Gulbransen Paragon needs some repair

[Retkid]

[link removed]

My counsailer's dad died, and she had this organ. I took her up on it, and i convinced my mom to pick it up.

In transport and getting it in my house we broke 2 keys, and I've noticed that the draw bars dont work at all. Also on the top keys, A4, and B2 do not work on everything besides piano. A3 will sustain like an organ note, and Eb 4 doesn't play under any circamstances. If i put the fast spin on and do a chord in the low bottom notes, it makes a weird flapping noise. As far as that, i dont think anything else is broken. But then again i dont know how its suppose to function.
That and its missing 2 keys....


What do you think I can do to fix it or is there anyone i can find..,
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Retkid,

Could you please attach your photo here. I removed the link to off-site hosting. Click Go Advanced, and below the entry window in the Attachments section, use Manage Attachments to upload your photo into your post. Thanks in advance.

Michael, Moderator

[andyg]

1) Broken keys - 2 options: A) repair them with superglue or epoxy glue B) find another dead Gulbransen from the same era and cannibalise. There were three Paragons, the 211x series (1969-72) and then the 3016 from 1972-76 and finally the 3516 from 1976 for a couple of years or so. I'm sure they'd all use the same keys (and so would the Pacemakers, Presidents, Theatrums and Premieres).
2) Drawbars - have you actually pressed the pistons between the keyboards that activate them? They do nothing until switched on.
3) Flapping noise on 'fast spin' while holding low notes. 2 possibilities spring to mind: A) the internal Leslie unit has come loose and is hitting something while spinning B) if you only hear the sound while holding those notes, the cone of the speaker in the Leslie unit is broken. If B then options for 1) above apply
4) As for the other keys etc, non-playing keys could be just key contacts that have shifted or you could have keying circuit problems.

There is zero value in the organ as it is and if you paid out for a technician to fix it, it would still have zero value when fully working. If you have some electronics experience and knowledge, then you can have a look inside and have a go. (Read through our safety 'sticky' thread before you do and be careful, as there are lethal voltages in parts of the organ!

We hate to see good 'oldies' die, and no-one on here likes the sound of the Gulbransens more than me - I was brought up on them - but there does come a point where even a nice sounding, good quality organ like the Paragon is beyond economical repair. Only you can decide which way to go.

As Michael said, attach photos to your reply. If you find that you can't, email them to me directly via my website shown below (just click on the Contact button) and I'll add them for you.

[andyg]

This is a very early Paragon from 1969. Not very reliable even when new, and can be difficult to repair. Lots of non colour coded wiring, for a start. From the description of the faults you emailed to me:

The drawbars do not work for solo even if they are turned on with Cancel + solo, there is no sound on the solo keys no matter what I do, and the Drawbars for the Accomp only trigger at some points and dont work a lot of the time.
As for the Leslie, I love the tone of it, Is there any way I can make a case for it and solder on a quarter inch in? I'm confident the key problems are circuit related, how hard would that be to fix

I think this one has reached the point I mentioned earlier. Too much hassle, unless you just to spend some time tinkering! You are going to have to find another similar organ anyway to get the missing keys replaced, so find a later Paragon or Theatrum that is fully working - or at least much better than this Paragon - and then harvest some of the parts from this one as spares.

As for the leslie, yes you could put it in a box. There are plenty of threads about doing this sort of thing on the Forum. But you'll have to sort out power for the motors and devise a way of switching speeds etc. And that little 6x9" speaker in the Leslie unit will only only take around 30 watts of power. You must not send any bass or low frequencies to it, so your box must also have a stationary woofer and a crossover network.

Your photo is attached. BTW, Iphones use a non standard way of telling you which way is up, so any future photos will need to be rotated and then saved in an image editor before uploading them!