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Hello All,
New to the forum. New to organs. My wife and I just picked up a free organ to learn to play on. We got it from the granddaughter of the original owner who said it was in good working condition, but needed a tune. We got it home and it has a few more issues than that.
Some of the "instruments" don't work properly. For example if I switch to Cello 16 on the great manual, it often will not sound or will sound very quietly at first. However, If I hold more than 4 or 5 notes, the organ crackles and then begins working properly. This problem seems isolated to a few switches. Based on my initial internet research my idea is to get deoxit or something similar to clean the switch contacts and see if that changes anything.
I'm guessing that while I have the organ apart it would make sense to clean more than just the offending switches, but I am wondering if there is more that I should be doing with such an old instrument.
I read on the internet a suggestion that all the capacitors should be replaced in an organ this old. With the back off the organ you can see that some of the capacitors are a little leaky. Most functions on this organ already sound pretty good, with the exception of the switch problem I mentioned and some squeaking and scratching when you activate the Leslie or the Main Chorus. This is just for home practice so it does not need to by studio quality, however I have time for projects right now and for as much room as it takes up in our living room I would like it to work as well as practically possible.
The organ came with the owners manual, but I also have a reprinted copy of the service manual coming my way in the mail.
I would be curious if anyone has experience with these organs or these issues and has an opinion on how to proceed, but more than that I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about the organ, for the inevitable future questions that come up. Thanks in advance for any advice. I would welcome any thoughts you might have on our organ or how to breathe a little new life into it. I'm having trouble uploading pictures, but if they would be helpful I can try to figure that out.
Thanks,
Nathan
New to the forum. New to organs. My wife and I just picked up a free organ to learn to play on. We got it from the granddaughter of the original owner who said it was in good working condition, but needed a tune. We got it home and it has a few more issues than that.
Some of the "instruments" don't work properly. For example if I switch to Cello 16 on the great manual, it often will not sound or will sound very quietly at first. However, If I hold more than 4 or 5 notes, the organ crackles and then begins working properly. This problem seems isolated to a few switches. Based on my initial internet research my idea is to get deoxit or something similar to clean the switch contacts and see if that changes anything.
I'm guessing that while I have the organ apart it would make sense to clean more than just the offending switches, but I am wondering if there is more that I should be doing with such an old instrument.
I read on the internet a suggestion that all the capacitors should be replaced in an organ this old. With the back off the organ you can see that some of the capacitors are a little leaky. Most functions on this organ already sound pretty good, with the exception of the switch problem I mentioned and some squeaking and scratching when you activate the Leslie or the Main Chorus. This is just for home practice so it does not need to by studio quality, however I have time for projects right now and for as much room as it takes up in our living room I would like it to work as well as practically possible.
The organ came with the owners manual, but I also have a reprinted copy of the service manual coming my way in the mail.
I would be curious if anyone has experience with these organs or these issues and has an opinion on how to proceed, but more than that I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little about the organ, for the inevitable future questions that come up. Thanks in advance for any advice. I would welcome any thoughts you might have on our organ or how to breathe a little new life into it. I'm having trouble uploading pictures, but if they would be helpful I can try to figure that out.
Thanks,
Nathan