Some Help Please!!

[Guest]

So a good friend of my grandparents died and they ended up with his organ. I believe it is a Yamaha Electone US-1C or something like that. 4 of the pedals don't work. That's a shame. Anyways, I'm a sax player but I do enjoy playing hymns on the piano. I would love to play some on the organ but the whole thing just confuses me. For hymn playing, what should i set my top keyboard on and what should i set my bottom keyboard on and what should I set my pedals on? What tones? There's just so much to choose from!!! Help Please!!!</p>

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Ethan [email protected]</p>

[Jay999]

Re: Some Help Please!!



Hello Ethen. I'm really not into Yamaha organs, but I'll try to offer some suggestions. Your dead pedals might be caused by dirty contacts, which would mean that you'd have to get into the back, do some hunting with a flashlight, and look at the pedal unit for some key contacts. Once you find them, have someone out front to depress the good playing notes and observe the operation of the contacts. Then go to the ones that won't play and see if there's dust on them. I use 0000 grit silicone carbide paper between the touch points of contacts to clean them up...only one or two swipes with the contacts closed should re-establish good metal contact. (You can get 0000 silicone carbide paper from Home Depot...or possibly a well stocked hardware store). If this does not restore the dead notes, then you've got an electronic problem and that would involve a service technician who's familiar with Yamaha organs. If you go the technician route, (they will be listed in the yellow pages under organ technicians), call and ask first if they are familiar with the Yamaha brand of organs. Each brand is built differently, and some technicins don't have a clue about how Yamahas are built.</P>


Choosing stops...At this stage of the game..."play it by ear". Experiment with the different stops, and choose some that you enjoy hearing. If you play hymns, the most church like sounds would be called "Diapason", or maybe "Principal". But you can hold down some keys, and rummage through the stops until you find the sound you like. Enjoy your musical time, and relax with it...rather than getting confused with it. Take your time and just experiment with it. Each tab, (If it's working) will either make a sound, or affect some way, the sound that the other stop is playing.</P>


Best wishes.</P>
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[andyg]

Re: Some Help Please!!



The US1 is a curious old thing! Yamaha were asked to produce an 'organ' for the US market, as their HS series instruments had little in the way of organ sounds! The US1 did have some organ sounds but not in the way that jay999 has suggested. Instead you get organ 'presets' like Organ 1, 2 3 etc. Without a US1 in front of me (nearly 20 years since I played one) I can't tell you exactly where they are, but I'm guessing that somewhere in the groups of voice buttons there are some labelled organ! Some are going to be 'hidden' in some sort of menu, and you'll really need the owners' book (and probably a degree in rocket science [:)]) to find them. Have faith - they are there. Alas, they aren't that good when you get to them, a lot of the US1's cost went into that woodwork in the console and they skimped on what was inside. But, if you just want to play some hymns and the like, it will do just fine. Don't expect a pure pipe organ sound, though.</p>

Now, those 4 missing pedals. Are they in a group or scattered? It could be something like pedal contacts not making, loose connectors, broken wires, but I'm not the expert on Yamaha electronics.</p>

Luckily, there are some experts here and I hope they may be able to guide you further.</p>

Andy
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[mashaffer]

Re: Some Help Please!!



Not sure about how to get the sounds you want as apparently this instrument doesn't have normal stops but I do have a  suggestion. For hymns and similarly harmonized works I suggest using both hands on the same manual. Also remember that the organ does not have the same kind of sustain as the piano so you will want to be smoother in you playing and sort of glide from one note or chord to another rather than bouncing as you would on a piano. Hope that makes sense.</p>

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P.S. May find some help here...</p>

 http://www.yamahapkowner.com/forum/index.php/board,67.0.html</p>

 http://www.electone.com/community.html</p>

 http://www.electone.com/article/?f=view&amp;i=88</p>

Don't know if yours is similar enough for this to be of use...  http://www.electone.com/article/?f=view&amp;i=54</p>

mike </p>

[afuller5]

Re: Some Help Please!!



Ethan,</p>

In case you do not have an Owner's Manual with your Yamaha US-1, you may download a pdf version from here. Type "US-1" in the search by model name. The US-1 will appear at top of the list. (The "C" after the model number refers to the cabinet style only.) The Owner's Manual is in 2 pdf files of about 3,500 KB each.</p>

I hope this helps,</p>

Allen
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