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MMD > Archives > September 2005 > 2005.09.17 > 04Prev  Next


Aeolian Pipe Organ Pedal Octave Functions
By Pete Knobloch

It is interesting that Bob Taylor found a 116-note roll that needed the
Pedal 2nd Octave and Pedal 3rd Octave functions that are only found on
the 176-note rolls [050911 MMDigest].  Making a 116-note roll from
a 176-note format is very unusual.

Jim Crank asked the next day, "When holes #9 and #11 are used, did they
disconnect the 16' octave and play only on the 8' or 4' octaves?"

This is the way that I have heard that it works.  Being that I have
a stand-alone 176-note player and jack box that has original wiring,
I thought that I might be able to answer this question.  By studying
the wiring, all it does is bring up more questions on its operation.

On my 176-note player, one of the four rows of output pins is labeled
Pedal, which has 13 outputs.  There are two large pneumatically operated
switches that have 13 poles that do the pedal switching.  One of these
switches is a double-pole switch that selects either the lower 13 notes
on the Great holes (lower, odd notes) or the lower 13 notes on the Swell
holes (upper, even notes).  This switch is controlled by the jack
toggle that is operated by hole 176 of the roll which is called "Pedal
to Upper".

Now the second switch is a single-pole switch that just connects the
13 output pins to the other switch.  Its sole purpose is to disconnect
the pedal contacts from the bottom 13 playing notes of the player.
This second switch would be used to disconnect the bottom 13 notes from
the bottom playing 16' pedal notes.  There are no other switches for
doing the "Pedal 2nd Octave" and "Pedal 3rd Octave" functions.

There must be another box for doing the 2nd and 3rd Octave switching,
or maybe it was part of the switch stack relay.  From how the player is
wired, the "Pedal to Upper Holes" function (note 176) would not work when
used with holes #9 and #11.

My question is, how was the 2nd and 3rd pedal functions accomplished
and where is it located?  From what I see, there must have been a pedal
coupler that took the bottom 13 notes on the great side of the tracker
bar and wired it into the pedal relays notes 13-25 or 25-31.

Pete Knobloch (Tempe, Arizona)


(Message sent Sat 17 Sep 2005, 21:30:27 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Functions, Octave, Organ, Pedal, Pipe

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