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I live about 100 miles from Knoebels and we usually go there once or
twice each summer.  Haven't been there this year yet.  It's a very
nice park, a wonderful, beautiful, almost magical place.

To the best of my present knowledge, Knoebels has eight band organs,
two calliopes, and a coin-operated piano.  It's always possible that
something has been added that I haven't heard about yet.

First there are the organs at the Grand Carousel: the huge Frati and
the "Berni" book music organ (made by Gebrueder Bruder -- the Bruder
Brothers).  Both of these organs were bought with the Grand Carousel
in 1941.  The third, and smallest, organ at the Grand Carousel is of
foreign make, probably by one of the Bruder firms.  At some point it
was converted to play Wurlitzer 125 rolls, and it has the only
"duplex" roll system playing 125 rolls I've ever seen.

The organ at the "kiddie" carousel is often mistaken for a Wurlitzer
146 because the front is somewhat similar, but it was originally a
Wilhelm Bruder barrel organ.  It was the first band organ ever to be
at Knoebels.  During the 1920s it was converted to a duplex system
playing Wurlitzer 150 rolls.

This organ got into bad condition during years of use and storage and
had to practically be remanufactured to get it playing again.  Very
few pipes in it are the original ones, so it probably sounds quite
different now from how it sounded when new.  Be that as it may, it's
my favorite organ to listen to at Knoebels!  While it was in storage,
its carved front was used as the front of a ticket booth for a number
of years.  The organ was restored and the front reinstalled in the
mid-1980s.

The large organ near the Phoenix roller coaster is often thought of,
and referred to, as a Wurlitzer 165, but it started out in life as
a DeKleist barrel organ.  At some point it was converted to a duplex
system that plays Wurlitzer 165 rolls and, because it had originally
had the drums inside the case, probably the side wings were added
then, and the name was changed to Wurlitzer.  Changing of brand names
on organs was very common long ago.

Let's see.  They also have a delightful little Wurlitzer 105 organ,
an Artizan C-1, and a small Limonaire that plays books.  These organs
aren't in daily use in the park, as the others are.  And there is a
Wurlitzer Caliola that was another huge and difficult project to
restore, and a Tangley Calliophone.  The coin-operated piano, a
conversion from an ordinary foot-pumped player piano, is in their
Mine Museum.

The person mainly responsible for getting all those musical machines
into fine playing condition and keeping them that way is David Wynn.
Excellent job, Dave!

There is a very nice book written by Harry Deitz about the history of
the Knoebel family and their amusement park.  It can be bought at the
park.  Much of the information I've written here came from that book.

Jules Shaffer