[ Editors note: [ [ I spoke with Gordy by 'phone today and asked him to describe [ his organ projects. The conversation and his follow-up letter to me [ are quite interesting, presented here somewhat edited. [ [ Robbie Rhodes My Wurlitzer Style 155 "Monster" is actually the first one, and was built...

•Greg Przyjemski is seeking design ideas for his proposed musical box. At work today I spoke with a talented mechanical designer who built a large Irish harp, and we discussed the classical design of the sounding board and sound chamber. The harps sounding board forms one surface of the long, slight...

•Jack Littlepage inquired about his Reed-Pipe Clariona. The "Reed-Pipe" device fits over the music roll and gives the organette some expression. Hopefully, Jack's still has the reed-pipe device attached. An excellent source for rolls for the Clariona and other organettes is Ed Schmidt's Music Rolls...

•I read with great interest Ed Gaida's report on the actual paper work for the Nyles-Bryant course. As another who has gathered so much junque over the years, the name reminded me of a unique item I purchased at some auction sale and keep parked on one of my pianos as a conversation piece! This item...

•Hi, all! I have really been enjoying the opinions and masterful information from all of you. I am daily reminded of how uninformed I am. First of all, I noticed a comment on Deagan Unifons (?) and I thought someone might be able to help me. I have a Deagan Celesta-Chime. It is a roll playing, ampli...

•Hi, In regards to David Repanshek's post: Wurlitzer trombones speak at the 8' pitch. That is from C below middle C and up. Wooden trombones in Wurlitzers are mitered 90 degree with no ill effect on the pipes. The problem you might run into with voicing reeds is that the tuning or voicing wire is no...

•Hello Everyone, and Happy Holidays to all ! My name is Tom Detweiler, and I am glad to find you all here in one spot. I have been tuned in to the site for a couple weeks now, and found it quite by accident when searching for "White Metal" model parts. It is a valuable resource! I own a #34 Orchestr...

•Greetings: Don Teach mentioned in the 990125 MMD that some early Gibson banjos had a little door on the back just for insertion of a light bulb to heat and tighten the calfskin head. Actually, these were called Gibson "Trapdoor" banjos. The trapdoor's purpose was to regulate tone and volume, althou...

•I believe that the difference in sound between metal and wooden pipes is mostly due to the shape. Sheet metal can be rolled and soldered to make round pipes, whereas wooden slabs are easily glued in polygonal shapes. A simple wood pipe should sound the same if duplicated in metal. Research comparin...

•Tall pipe dreams Richard Schneider's posting in 1999.11.02 MMDigest, about Arp Schnitger's chimney, reminded me I was recently consulted by an enthusiast about how to celebrate the millennium with a flue pipe concert on the chimneys of a decommissioned power plant. Since those were some 20 meters h...

•Harvey Chao asked: > Do "reed stops" actually have a vibrating physical element/reed, > or is it all how the pipe is physically arranged that produces > a "reed" voicing ? The reed stops on a pipe organ do indeed have a vibrating physical reed, usually made of brass. The 'pipe' of a reed pipe funct...

•Harvey, To answer your question about "reed" stops on a pipe organ, the answer in short is "Yes". In general, reed stops really do have vibrating reeds in them. The shape, size, dimensions of the reed and the resonator (the long tube portion that is visible) all determine the final tone of the stop...

•For those interested in the technical details of organ reeds (the beating type used in pipe organs), there is a book entitled "The Organ Reed" by N. A. Bonavia-Hunt that is interesting reading. There is a great deal of material as to the theory and operation of the reed pipe mechanism and the facto...

•John Spradley wrote in 000116 MMD: > ... I ran across a statement that Helmholtz built cardboard pipes > for use in his studies of sound. As I remember it he was attempting > to show that the pipe material didn't matter much (probably only > small pipes). Can anyone shed any light on this? Somebody...

•Mark Kinsler reminds us of some "nylon cable tie" devices that talked when you ran your fingernail down them. We had them in the UK too. Back in about 1980 a work colleague appeared with one that had an advertising slogan on it. The product was "Fruity Friends Yoghurt" and the strip said "Hello Fru...

•Dave Goggin wrote to the MMD Pipes Forum: > I am no fan of reed pipes, mainly because I don't understand them. > (Well at least I'm honest.) So I guess the deal is that you tune > the reed to exactly the note you want, you find a resonator (sawed > off a flue pipe?) of the same frequency and pop it...

•Hmmm. My understanding is that "zither" covers them all. Some of the other names derive from a common term: zither, cytherium, cithera, cittern, gittern, guitar, sitar, kithara, chitarra, and on. From "Musical Instruments of the World" we read on page 164: "Chordophones are instruments in which sou...

•[ Danielle Squyres asked in MMD 010113 how to fabricate and tune [ the Deagan Organ Chimes. The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet in Disneyland play one of a few remaining sets of Deagan Organ Chimes. I hope that is one park tradition that hasn't been tossed. To raise the pitch on the Organ Chime Tube...

•Many, many thanks to the people that responded to my tuning question. You people were great! However, I should have been more clear on my part. Although Deagan Organ Chimes are the "official" name for them, most people call them "Shaker Chimes". I should have included the nickname "Shaker Chimes" b...

•In cleaning out a storeroom at a church that was disposing of their pipe organ I found 22 Vox Mystica pipes from a "Fotoplayer". They are stamped with the number 8019 # 10 in addition to the other markings. The bad news is that there are only the major portions of two octaves. The lowest note is C ...