I wanted to tell you about the Welte organ in Scotty's Castle in Death
Valley while it is fresh in my mind.  This time of year is wonderful,
as the wildflowers are out and the air is warm night and day.  The
pools at Furnace Creek Ranch and Furnace Creek Inn are spring water at
84 degrees F.

Scotty's Castle is more human scaled than Hearst Castle, and the music
room is one story high with one wall of organ grills, and two chambers.
There is a horseshoe console with colorful stop tabs with about 15 8-foot
stops on the solo.  There is a player console with white rocker
switches that look like they duplicate the tabs on the big console,
there is a player (off the organ at least) grand, and there is a built
in roll cabinet holding about 8 rolls.

The organ plays from MIDI and the tour guide pushes a button and a
different song plays each time.  I heard The Entertainer, a Bach Ariosa
(?), and a big band piece.  Marimba and piano can play if called upon.

The tracker bar is the only big player organ bar I have ever seen.  It
has a long row of evenly spaced holes and two equally long slots, one
above the holes and one below.  The slots are about 3/32 inch wide and
about 1/32 deep and have about 4 small holes evenly spaced.  The small
holes go into the tracker bar, and if you put tape over the bar, all 4
small holes in each slot would seem to be pneumatically connected.

The rolls are all Welte but for one.  It is a Wurlitzer player organ
box.  Oh yes, in the back corner is a small keyboard that will play the
chimes in the bell tower.

I would love to tell you more, but the tour guide was a highly
motivated woman who intended that we touch nothing, hear  all about
Scotty, touch nothing and hurry right along.  On the plus side, nothing
got touched and the organ was in tune and played for every tour.

Allan Merralls

 [ John and Bill Malone rebuilt this organ in the 1960s, I believe.
 [ Since then the Castle has changed owners a few times, and the MIDI
 [ control is a recent innovation. -- Robbie