Dear MMDians,  Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm gonna build
a band organ.  I realize just how big a project it is, but I just can't
stand it anymore.  I need one.  With the help of a friend of mine from
Silicon Valley, I hope to throw together a decent sounding organ that
has enough pipes to accommodate a few different scales.  I do need a lot
of help though.  So this is it guys.  Here we go.

I'm hoping to replicate the Tilden Park 66-key B.A.B. band organ
(Bruder/Gavioli/Ruth/whatever) and use MIDI controls to play the music.
I have a rough idea of the instrumentation in the Tilden organ, but
I could really use some help in verifying it all.  What I don't have
a clue about is what instrumentation is right behind the swell shade
area, in front of the trumpets.  So if anyone has that info written
down, it would make a world of difference to the project.

I know the scale of the Tilden organ, but I need to know exactly what
instrumentation is being used, how many ranks there are and their dimen-
sions, as well as their position in the organ (no information is too
small).  I know that the Wurlitzer 165 scale and the 66-key B.A.B. scale
is virtually identical, therefore I intend to make the organ big enough
to accommodate both scales.  However, I would really appreciate it if
you guys could give me the scales for the Gavioli, Bruder, and Ruth, and
if anyone has the time, I'd also like verification of the 66-key B.A.B.
scale.  (Yeah, I know I need to get Art Reblitz's book to check organs
from 65-89 keys, so I can see if I can fit those in too.)  But wait,
there's more!

I'm still the starving college student, so I can't afford to buy
top-notch ranks of pipes.  Now I know that I can always grab broken
ranks of church organ pipes, but I really want to go for wooden pipes
as opposed to metal ones, primarily because of their ruggedness and
voicing.  Broken ranks of church organ pipes go dirt cheap, but make
for a quiet organ running on only 4" of pressure.  Now, we MMDians know
that you can't have a quiet band-organ -- ya just can't!  So, if there
are any of you out there who have ranks of wooden (or even metal) pipes
of any kind that are gathering dust or missing a few pipes, please
contact me and I'll see if I can afford what you have.

You know, it's interesting.  These machines are such mysteries, but with
this collective of knowledge, from Caulfield to Conant, even a kid like
me can come to understand it.

Warmest regards,
Marc Elbasani

 [ Hans van Oost sent us "Gavioli 87- en 89-toets modellen", at
 [
 [   http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/Scales/gaviolig.jpg
  (1.4 MB - huge!)
 [   http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/Scales/gaviolig.gif
  (169 kB)
 [
 [ Both versions are 300 dpi and will fit (barely) on 8.5" x 11" paper.
 [
 [ -- Robbie