Free Rodgers Organ - Northern BC, Canada

[eapperley]

The Dawson Creek United Church has a two-manual plus pedals Rodgers Cambridge 220 electronic organ which they need to give away to a good home. It is freely available to whoever wants to remove it. I am no longer living in the area but I understand that it was still in use up until a year or so ago when it was put into storage, however the person storing the organ is moving house.

These Rodgers organs were extremely well made - the quality of design, manufacture and construction of the cabinetry, stops, manuals and pedalboards and switches is excellent. As such they are great candidates for creating high-quality virtual organs. The specifications of interest are as follows:

• Two 61-note keyboards, with gold-on-gold single contact diode keying
• 32-note concave and radiating pedalboard, with magnetic reed-switch keying
• Two expression pedals, correctly divided by division:
  Swell expression; Great and Pedal expression
• Tutti piston and toe stud, with indicator light
• Lighted plexiglass music rack folds down and stores under roll-top
• Matching bench and locking roll-top
• Crescendo pedal, with illuminated position indicator
• "ON/OFF switch with indicator light
• PRESET ACTION-Six preset pistons arranged in ascending order of dynamic level
  SETTERBOARD ACTION-Four adjustable pistons for each division; four collective general pistons; adjustment of pistons by switches in a drawer beneath the Great Manual.
  COMPUTER CAPTURE ACTION-Four adjustable pistons for each division; six Independently adjustable general pistons; adjustment of pistons by a Set Button under the Great Manual.
• Electrically-reversible stop tablets (approximately Great = 18, Swell = 18, Pedal= 16, Tremulants + Echo = 5
• DIMENSIONS: Height (music rack folded down): 130 cm (50-1/4")
  Width: 155 cm (61-1/8")
  Depth without pedalboard: 92 cm (36-1/8")
  Depth with pedalboard: 138 cm (531/4")
  Console Weight: 835 pounds

To create a fully operational virtual organ, alll you have to do is strip out all of the large the PCB assemblies for the tone generation and audio preamp/filter PCB assemblies and do the following:

• install MIDI encoders and connect to the key switches of the manuals and pedalboard
• install MIDI encoders connect to the stop tab (reed) switches, toe stud switches and preset push-button switches
• install MIDI decoder/drivers for the solenoids on the electrically reversible stop controls
• install a computer with OS and Hauptwerk (or jOrgan) application software along with sample sets or sound fonts and configure the parameters, etc
• install a multichannel high-quality USB Audio + MIDI Interface for use with headphones or amplifiers and speakers

I can supply connection diagrams for a virtual organ conversion project completed about 10 years ago on a similar model Rodgers organ which has been successfully used as a practice organ with Hauptwerk. A copy of the technical/service manual for the original Rodgers organ is also available.

Eric