Reed Organ Octave Coupler / Sob Story ...
By Karl Ellison
The organ I mentioned does indeed couple the octive directly below and above, depending on which side of middle-C you're on when you knee-out on the paddles. There may be some additional amplification mechanism, but, your can actually see the notes being played, so there is a coupler involved. I'll post the exact model of organ next time I see it (probably Thanksgiving).
I have a problem that I'm now just throwing money at, hoping it will go away (no time myself these days with school/work/personal life, and frankly, it's time for a fresh set of eyes to look). My 1917 Autopiano player that I finished about a year ago has been acting up big-time. I finally broke down and saught help from my local rebuilder, who's been in business long before dirt was invented. Upon inspection, he thought I didn't do anything poorly, but the materials weren't up to snuff (watch those pre-punched primary leathers from the Player Piano Co.!! They're too thick. Don't use the neoprene sponge rubber-faced secondaries they sell either - they showed signs of hardening and loosing their sponginess already and would not seat right, dammit!). After a light re-doing, builder had problems again, and again ... and again. Finally, after a few months of wasted time (IMO), we decided to perform bypass surgury on it. He's going to convert it into a single valved system with a few bypass holes drilled here, a few bleed cups there, etc.. It makes sense, since we're now going to directly remove a whole set of problems; the reduced amplification will be negligable, sez builder. He's done these things before with "trouble" units with success, contending that they played even better than original (presumably due to the reduced mechanical chain of events that now has to occur to play a note). Has anyone else had any experience with this type of operation? Am I being a hack by not investing the $$ and time to strip the thing down totally and starting again <BIG-time sob>? Why did the good folks at Autopiano do a double valved system when the technology existed in 1917 for signle valves (didn't Standard, et.al.)? I realize it was in the name of amplification, but were they just trying to build in some additional protection by overamplifying the tracker's signal?
- K a r l B. E l l i s o n
New Britain, Ct. U.S.A.
KBELLISON@aol.com
http://home.aol.com/KBELLISON |
(Message sent Tue 17 Oct 1995, 11:10:43 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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