Hi Group,  May I pester you with a question?  I recently acquired a
1929 Wurlitzer 105 band organ.  It has been heavily used and somewhat
abused, the pipes repaired with duct tape and Popsicle sticks.

When tuning was started it was tuned to A=424 Hz.  I asked if it could
be taken up to A=440, which has caused some pipes to go crazy just as
they were about to reach pitch.  They may just need repair, as the
tuner has been doing as we go along.  He found three distinct corrosion
lines on the tuning slides and wires.  So it would appear that it had
spent time at three different tuning standards.

I was speaking to another collector and it was his feeling that it
should be tuned to A=435.  I chose A=440 because it would have been the
standard in 1929.

I checked Ron Bopp's book "The American Carousel Organ" and Art Reblitz
"Treasures of Mechanical Music."  I also have the Stanoszek 105 book, and
none of them give the standard frequency for "A".

What do you believe it should be tuned to?  A=435, A=440, or none of
the above?

Thanks,

Jack M. Conway, Los Angeles, California, USA

 [ Unless the instrument has bells, or it must perform with a concert
 [ band, there is no need to tune it to a specific concert pitch; just
 [ tune it to whatever pitch works best!  -- Robbie