So this weekend and a few weeks ago I recieved two items from my grandmothers estate from when she passed away a few years ago.
First, a pipe organ:
Yes, it was a pipe organ. It was bought from a church in the 1950s when they got a new one. The pipes were removed and an electric (fan) blower was installed. I have no idea on the date of it\'s manufacturing, but there was this on the inside for the tremolo unit:
yup, the tremelo is a piece of cardboard on a stick that the blower spins around to create the warble. copyright renewed, 1869 by vox who later made kick ass amps. :holyshit:
the stops, hence creation of the phrase "pull out all the stops" (make things as loud as possible)
You can kind of see this in the bottom of the first picture, it is one of the knee guards. You push them out to the left and right which opens up gates internally to push more air through, giving it a HUGE sound as a result. I have not figured out the full toneality of what it does, but it adds in octave notes and when this is open and fills in more of the overal tone. Grand organ indeed.
The coolest thing is that aside form the blower added in the 50s, the whole thing is wood, metal and cardboard and works on simple mechanics. Crazy. A few sour notes but I think that is because the vox cardboard broke off in one corner and there may be a problem with one of the knee guards as well. Otherwise though it works great. Nothing like jordans organ, this is good at playing slow swelling chordal music like life wasted reprise by pearl jam or motion picture soundtrack by radiohead.
The other one is this: a 1923 London upright Edison record player. It predated victrola (think of the dog logo), but you have to crank it up and it plays out of the horn just like a victrola would a few years later. Only plays edison records, but I have 19 of them. you can just see the horn at the bottom of the picture:
Thanks grandma.
