Hi all, I just had to share this with all of you.  I just drug home
what I believe to be one of the few surviving Wurlitzer 145 band
organs.  According to Ron Bopp's book, "The American Carousel Organ",
only 13 of these organs were produced by Wurlitzer.  It was discovered
here in Puyallup, Washington, at our local annual fair grounds.  It
originally provided music for the fairs PTC 3-abreast carousel.

It has sat silent now for many years.  I have volunteered to help get
this running again so it may once again provide music for the carousel.
I have had experience in the area of orchestrion build-ups and the
usual player piano stuff, but this is my maiden journey into the world
of band organs.

It appears that the organ was retired when about half the valves failed
to operate, being totally clogged with dirt due to the absence of its
tracker bar screen that should be sandwiched between the two tracker bar
halves.  A few strokes with the old Kleer-Note tracker bar pump yielded
a big mess of dirt flying everywhere as the system is so clogged up.

Are there any specific tuning tips and tricks for the pipes in this
animal?  It has not seen a tuning in years, as a run-through with the
Wurlitzer 150 test roll clearly indicates.  The organ was obviously
rebuilt maybe some 30 years ago, and should be back on the road again
after some tweaking and tuning, as the fair board does not want to dump
a bunch of money in it as of yet.

Any tuning tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated.

Bill Masterman
Tacoma, WA
spoolframe@aol.com