some Lowrey players make minimal use of pedals if they use them at all. Is this they don't have a lot of 25 note regular pedal boards on the big ones?

Are instruments with 49 x 2 keyboards and 20 pedals still considered to be spinets?

I'm sure the vanishing of home organs is accelerating. The selection here in the Dallas area isn't too good unless you've got the bucks for a B3/122 setup.

[seamaster]

Is a 20 like a 13 but with another half octave above?

Yep.

I've read the posts about how some Lowrey players make minimal use of pedals if they use them at all. Is this they don't have a lot of 25 note regular pedal boards on the big ones?

Yep.

Are instruments with 49 x 2 keyboards and 20 pedals still considered to be spinets?

And thrice yep.

[andyg]

Some of the Lowreys I've seen on ebay have 25 notes but use the short pedals and 61 note keyboards. What are these like to play?

They're usually a bit longer than the normal 13 note pedal board pedals, so playing with heel and toe technique is possible, if not so comfortable as it would be on a proper console pedalboard.

I'm sure the vanishing of home organs is accelerating. The selection here in the Dallas area isn't too good unless you've got the bucks for a B3/122 setup.

This is cyclical and regional. Sometime you won't see anything in your area for ages, then a whole batch will come along. On Facebook we've just been discussing a batch of Kawais, all free. DX1900, SR5 and SR7 for example.

[ToH]

If I understand correctly when you move from a 13 to a 25 you gain and octave below on the 25.

.

This I had never heard and to me it sounds strange but I play spinet pedals only (although I would like to get a proper 25 pedal board).
Is this correct?

[andyg]

You gain the octave above the initial 13, of course!

[libraryguy]

Thanks for clearing that up. So this means that on all organs regardless of pedal configuration the starting pitch is the same. With an 8" stop drawn is that C2 on a piano keyboard?

Why were 13 chosen instead of 20? It seems that alternating pedals and transposing would be easier with 20 if your have a spinet. Are those Lowreys with 20 pedals and 61 note keyboards consoles or spinets? I suppose the real reason is one that I've read many times in here. The manufacturers were doing it as cheaply as possible.

[andyg]

Here cometh the history lesson! :)

Mr Hammond invented the home spinet electronic organ, with the Model M. Though, if you look at photos of some much older harmoniums/reed organs, you will find examples with short, spinet type pedals. So Mr H was 'borrowing' an existing idea, not for the first time!

What Mr H did do was look at what parts of his console organs the typical home player (as opposed to the pro or church musician) didn't use. This resulted in the bottom part of the upper manual going, along with the lowest and highest extremes of the lower manual and, most pertinent to the question just posed, the top octave of the pedals, leaving just the bottom 12, one of each of the 12 notes, of course. (He'd already decided that, for cost reasons, it would better to have just 25 flat radiating pedals on the console models, rather than the radiating concave 32 note pedalboard. 50% cheaper, I've heard it said, and I can believe that! The top 7 don't get that much use, even for the classical player.)

Of course, after the M was launched, every manufacturer started producing a spinet model. Although a small few had just 12 pedals like the M, most opted to put in a complete octave of 13.

That lowest 8' C note could well be said to be C2, it could also be C1 or C3, there's no absolute agreement on that.

I'd class those Lowreys with 2x61 plus 20 as spinets, a console organ for me has to have a proper pedalboard with full length pedals, hinged at the rear.

Here endeth the lesson. Amen! :D