New TBO-1 in the house!

[Morgonzo]

Hey Everyone, I just wanted to share my new acquisition on a TBO-1 Berkshire Deluxe. I got her out of the original home and she's pretty clean. The bench is non-matching which wasn't a deal breaker and the wow-wow tab doesn't engage the wow, but seems to disable the swell pedal and act as a second volume control that gets louder than the swell at full tilt. The reverb is in-op and the Leslie, while I can feel it spin gets no audio from the organ. All this aside, I love it and have been playing it quite a bit but I dare say the TLOK-S to it's left draws more inspiration out of me when I sit at it. Quite a difference in tone between the two.

[myorgan]

Uh, oh.! He has OAS really bad! (Organ Acquisition Syndrome) It is interesting to hear your comparison between the two instruments. It would be nice to have some way we could compare audio recordings of the exact same setting, same piece, same registration, but different organ.

Thanks for the photos.

Michael

[Morgonzo]

Ha! yep, it's bad but I dare say it's been a pre-existing condition that was waiting for the right time to rear it's head. It would be great to have a library of sound samples of all the different organs out there in the wild. For many reasons. Right now it's cheap enough to drag one home to find out if you like it or not. For the younger people who didn't grow up with organs in the house and are maybe only familiar with the Hammond sound, these other brands are mute representation of another time. It would be nice to be able to hear a Gulbransen or a Conn or a Baldwin ect as a living library of sounds. Interesting proposal Michael.....glad you like the photos!

[andyg]

Sounds like you've got your work cut out in repair work on the Berkshire! But once it's all done, it should blow that TLOK-S away! There are no sounds on the TLOK-S that you can't get on the Berkshire. Those fancy presets on the top rail are all just combinations of basic voices, but with percussive attack, slow attack, repeat etc. The one thing the TLOK-S can do is let you play some of these sounds along with the regular organ voices. And of course the TLOK-S has the rather basic Genie drum unit and a cassette deck (99% of which don't work right!). But overall, the TBO Berkshire can do more.

What you really need now is a decent Leslie - 145 or 147 is plug and play on the TLOK-S and sounds great, but just wait until you hear a Berkshire scream through one! :)

[Morgonzo]

Sounds like you've got your work cut out in repair work on the Berkshire! But once it's all done, it should blow that TLOK-S away! There are no sounds on the TLOK-S that you can't get on the Berkshire. Those fancy presets on the top rail are all just combinations of basic voices, but with percussive attack, slow attack, repeat etc. The one thing the TLOK-S can do is let you play some of these sounds along with the regular organ voices. And of course the TLOK-S has the rather basic Genie drum unit and a cassette deck (99% of which don't work right!). But overall, the TBO Berkshire can do more.

What you really need now is a decent Leslie - 145 or 147 is plug and play on the TLOK-S and sounds great, but just wait until you hear a Berkshire scream through one! :)

Thanks for the reply Andy. I actually do have a 145 that lives over in the "Hammond Land" area of my basement. I'll have to get it's passport ready so it can cross over into "LoweryLand" and have a visit! I might have to call out my tech to have a look at the TBO-1 since I don't feel confident working on it myself. It's interesting to hear you say that the TBO-1 will blow away the TLOK-S. The TLOK-S seems brighter to my ears, while the TBO-1 has a darker sound, maybe that's related to the much needed service but it's an obvious difference to my ears. Oh and the tape deck actually works....kind of :)

[andyg]

Those cassette decks in the organs made wow and flutter into an art form! :D

The tone generation in the TBO and TLO is basically the same. Perhaps some new caps and a good service will show you what she's capable of. Last one I played was many years ago now, I'd sold the organist a Leslie 760 and it was loud and proud.

[Organfella]

Hello and firstly thank you for sharing your experiences and pictures of your brand new acquisitions.

I share the excitement of yet another organ nut joining the fray. Enjoy!
On the sound issue I can confirm also my own experience that different organs of the same identical models sometimes sound different. I had two identical models Lowrey TLOK-SA (both of which I gave away because I had too many, and still do...) Each had its own distinct sound. One was more mellow than the other and the other one had a crispness that was not evident from the other. Of course electronic components, their age, state of use or other factors electronic may have a lot to do with this but they did sound different. Then I also own two identical Hammond M-100's with the same sound phenomenon. I must add that there is nothing wrong with the sound quality of any of these organs and if one did not have the facility of listening to two identical organs standing next to each other, this phenomenon would go unnoticed. Of course also one could expect different models of the same make to sound different because the very fact that they are different models, might imply that they were designed to perform and sound differently.

Now I have myself all cross-eyed with all that natter...:embarrassed:

Enjoy your pleasures!

Nico

[Morgonzo]

Nico, thanks for the reply! As my dad likes to say, "it is what it is.." The number of variables in these aging machines is Legion, and to try to bring any to together in perfect sync would be either an engineering feat or a moment of prolonged madness. I was actually quite surprised at the difference, if anything the TBO-1 was played more than the TLOK-S and should have maintained the caps better than an organ that sat for decades, and I guess I acquaint healthy caps with a brighter sound although my '58 Hammond is all original and is quite mellow with it's wax caps, but doesn't need a cap job (yet..) I thought the TBO-1 would be brighter...and who knows what wonders it will unveil after a good rogering from the service man....I only wish I had the fab plastic keyboard cover that it came with in '68. Can you call it a fall-board when there are no boards?