Re: Wurlitzer 125 and 150 Band Organ Rolls
By Robbie Rhodes
Thanks to all who responded to my question about the scale of Wurltizer 125 and 150 rolls; special thanks to Jody and Robbie Rhodes for much helpful info.
Apparently David Wasson is interested in what I am up to. Here are some of the band organ developments around our place these days.
We've wanted a small band organ for over a decade. About a year ago, after much pondering, considering the alternatives of restored vs. new, we decided to go for new. We looked at a couple of options including the small Pell 30 key, small Stinson, and Ragtime instruments, we decided to have a company quite prominent in the pipe organ business do the honors. (For now, because of the problems to be revealed below, I will not reveal the company name: in due time, when all of this washes out, I will be more than pleased to let you know the builder: in fact, when it finally gets done, you're all invited to a blast at our place - that's a threat!).
The firm building the organ (actually a small street organ) has built a large number of small "monkey organs" that have been sold under private brand names for several years. These are 20 note instruments that do not have a roll-playing mechanism, but rather a computerized system that activates the valves to the pipes. Pell uses a similar system and the Hofbauer system is very close to that of these monkey organs.
We decided on this route for a combination of reasons including the ability to truly design our own organ case, cost, sound, and some business relations I have with the firm.
The organ being built for us will have 20 notes and 46 pipes. There will be 20 wooden bass pipes, 13 pan pipes, and 13 violin pipes. The pan and violin pipe registers can be turned on and off independent of the rest of the organ as will the percusiion which includes bass and snare drum, cymbal, and glockenspiel.
The 20 notes are:
F (below middle C) Bass wooden pipes start here
A#
C
D
D#
E
F
G Pan and Violin ranks start here
A
A#
C
D
D#
E
F
G
A
A#
C
D
Well, the organ is built, but they are having difficulties with the computerized system and getting it to function properly with the percussion. I am not a "techie," so I cannot be very informative about the specifics of the problem. However, the firm is working with an outsider, who also is an agent for the monkey organs, on both the monkey organ and our band organ systems. (The systems are to be virtually identical except for the percussion.) If all else fails, I have suggested going to a roll system or some derivative thereof. In our last conversation, I was told that the people working on the programming have held out the possibility of having to go to a system that would play Wurlitzer 150 rolls if the programming problems are not worked out soon.
So, basically, I was checking out the configuration of the 150 and 125 rolls to see if that is "doable" from a music standpoint. We shall see. I will keep folks informed of developments. Not much will happen for several weeks because the person who is project manager for the band organ is on vacation.
Thanks again.
Bob Ebert |
(Message sent Tue 29 Aug 1995, 17:35:26 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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