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W125 test roll
Test Roll & Tuning
Wurlitzer Style 125 Band Organ
compiled by Robbie Rhodes
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TUNING
WURLITZER BAND ORGANS
Style 125

For your convenience, place the instrument on two blocks about 18" high, supporting the sides of the case, so that you can see the pipes contained in the bottom of the instrument from below.

The instrument contains 22 stopped pipes in the bottom, and six stopped and one open pipe, A-flat, and also 28 open (Violin Pipes) in the main case. In the front there are 13 Flageolets, 13 Brass Trumpets, 13 Brass Piccolos, and five wooden Trombones. There are stops for the Trumpets, Flageolets, and Piccolos, also one stop in the main case for the open Violin Pipes. The latter stop should always remain open.

Before tuning, close all the stopped pipes in the bottom and main case. also close A-flat and the six stopped pipes on the left inner side when standing behind the instrument, with some soft paper, just tight enough so that the pipes will not speak, but that the air will pass through the pipes. Also close Trombones, Trumpets, Flageolets and Brass Piccolos, by pulling the respective stops. Place the tuning roll on the tracker frame and connect the paper with the take-up spool. Push the Stop Lever to the right, press the Rewind Pneumatic to the right a trifle, and pull the hook down over the screw. The tuning roll can now be moved back and forward over the tracker bar from one perforation to the other. 

Start the instrument and tune the open pipes in the main case. Tune the Fifths a little flat and the Fourths a little sharp (Temperature). When this has been finished, continue moving the tuning sheet, and tune the open pipes in octaves in the succession as they will sound. When all the open pipes have been tuned, open the stopped pipes in the bottom, and then those in the main case, and then tune them to corresponding open pipes. Then proceed in the same way with the Flageolets, Brass Piccolos, Trumpets and Trombones as the tuning sheet will indicate. Test all the pipes and see that the instruments speak properly. If they do not sound clear, it may be caused by dust or some little dirt accumulated in the pipes, which should be cleaned with a feather or some thing similar.

Reproduced from original Wurlitzer pamphlet courtesy Dana Johnson
 

korgCA20.jpg (24 kb)
The reference pitch was set to A=442 using the calibrate button.
The display shows note B at -13 cents (flat). The octave is not determined.




Dana Johnson says the organs he has worked on typically sounded about one whole step higher than the Wurlitzer documents say it is.  Therefore I call it a "transposing instrument", just as saxophones are transposing instruments.

Band organ technicians recommend that the organ not be tuned to concert pitch (A=400 Hz) but to tune it to itself, such that the tempermental reed pipes speak reliably and play well.

This is my suggested steps for tuning the organ.

Tools and supplies:
 - paper tracker bar scale
 - electronic tuner with microphone which displays the pitch of the note it hears, e.g., Korg Chromatic Tuner CA-20
 - tools to adjust the pitch of the organ pipes
 - hearing protection

1. Make the paper tracker bar scale:
a.  Make a simple tracker bar scale of a strip of heavy paper, about 1 inch high and slightly wider tha 6 inches.
b.  Mark the tracker bar channel holes.  This can be a pencil rubbing.
c.  Number the channel holes 1 through 45 beginning at the left (bass) edge.
d.  Mark the channel numbers on the Wur 125 test roll using the paper scale and the tracker bar channel assignments data in the Wurlitzer 125 Specification.

2.  Make a list of the frequencies (pitches) actually played by the pipes.  Play the test roll slowly.
a.  Temporarily cover all but the tracker bar bass channels (expose holes 3,4,5,6,7).
b.  Play the "bass notes test" section of the test roll very slowly and write down what the electronic tuner says.  Be sure note record the tuner reference frequency displayed at the upper left.  For example:

ref. A=440 Hz.
hole / display
3    A -11
4    D -13
5    E -08
6    F# -15
7    G - 17
 
 

w125testRoll.gif (20 kb)








27 March 2003

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