•I am not able to shed a lot of light on the matter of keys raised by Gene Kuntz (Hi there, Gene! - Well done!), only to say it is a curious anomaly where MIDI organs are concerned, and I understand the problem. My own organ, "King Solomon", plays on 5 MIDI channels simultaneously and can play all t...

•I had the privilege to sit on a sofa next to a real virtuoso playing the hurdy-gurdy. (Disclaimer: I like bagpipes too, but this sounded much nicer). This was at a house party after a concertina workshop in Western Massachusetts. Everyone here calls my monkey organ a hurdy-gurdy, but I knew what th...

•The web site of Ulrich Stille is indeed very interesting. One way to translate from the German is by copying a phrase from the German site, then using that to search using Google. When the site is found, click on "Translate this page". The result of the first paragraph reads: "Music instruments fas...

•Hi, just wondered if anyone out there has any clever ideas on how to free up tuning wires on the reed pipes of a Wilhelm Bruder Modell 77 organ. The wires do not seem to be rusted, but are stuck solid! I have tried heating them slightly to make the metal expand, hoping when it cools it will be a li...

•It would be most helpful if some of our friends in England would copy down and report the exact ranks in the organ that each player system uses. The Style 10 has always been a subject of some confusion. Knowing exactly what ranks are used might clear up this mystery. The stop list from Durward Cent...

•Mark, The answer to your question [in the 070915 MMD about the Salomons Welte Echo Organ] is very easy. In the days of grand symphonic organs, the builders very often in- stalled an Echo Organ at the opposite end of the room from the main organ. Soft strings, dreamy flute celestes, soft trumpets, a...

•Hello, Serge, I'm Bob Loesch, from northern California, USA, and I used to run a clock shop called "Cuckoobob's Clocks", specializing in cuckoos of all sorts and ages. Although I never worked on a flute clock myself, I have seen many and I did a restoration of the reed portion of a Wehrle trumpeter...

•Hi all! I've been very busy with a woodworking project! I decided since I can't afford to get a fully built band organ I am making my own. It's a Wurlitzer 150. Check out my site: http://www.freewebs.com/bandorgan150/index.htm Anyone can leave a message on the blog on the site, or even email me. I ...

•I am looking to determine if some pipes and parts I have in my collection are from a Wurlitzer 103. Does anyone have a schematic overview of the windchest layout? I'm looking also to determine if there are bottom pipes. I have photographs of the roll frame from Jerry Pell's organ which do not do ju...

•Hi all, I have seen several organs that have Plexiglas installed in the front to quiet the sound in a building acoustically unsuited to the organ, such as a modern edifice with concrete walls. Old carousel buildings with good acoustics had wooden walls which promoted a warmer, less harsh sound with...

•I just wanted everyone to know I have finally released "The Best of Big Bertha" Vol.1, on CD. You can either purchase it via eBay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130242013845 or via my web site at http://www.bandorganmusic.com/BIGBERTHAVol.1.htm You can send me a check also. F...

•Thanks to advice and help from several London-area MMDers, I took a side trip from the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury and visited the Brentford Mechanical Music Museum near Kew Bridge in London. I was met there by fellow MMDer Jeffrey Borinsky, who made sure I saw all the best exhibits and who we...

•Thanks to everyone for the response. I now understand how it works. The organ I want to re-tune is a Wurlitzer 105, the second organ I've built. The first I built was tuned on pitch because of the trumpets that I used from a Wurlitzer 125 that I built 40 years ago. Since then, using Bob Stanoszek's...

•I continue to work on making better sound files of Aeolian Organ opus 1280. As I posted here earlier, my Podcast 2 on my organ web site is going to offer an ever changing sample of music from the Aeolian Duo-Art Organ. The latest change was posted today and celebrates "Meritorious Performances". Th...

•Hi Fellow MMD'ers, Hopefully this may be of interest to one or two out there. For some time now I have been thinking of radically thinning my collection down. I have made a start and put a few good quality disc and cylinder boxes on-line, along with an Emilian Wehrle Trumpeter clock, advertised on ...

•Hello group: I am building a MIDI version of a Wurlitzer 104/105. After a year and a half, it has reached the point where the organ is playing using the melody stopped flutes, the stopped accompaniment, the stopped bass and the piccolos. The trumpets are built but some have slow speech, so they hav...

•I agree, it is sad how carousels these days have turned off the band organs -- the "voice" of the carousel, and of the [amusement] park. I have heard complaints on both the type of music and the volume, mostly from the (usually young) operators. A plastic barrier seriously detracts from the carouse...

•Dear readers, I am in the final stages of putting together an article on the small organs that were some of the last built by the firm Wilhelm Bruder Söhne. I own one from circa 1935. They were available in either a book-operated version, Models 76 and 77 (the model 76 had no percussion), or a roll...

•Hello once again! In the early 1960's I used to care for the Violano and the band organs at Six Flags Over Texas amusement park. We had a Violano that had the converter changed out to an electronic power supply and I remember getting zapped by touching the piano, but that is not the point here. The...

•Perhaps I can shed a little light on the general state of band organs in big amusement parks. As the "band organ guy" at another amusement park in Pennsylvania (not Knoebels), I can tell you the following: - Organs on an outdoor ride are very difficult to keep in tune. Aside from the fact that it c...