[HAM] Blank keys/tones

[Scott Hawthorn]

At 08:44 AM 6/9/2003, step5066 at bellsouth.net wrote:

>While playing my Model A, I noticed that there were some keys that seemed
>to be missing tones. I thought this was because a wire or contact had gone
>bad on the key itself. I compared the tone on the keys of the great with
>corresponing keys of the swell via the first black preset key. I found out
>that certain keys would not play on the first and second preset key of
>both manuals when I pulled out one drawbar. Is this normal? Judging by the
>strategic muting of certain keys, it seems that this would be normal. Then
>again, the closely related muting of these tones could be just a
>coincedence. Anyone have any insight?

OK, there are plenty of ppl here who can answer this, but I guess I am the
one with the free time.

It's not normal operation, but it is consistent with there being problems
at the generator. This is very common, especially if the organ was moved
without fastening-down the generator. We know this because the absent tones
are missing from the same keys on both manuals. If you pull out a drawbar
one octave higher than the one you're testing with now, you will see the
same tone is missing when you play the key an octave below. (Occasionally,
the feeder wire soldered to the back of the manual will be broken, but this
is much more rare.)

Look at the tone generator: the wires along the top go to the manuals. Some
of them will be broken off. It should be a simple matter to re-solder them,
since they will be very near their associated lugs. If you want to test a
lug to see what tone it's putting out, fasten a wire to one of the top
preset bars (rows of bars on the right), and touch the other end to the
lug. The tone should play.

If there are no broken wires, then you have more serious problems with the
generator. We won't go there now.

-Scott