[ Bob & Sonja Lemon wrote to Ed Gaida: ]

> BTW, have you ever encountered or rebuilt a Unafon?  Talk about a
> mind blower!  We had to restore a Unafon that has been coupled to a
> pipe organ and used on the Mickey Finn TV show years ago.  After the
> show ended, the Unifon and other organ parts were left out doors to
> rot, somewhere in Las Vegas area.
>
> These were purchased, sight unseen, by someone in the foothills of
> California.  He was legally blind and didn't know what he was
> getting!  He, in turn, sold this Unifon to someone in Crockett CA
> and we got the rebuild job.
>
> Threw out the keyboard, Threw out the frame which was twisted wood,
> and started from scratch!  New metal frame, new resonators for 1/3
> of the Unifon (base).  (The original resonators had been removed
> because the packing crate was not big enough to accomodate the
> longer resonators.)
>
> The bell bars were in a sad state.  The electric beater assembly was
> even worse.  After seed blasting everything to clean it up, we had
> to come up with replacement electrical contacts and adjusting
> springs.  We scrounged every surplus store in the city, looking for
> tungston contact assemblies.  A new metal mounting bracket was made,
> a new keyboard made from  electronic organ parts and Sonja rewired
> the whole thing. We used telephone cable with a quick disconnect for
> interconnect for the keyboard.
>
> The tuning was one hellacious job with many hours of listening to
> horribly loud bells! <G> We delivered on July 3 to be used in a
> parade on July 4.  Why do we take these kinds of jobs??  <VBG>
> [Very Big Grin!]
>
> The tuning job is much worse than tuning a calliope because the
> resonators also have to be tuned and the complicated reiterating
> contact system has to be adjusted.
>
> Thanks again for your help.


When I was in the Deagan factory in 1974, there were barrels of Unafon
parts, or did I tell you that already?  I know that I told someone.
I was already working on their tubular bell carillons, the big HEAVY
jobs, not the electronic ones.  Once again I had the run of the factory
and met June Albright Howard who since 1941 had "recorded" all the
rolls that Deagan made during those years up into the electronic period
when I.T. Verdin bought out the chime division.  There was a room full
of the electric players that they offered to GIVE me and I did not take
them ... dumb me!

By the way, there is always a discussion about paper for rolls.  The
Deagan rolls were cut on tympan paper, which is a tough oily paper used
on printing presses between the impression surface (type) and the paper
to be printed.  You can buy it from any printing supply house and it
comes in various widths.  It had to be tough, as the rolls were read
just the way Mills Violano rolls were.

It was on that trip that I learned how to make xylophone and marimba
bars, and I spent hours in the tuning rooms watching those guys tune
the rosewood bars.  There was a giant room of rosewood that had been
rejected, and before I left I had packed 200 pounds of Brazilian
rosewood to be shipped to San Antonio.  Deagan sold it to me by the
pound.  I made xylophones for our nicks for years, and I still have
some, but any very hard wood can be used, and the tuning is not that
hard.  They all used strobes, the old Conn's with a dial for each note;
no turning the dial to select the notes.

Wow, you get me started and I cannot shut up.  I am going to write all
of the above and more as a post to the MMD.

Take care.

Ed Gaida