Thomas organs ceased production in 1982, and were not known for their build quality or reliability. You haven't told us what a "real cheap price " is but frankly these old organs have no intrinsic value and spending any money on it will not change that.
As a MIDI project, if a "real cheap price" is exactly that, I say go for it, as the instrument certainly looks the part.
Actually I would repair it but hey that is me. Bloody heavy thing it is. I was offered one years ago but the asking price was stupid. The Thomas contacts don't lend themselves to midi well. I have midized an old Hammond regent, single key contacts, great for midi.
Please be advised that Thomas parts are just the same as non existant. You have to find parts via another Thomas that is being used as a parts organ for the most part. So, think about your decision.
James
Baldwin Church Organ Model 48C
Baldwin Spinet 58R
Lowrey Spinet SCL
Wurlitzer 4100A
Crown Pump Organ by Geo. P. Bent, Chicago, Illinois
Organs I hope to obtain in the future:
Conn Tube Minuet or Caprice even a transistor Caprice with the color coded tabs
Gulbransen H3 or G3, or V.
Wurlitzer 44, 4410, 4420, ES Reed Models, 4300, 4500, Transistor Models
Actually you are right about parts but as Thomas didn't use in house IC's and all the divider pack and coupler circuits were available as schematics in the Service manuals available from ORGAN SERVICE CORP, ordering via the net. Some parts are available too, at a price though. Here in Australia a lot of the older organs are going to the tip so if you are in the right place at the right time then parts can be had.
Cross modulation distortion seems to be a problem with the amplifiers used in most of Thomas models, at this moment in time I am trying to sort this one out. Some held chords sound bloody awful in the upper registers, has any body else experienced this or is it just my ears. You experience something similar in Electron Tube organ amplifiers but not quite as bad.
I consider it great fun to refurbish these old organs but you have to know what you are doing (read electronic background) and have a lot of spare time at your disposal. With modern components you can even make them better than they were leaving the factory, in the Thomas case most definitely so. When I bought a Bel-Air mod 555 in 1970 new it had a fault delivered to me, no lower keyboard non flute stops. The fault is in the auto rhythm organ option If you can actually play, ( really don't see the point of a rhythm modulated lower keyboard ) just jumper the connection. Transistors used by Thomas were prone to failure, the good news is transistors today are very reliable and very cheap in 100 plus quantities. You can replace the lot, given the time. One other point is the inductors used in the tibia filters, these can go open circuit but it is possible to wind a replacement with a small pot core.
I had a Palace-III in the 80's and it was pretty good.
I bought one a year ago for a senior center where my mother lives (there wasn't a Conn 65x available at the time.) The main problem was just dirty contacts. Cleaning everything made it work like new. It was a model 900. Good contact cleaner is essential.
You could gut it and midi it. Replace one contact rail and then connect that one contact set to your midi interface. Jut remove the others.
I have keyboards and the 12 tone generators and the Leslie from a model 800, which is a 900 minus the solo manual. I also have the access to the service manual for the 900/901. I found a Conn 651. Moved it to the senior center to replace the Thomas and donated the Thomas to the Puget Sound Theater Organ Society because young organists needed theater organs to practice on and the Thomas Palace-III was better than a 2 manual classical organ someone else was donating. I added orchestra bells to the Thomas, too.
Looks like you’re enjoying the discussion, but you haven’t signed up for an account yet.
Tired of scrolling through the same posts? When you create an account you’ll always come back to where you left off. With an account you can also post messages, be notified of new replies, join groups, send private messages to other members, and use likes to thank others. We can all work together to make this community great. ♥️
We process personal data about users of our site, through the use of cookies and other technologies, to deliver our services, personalize advertising, and to analyze site activity. We may share certain information about our users with our advertising and analytics partners. For additional details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
By clicking "I AGREE" below, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our personal data processing and cookie practices as described therein. You also acknowledge that this forum may be hosted outside your country and you consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your data in the country where this forum is hosted.
Comment