Acquisition of a childhood dream - my new D65 :)

[TheAurium]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but as of 2 days ago, I now house what was the organ of my dreams when I was 8 and first started learning I utterly enjoyed 'Step' 1- 6 of the Yamaha Electone school of music, til I was 10 - just utter good fun n educational - I loved it!! It fanned my musical life into flame for years to come! Here he is ... the D65

Not sure what it cost back then £4k I think, but £150 today - amazing isn't it?!?

All looked after n working fine - except the Chorale; the slow tremolo seems 'lazy', often won't start unless the rapid Tremolo tab is depressed 1-2 seconds; then it continues it's slow chorus.
If anyone has any ideas why that is, could be interesting. Likely to have it serviced at some point hopefully just to look after it. May be it didn't like being tipped onto its back then its side to get it in !!!

[Larrytow]

Welcome to the Forum, from another Yamaha aficionado.

Congratulations on your acquisition of your dream organ ! Yes, it is truly a blessing ( for us anyhow ) to obtain very nice organs for cheap these days. I have a big Yamaha Electone collection, and have some experience fixing various issues on them.

My first suspect regarding your tremolo issue is that the leaf contacts under the rocker tabs are dirty. Quite a lot of mine have needed them cleaned - either when I got them, or over the years from not all being used regularly enough. While it seems like a kinda minor problem, it cannot be solved by just spraying contact cleaner in them from the top. To effectively clean them, you will need to open the console and raise the keyboards to access the underside of the switches. There are multiple leaf contacts under all those switches, and they are not real hard to get clean. I usually use alcohol on a pipe cleaner ( the type for cleaning smoking pipe stems ) between the contacts. Sometimes acetone is needed, but not normally. When this job is done, it is best to do all the associated switches at the same time - the Tremolo, the Chorale, the Rotary / Main, and the Flute Split . They are all interconnected, so the really dirty one might not be the Chorale one.

If you feel that you may want to try doing the job yourself, you likely can accomplish it. The job is kinda putzy, and you have to pay attention to details, but it is not hard to do. If you are not comfortable taking things apart, and putting them back together, then you might need a service call. But these days organ service in ones home is a very expensive situation, if you can even find a tech that still does it. If you want to do it, we here can walk you though the process.

Putting it on it's back while moving it did not cause your issue. Lack of use by the previous owner(s) is the reason those switches give problems - in normal use, they are self cleaning for the most part. Besides Allen, Yamaha makes the most well built organs in the business.

[TheAurium]

Oh waow thanks for that Larry, yeah it seems with use it's starting to intermittently come back to life but I like the idea of giving it a spruce (I struggle to wire a plug effectively though aha). It just happens that a service engineer is in the area but I'm not sure on price or how familiar he is with the model. Will use the organ a while before I see what an engineer would cost. The reverb isn't working & its switch feels stiff & occasionally slips & the expression pedal seems to track differently at times, sometimes a lot of movement before it starts to swell. I've barely played it yet so will see what else I might be able to service. But in the main it seems in excellent condition n I'm soo pleased with it :)

[TheAurium]

Hey Larry, It's Ricky; ... I've just gone and bought a D85 ... for £30 - it's broken & the person just wants someone to do the scary deed of getting it out of her narrow doored house! :) But Larry; a D85 !! .. To accompany my recently acquired D65 aha! (it's not addiction developing I'm sure).

Well OF guys here & Vintage organ facebook Group all agree I have a power supply problem & I'm really hoping it remains that 'simple'; as Mr Gilbert says, could be a cheap fix ... or a money pit. Not one I could walk away from though lol, I'm excited to try & fix this myself; start relearning my elementary electronics!!! (wiring a plug is my limit normally). Anyhow I've noticed the 8 blue caps of the amp & 4 black caps of the power supply. Hoping a simple fail here is what may be causing a power relay to cycle into a rapid buzzing sound.

Anyhow, bottom line is, hi from another now-multi-YAMHA owner aha! :)

[seamaster]

A forum favourite, the D65. Enjoy.

[TheAurium]

Aww thank you :) All I need is an E75 now :)

[TheAurium]

Well here's my first attempt after 38 years !!! Caw learnt this when I was 9 :) xx

https://soundcloud.com/user-456723035

[Larrytow]

That sounds really nice ! Good job on the bass line, and the registration fits the music well. I love the analog Yamaha sounds, of course.

The Tremolo switches may actually clean themselves if you keep playing it ( with them ) quite a bit.

[TheAurium]

Aw thanks Larry, caw I'm playing switches more than keys ere ahaha.

Yeah I've been leaving the Chorale going during evenings to limber it up n flicked the tremolo & Chorus tabs on/off several times ere n there.

I'm hoping a few things with settle in place with a lil while of regular use.

I ramped the volume up yesterday and it seems to distort quite quickly; certainly with many tone levers down and both hands playing 4-5 notes it distorted using the rotary speaker & 3-speaker celeste. Will nail it down to see what causes the high volume distortion but might just be age & it's amplification circuitry? Or even just condition of tone lever capacitors or group looms; who knows this is a level beyond wiring plugs lol.