Dismantling an old organ I found by the road side

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[@rolab280]

The 12-pin packages are the dividers. The main oscillators (whith variable inductors or caps rather than multiturn pots, in this case I believe it is inductors) send a signal with each main tone (hence the twelve oscillators) to be divided. Then there is one cable to each key. The bus on the keyboards will forward the squarewave from the dividers to the rest of the toneshaping circuitry.

[@rolab280]

Edited som spelling mistakes :-)

[@junksmith_wizard]

The cabined with the reverb and some of the other components could be used to make either a really stylish guitar amp or like a salvage pedal of some sort. GREAT VIDEO🤟

[@pbartmess]

This is so interesting! Thank you for commenting on all the components and mechanisms. It is very instructional and fascinating.

[@Abihef]

How great stumbling upon this. I'm also restoring an old organ I found. It's gonna be a lot of work though since the bottom half was rotten by heavy water damage and part of the keys are rusted but it's a great opportunity for learning and honing skills. Plus since its half decayed I won't feel so bad for modding it with my own invented sfx👌😁 (lot of work to be done though). But real nice seeing this.

[@Abihef]

Nvm, think you just demolished something special

[@dtharmo]

Wow that speaker! Really pleasant organ unboxing, thanks!

[@sarawallace7252]

I took apart an old piano and it was a big job. I watched to see what was in an organ, to see if it would be hard. This looks like a piece of cake compared to a piano!

I burned a piano once. And all that was left was the string assembly. It was really cool and I should have kept that one. But I am sure taking apart a piano is much more work than an organ. :)

[@sarawallace7252]

Kristian, it's dangerous. Gotta get those strings off first. That's the hard part.

[@recyclop4058]

Super inspiring video once again Kristian! I have very similar Kawai here at home, functioning otherwise fine but some switches need bit of love. Been thinking of putting it to better use, but like to keep most of the existing functions. After your video I started thinking of building a separate combo amp out of the speaker and the amp circuit. The frame I thought of being base for the modular. Two 19" racks where the speaker now is. Key beds, foot keys, knee and foot controls in to CV and maybe MIDI as well. Drum machine and the base thing that are next to key beds as separate eurorack module and in place of them I'd add some eurorack space mainly for control modules. Sound switches on mine are on separate third row so maybe they may stay where they are, but some eurorack compliant inputs and the same for arpeggiator....hmm..lots of ideas. Or I keep it mostly as is but split the key information for CV/MIDI outputs...we'll see. Thanks for the inspiration anyway :)

Wow. You got quite the project ahead of yourself then. ;) I have one functioning in my studio aswell. I didn’t want to keep this as it has been standing outside in the rain and was quite banged up. Come share your project on the discord once you start. :)

[@electronicgarden3259]

Listening to the wind and birds outside someone's else house 😃 Beautiful field recording 😉

[@electronicgarden3259]

This is interesting, Kristian. Some years ago I was offered an electric organ at the local recycling centre. It was much more modern than yours and in a really good condition. But what to do? I didn't have the place for it and it was too good to scrap for parts. But the personel was going crush it with a bulldozer anyway 😔 I could never work at a place like that. I would bring everything home after work 😅 I would like to find some in a bad condition otherwise I wouldn't have the heart to take it apart.

[@pi6706]

Great video, just to see that weird looking speaker! I wonder if the idea of that large single speaker was to achieve the best sound possible from a small, low powered amplifier. I presume this is a lower-end organ as it is not packed with circuit boards like some of the Yamaha Electone models from the same era.

Yeah. I guess it was a budget solution that also was quite sturdy and could take quite a beating. I also think it was a lower end model.

[@pi6706]

@ Of course it is a Yamaha though so the build quality looks decent.

[@markhammer643]

Many, though not all (as clearly illustrated by this organ) dual keyboard console organs also contain a rotating speaker mechanism. Typically, they are 8" speakers, rated at around 20W, with a dual-speed belt-drive motor assembly, and a beige styrofoam "cheese wheel" rotor that the motor spins. It's not a "true" Leslie speaker with separate rotors for highs and lows, and built-in tube amp, but they sound *wonderful* . The entire assembly can be easily removed and installed in its own cabinet, where you will have to provide its amplification and appropriate foot or manual switching to select between slow, fast, and "brake" speeds. I've built two of them over the years. People may *think* they know what chorus or flanging effects are supposed to do, but once you have a taste of the spatial swirl of a rotating speaker, you're hooked. The *movement* of the sound is as critical as the doppler effect produced. Some people have had success mounting the units to spin on the horizontal plane, but they tend to work with the least problems when mounted to spin in the vertical plane. With a rectangular cabinet, that will mean that the rotor will briefly be pointed "down". But as long as the top and side vents are unobstructed, you still get the rotating speaker effect. It seems every day I see such organs listed on 2nd-hand sites for either cheap prices or else "free to a good home, must pick up yourself". Definitely worth taking advantage of.

Thanks for the information. I will definitely be on a lookout for one of those in the future. :)

[@markhammer643]

@ Some years back, a local pedal-producer, who made a well-respected clone of the old Boss CE-1 came over to the house. I asked him if he had ever played through a rotating speaker, and he hadn't. I feel that EVERY musician needs to play through a rotating speaker at least once in their lifetime. Well, he *thought* he knew what "good chorus" was supposed to sound like, but was absolutely blown away when I brought out the rotating cab made from one of these former organ units, and he plugged in.

[@SamsungUser69]

That is the strangest speaker ive seen!

[@rmanpojo8485]

always listen to you're mother Kristian ;-) (or girl friend/ or sister)

[@SiiteerGaming]

ok so even outside of the us you can find free stuff in dumpsters and roadside feels like a meme post from r/synthesizers

I think the important thing is to look. I think people love to get rid of their junk in the whole world. ;) and one mans junk is another mans treasure is also true around the world. Imagine how much cool stuff must be laying around polluting the environment in the countries that takes care of all our trash. It’s sad and exhilarating at the same time 🥴🙃

[@SiiteerGaming]

@ yeah that so true

[@organfairy]

It's much easier to go through the second hand sites. I recently got a free Yamaha organ from the 1980s - it was heavily smoke damaged, though, because it came from a family of chain smokers.

[@genericaveragehumanpersonv4748]

Is that a Yamaha Natural Sound speaker?

[@rohanrefuge262]

Is it in working condition

Never tried to turn it on. Since it was lying by the roadside I guessed it was water damaged. Still. I wanted the keyboards mostly to make a nice cv controller with (hopefully) 😅