Knee operated switch

[ChoppedTop]

I recall in my teenage years freqenting a local music store that had a huge range of keyboards. The guy who ran the department eventually got used to seeing me every saturday trying out organs that i could not remotely afford.... And he knew it!!
If i kept out of the way of potential customers he didn't mind too much....i think :0)
I remember one dual manual organ had a leslie with a knee operated slow fast switch. It was probably a hammond but i cannot remember. I thought it was a neat idea.
Now i have my Hammond M100 i want to fit one.
Has anyone seen or have a knee operated switch?
Is it an 'add on' to the half moon switch?

[Drawbar Dave]

I've seen one on a Lowrey Heritage. I'm not sure if they are standard equipment on the tube Lowreys with a 147 outlet. My TBO-1 doesn't have the knee lever.

[bnelson218]

Some of the early Yamaha models (circa 1970's) had a knee lever, as did some Kimball models. I had a friend who built one using a sharp pedal from just about any spinet organ. He sawed off the shaft so it was about 2' long, attached the end to a hinge which then mounted under the manual. A magnet held the pedal against the underside of the manual when not in use. When he pulled it down, he had arranged a limit switch that was then activated by the pedal when it was hanging down and pushed to the right. Sorry I can't be more specific about the design, but I'm willing to bet something could be put together. But on the flip side, a knee lever really isn't that usable, at least not as usable as a switch added to the expression pedal. Doesn't the M100 have a switch on the exp pedal--I don't remember. If so perhaps you could use that.

[Logan]

But on the flip side, a knee lever really isn't that usable, at least not as usable as a switch added to the expression pedal.

i've been wondering how functional a knee switch might be. it sounds like a cool novelty but i don't really play pedals so it sounds like wasted motion. i like the half moon switches on my m100 but i really don't want to add them to my A because i hate the thought of drilling holes in it (same issue with the knee switch i suppose).

at the moment i'm using a latching sustain pedal to switch between slow/fast, and one of those AC circuit-breaking pedals (like you'd use on a meat grinder or grindstone) to control off. i'm convinced there's a better way that's still non-invasive but i haven't come up with anything. the appeal of the knee switch to me is that it's the only thing my knee would be controlling; whereas my foot also might engage triggers for amp channels, filter, swell, and whatever pedals the keyboard on top might have

[voet]

I don't remember a knee switch, but I recall that Lowrey had a model with a switch in the swell pedal housing that made the notes go a half step flat, like a steel guitar. As I recall it was mounted on the left side.

[KC9UDX]

I think they all have that. It's called "glide". Even some non-Lowreys have it, but I'm pretty sure all Lowreys do. Later models had pressure sensing keyboards for this, too.

[Logan]

I don't remember a knee switch, but I recall that Lowrey had a model with a switch in the swell pedal housing that made the notes go a half step flat, like a steel guitar. As I recall it was mounted on the left side.

i had one of those organs. it was a late 70s model, jubilee with magic genie i think? i wasn't too fond of the pitch bend since it was a really abrupt change instead of portamento-like gliss

edit: actually i think it was a lowrey genie holiday

[KC9UDX]

This seems to be model-specific. When I get my SS working again this is one thing I want to investigate. There's a tab for GLIDE which says AUTO and CONT. (continuous, I expect), and I think in CONT. the portamentoness goes away. I'm not sure. But in any case, this model does have the portamentoness. I know that other models don't. All of the non-Lowreys I've seen with this feature don't have it.