Allen T12 Pedal Noise help

[Guest]

I was given an Allen T12. If any of the pedal stops are down, sound comes from the pedals without pressing down on any of them. I am new to this type of organ, but I know this can't be right. Any suggestions? Everything else is great and I am very excited to play.

[Piperdane]

Check the underside of the pedalboard. Each pedal has a brass contact strip that makes contact with up to five hard wire strips.

[myorgan]

I was given an Allen T12. If any of the pedal stops are down, sound comes from the pedals without pressing down on any of them. I am new to this type of organ, but I know this can't be right. Any suggestions? Everything else is great and I am very excited to play.

Harrison,

Welcome to the Forum. I hope you continue to contribute here, and thank you for helping save an older organ.

Is the organ on carpet? Sometimes if it is, the pile of the carpet (especially if thick) can cause pedals to sound on their own. I had that happen at Symphony once. I fixed it for the concert by taking the brown paper towels out of the bathroom, wadding them up, and placing them either under the corner of the organ that had lost its caster or the corner of the pedals (I can't remember which).

Also, if you can discern which pedal(s) are sounding, that will help narrow down the problem. To do this, just put down one stop, and press each of the pedals individually. The ones which do not add to the sound will be the culprits, and we can go from there.

Calling all Experts on the Forum (you know who you are!;-)), are these pedals activated by a tongue that can get on the wrong side of the organ part of the tongue, or are they a self-contained unit? I know they are definitely before reed switch assemblies, and that as pre-TC series organs which used self-contained units, they may not have used the same connection method as the TC series.

Hope that helps.

Check the underside of the pedalboard. Each pedal has a brass contact strip that makes contact with up to five hard wire strips

Harrison,

Also note, your pedals will probably NOT have the computer board attached as seen in the photo.

Michael

P.S. Thanks, Piperdane. A picture is so much better!

[jbird604]

Once you identify which key on the pedalboard is the culprit (try playing them one at a time until you find the one that is already playing), turn it up on one end, as in the picture above posted by Piperdane.

With a flashlight, carefully inspect all the keying contacts. The little wires can get bent so that they make contact with the brass-colored shorting piece. If you see wires that are touching the brass without the key being depressed, search for the cause. It could be a bent wire or two, it could be the brass piece that's bent. Each brass-colored tab is adjustable with a screwdriver, so if one of them has gotten out of adjustment and hangs too near the wires, tighten the screw with the felt washer on it to raise the shorting bar.

Also, if the wires are twisted or bent so that two wires touch each other, that can cause a cipher even without the brass thing touching them. So straighten out any wires that are touching.

Don't overlook the possibility of a pencil or other object having fallen down into the pedals. Pencils can roll into the area at the front ends of the pedal keys and cause the keys to hang low enough to play without being touched.

If the problem isn't mechanical, it could be in the wiring. The thick cable that connects the pedals to the console contains 33 or so wires, and one of them could be shorted out, especially near the end where the wires all solder to the little pins that stick into the sockets.

At the other end of the cable, inside the console, there is a vertical gang-switch assembly that transfers keying voltage to all the notes playable by the pedals. Look in that area for a bent wire or some object fallen down into the assembly.

Make sure that when you plugged the cable into the pedalboard that you didn't inadvertently bend a pin or push one into the wrong socket.

[Larrytow]

I've got two T-12s here ( yet ! ), and one has the pedal contacts as above, the other one has the magnetic reed switch style system. It would be good to know which one we are troubleshooting. Look at the photos and advise us which style yours has. The issues and fixes are different between them.

[jbird604]

Wow! I didn't realize Allen had made any T-12's with reed switching on the pedals. But that makes sense. I think the last year or so of production the TC analogs got reed switches on the pedals, and the T-12 was produced for two or three years after all the other analogs were discontinued in favor of MOS organs.

I always tend to think of the analog era as a static period, when little changed about the various models. But in fact Allen was always coming up with new ideas during that time. Not only pedal reed switches, but even the original digital capture action (the NAR Sequential) was originally introduced on analog organs.

Yes, if the OP happens to have one of the T-12's with reed switches, the problem could be something else entirely, such as frozen reed switch or a displaced pedal magnet. Or the floor under the console may be unlevel.

[tucsondave]

Before adjusting or bending anything, make sure all pedals are returning to the full up position.

td

[Larrytow]

Piperdane,

What is the IC board on the left end of your pedalboard shown above ? Is that a MIDI conversion ?