Many years ago Kimball built several models of an electronic player
organ.  Model 702P was one.  The model 500 had the spoolbox mounted in a
box on top of the organ; later models had the spoolbox mounted inside the
top of the organ under the music rack; it was hinged to move out of the
way to put in a roll.

I have since acquired an "Organ-matic" organ player unit. It was designed
to add the ability to play piano rolls on almost any electronic organ.
The unit wired into the key contacts and pedal switches.  Mounted in the
back of the unit were approximately 60 plastic valves operating leaf
switches, and (in the earlier versions) micro switches for the pedals.

The unit sits on top of the organ.  The music rack of the organ is
removed to make room for the player, which was designed to replace the
music rack when the front was closed.  The valves were mounted in the
back of the unit, and hung down behind the organ.  A small power supply
and a small vacuum pump (mounted in a can the size of a 1-gallon paint
can) were installed inside the organ.  A vacuum line, power cable, and a
multi-wire cable made up of magnet wire which wired into the organ would
then come out of the organ through a hole in the back, then go into a
hole in the bottom of the player unit.  When installed the player unit
does look fairly nice on top of the organ.

I have since rebuilt the unit, which was no fun. The valves all had
Perflex pouches!  Getting the plastic valves apart to replace the pouches
is difficult without cracking the valves.  The player also had a few
tubing errors in regards to pedal(bass) notes and the overlap between the
pedals and the lower manual.

I re-tubed the player to allow the use of Kimball player organ rolls, as
well as still being able to play 88-note and Ampico rolls. (I can see
some of you cringing at that thought.  The results are actually quite
good!)

I installed a rotary valve to re-route a few of the note lines, due to
the fact that some of the Kimball rolls were for a _reproducing_ player
organ (although I have never seen one of the beasts) which had mute,
soft, and accent holes cut into the roll around the middle of the first
octave of note holes in the tracker bar.

I am now looking for any player organ rolls anyone might have to sell or
trade.  Bear in mind that these rolls are standard 88-note type, 11-1/4
inch wide and 9-to-the-inch spacing, just like a piano roll.  The real
differences include:

a. A _very_ short leader, due to not having to do anything to the roll to
make it play other than hooking the end-tab onto the takeup spool and
switching the organ to Start.

b. The label says "Kimball Player Organ Roll" or "Reproducing Organ Roll"

c. The arrangements really *stink* when played on a piano!

Most of the rolls (I have 2-3 dozen) were cut by QRS, and have roll
numbers like KM-1234, and were packed in red QRS boxes like the piano
rolls, although I have a few rolls in blue boxes with "Kimball" printed
on the box with a section of sheet music wrapped around the box.
If anyone has any of these rolls they would like to sell, let me know.

If anyone has one of these player units (called the "Organ-Matic Player
Unit", built in Illinois) and would like some info on restoring one of
these things, let me know also.  (And trust me -- you _will_ have to
replace the pouches in it!)

Mike Carey
mcarey@usit.net