Steve Cobb asked:

> First, what is the scale of the organ?  Do the flute and piccolo
> ranks cover the same scale?  What is the bass scale?"

We made the pipes and chests for the OGM Monkey Organ.  The 18 bass
notes are GG, AA, D, E, G--g#.  The 23 flute and piccolo pipes are
a--g chromatic, the piccolo is an octave higher.

> Second, is there some sort of maintenance feature that allows for
> repeatedly sounding the same pipe?  There are some scales on the
> music cartridges, but the note durations are short, and there seems
> to be no way to get back to a particular note except to start the
> scale over.  I had hoped (wished) there might be some way to use the
> keypad to directly input a note that could be sustained for a long
> period.  Any tips that would speed the tuning would be welcome.

When we made the organ, I wired a keyboard to pins that the chest
cable would plug into.  Galen had a similar set-up with push buttons.
I don't know if he offers anything.  You could probably use a Radio
Shack breadboard and jumper wires to rig a tuning device.  The chest
ribbon cable includes the return wire for the magnets, so you have to
observe the correct polarity when plugging it in.  All of the magnets
have diodes attached for spark suppression.  If I remember correctly,
it is a positive return system.

> And although I suspect that I'm out of luck, were there more than
> two music cartridges released for this organ?  The literature I've
> seen only refers to the 100 or so songs of which about half are
> Christmas or holiday music and the other half are a mixture of mostly
> traditional music, but should I be looking for other cartridges?

Galen used a MIDI system in later models that was user programmable.
I think it can be retro-fitted.  The issue with the cartridges was that
music under current copyright could not economically be included with
the cartridges.  The cartridges are proprietary, designed by one of the
original partners.

The original design had a different configuration for the bass pipes,
since they had to fit into a given case.  The later instruments had a
simpler bass pipe arrangement and the case was re-dimensioned to fit.

If a louder flute is wanted, we can provide a Doppleflute for the 23
treble pipes.

John M. Nolte - Nolte Organ Building & Supply, Inc.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
tel.: 1-414-671-5646