Friday, December 26, 2008

Mole Anyone?


First off, the Mole is NOT mine. This rather festive-looking gift which was given to Grammy, totally grossing her out (and my cousin who took the picture) is apparently some sort of Mexican condiment. Go figure, it's pronounced: Mo-LAY. I read the ingredients (which were not in Spanish) and no, mole meat is NOT one of them. :D

Merry Christmas! It's OKAY to say it!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Okay, here are some more of the organ pieces-parts. These are not in chronological order. Everything was out of the organ case by the time these were taken, so I don't remember when they should come in order. Sorry.


Electronics sure have shrunk, haven't they? By the way, this is one of the percussion circuits.


A generally dark (and darkly general) view of the Leslie unit.


A look down into the rotor. There is a speaker in there somewhere! :-)


And finally, the motors. Yes, there are two of them here, one for each speed! Slow is on the left, and fast on the right.


The upper manual keys.


This is the upper manual keyer block. (The wires are supposed to be straight.) Horizontally, each wire is a note. Each vertical wire is for a different type of stop. So, when a key was depressed, all the wires in that column got pulled up together against another set of contacts (not shown,) but only the stops whose tabs were engaged would sound. I hope that makes sense...


The back of the upper manual keyer block. The flat tan things are early integrated circuits.


The filter circuits. These are passive (meaning they require no power) high-pass and low-pass filters for shaping the raw signal from the oscillators. Most consist of a coil, a capacitor and a resistor. High- or low-pass is determined by either the resistor or the capacitor being connected to ground. (I don't remember which is which.)


Another view of the filters.


The Oscillator. One of them, anyway. There are twelve altogether. They generate an harmonically rich waveform (probably close to a sawtooth wave) at a given pitch in three octaves. (In this case, the pitch is A.) The remaining two octaves provided by the manuals and the bottom octave of the pedal (16') are produced by the divide-down method* common in organs like this one.


The back of the oscillator circuit board showing (at left) where it was 'plugged in' to another board along with the rest of its brethren.


The oscillator divider boards for the manuals and the pedal divider. *Okay, more about the divide-down method. In this method of tone generation, the 12 oscillators produce the highest chromatic octave available on the organ. The raw signal is then sent to a divider circuit (which basically halves the signal.) This is repeated as many times as needed to produce all the notes. In this organ, the oscillators divide the signal down twice internally, so for these 5-octave manuals, only two more dividers are needed. The pedals require one more division of the signal, but since they are monophonic (playable only one at a time) the required circuitry is (obviously) different.


Upper left cheekblock with stop tabs and related circuitry. The white buttons at the far left are cancels.


Why Thomas made this an internal control rather than an external one is something I don't understand. Note that vibrato is DIFFERENT than Leslie Tremolo. Vibrato actually varies the pitch of the oscillators, while the Leslie system takes advantage of the Doppler effect to produce the warbling. Vibrato is electronic, tremolo is mechanical.


Preamplifier circuits. This is also where some signals are mixed before being sent to the main amp.


The lower left cheekblock with percussion controls, couplers, and another percussion circuit.


The bottom of the same, showing switches and electronics.


The lower right cheekblock with more percussion controls and output controls.


Such names! 'Vibraharp' is sustain for the gray (flute) stops, and 'Hawaiian Guitar' is the sustain for the red (reed) stops. The remaining three tabs control which sounds go to which speakers. The black switch at far right is the Leslie speed control switch.


Leslie motor switching circuit with capacitors on the power supply to keep the amp from popping every time you change speeds.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Organ Part Photos 1

Well folks, here are the pictures. After some thought about how to format this, I decided to arrange these photos in the order in which their subject was removed from the organ case. Speaking of which...

The Disemboweled:

The case, ready for clean-up. (Note the 40+ years' worth of dust.)
The swell (volume) pedal still needs to be taken out.

The inner box (which housed the Leslie system) will also be removed.

Okay, now on to the good stuff... :-)


A look at the back panel shows heavy modifications. :-)



One of the two 12" main speakers (e.g. not Leslie.) It's in pretty good shape for its age.


Here's the amplifier and related wiring. Or, rather, amplifiers, because it's actually in two halves - one for the Leslie channel and one for the Main. It does more than just drive speakers, however. It is also the power supply for the entire organ, and it is in control of vibrato(!) (I'm still confused as to how it does that.) As far as condition goes, the Leslie side (right) is in good working order. The Main has a bad tube and so basically all you get is white noise. I was more than a little surprised to learn (after having already taken it out of the organ) that the transformers in this thing develop up to 390 volts! (Delicate, my foot!) Needless to say, Mother did not take to that concept too well. :-) Thankfully, it's all contained inside.

Here are some close-ups:


A type 12AX7 tube proudly displays the Thomas logo.


Here's a 12AU7 (and its twin on the other side of the line.)


Four 6GK6s standing at attention.


And last but not least, a big ol' 5U4.


A couple of capacitors(!) with thumb for size comparison. :-)

To be continued...

Monday, December 8, 2008

Something Went Wrong...

Something went wrong. I told you this was supposed to be a weekly Baroque music/video blog. Well, that doesn't seem to be working quite the way I intended. My big plans for it have all, like sheep, gone astray. SO, I've decided to turn this into more of a general 'what's up with me' type of blog.

Right now, I'm working on transforming my Thomas VL-3A electronic organ into a 2-manual, 25-pedal MIDI console with which to play some virtual pipe organ computer programs that I have. This involves completely removing the case of all its previous inhabitants so as to make room for the MIDI keyboards and interface. Stay tuned, as I will posting pictures of all the parts and pieces - including a lovely old tube(!) amplifier with a nice, warm overdrive that's great for guitar. :-)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

''Gott ist mein König''

Hi! Well, here's my first post! And luckily for me, I didn't have to write any info on it! :)
The text is all from video's page on YouTube. This is a great video of some great music. The musicians are wonderful (you can't beat Germans playing German music, after all,) and the message, which is literally: "God is my king," is timely. In the shadow of a President-elect with a not-so-Godly agenda, it's something we all need to work at remembering. God is on His throne, and those who trust in him need not be afraid.
Enjoy!



And here is the link to the second half...

A recording of the Michaelstein Telemann Chamber Orchestra at St. Mary's Church, Mühlhausen.

1. Chorus [Tutti]:

Gott ist mein König von altersher, der alle Hilfe tut, so auf Erden geschicht.

2. Air [T-S con Corale in Canto]:

Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr, warum soll dein Knecht sich mehr beschweren?
Soll ich auf dieser Welt
Mein Leben höher bringen,
Durch manchen sauren Tritt
Hindurch ins Alter dringen,
Ich will umkehren, dass ich sterbe in meiner Stadt, So gib Geduld, für Sünd
Und Schanden mich bewahr,
Auf dass ich tragen mag
bei meines Vaters und meiner Mutter Grab. Mit Ehren graues Haar.

3. Chorus [Fuga]:

Dein Alter sei wie deine Jugend, und Gott ist mit dir in allem, das du tust.

4. Arioso [B]:

Tag und Nacht ist dein. Du machest, dass beide, Sonn und Gestirn, ihren gewissen Lauf haben. Du setzest einem jeglichen Lande seine Grenze.


In Mühlhausen, Bach worked at the "Divi Blasii" church, but had much better conections to the nearby St. Mary's Church, where the preacher Georg Christian Eilmar was a great admirer of Bach's music. St. Mary's, Thuringia's second biggest church (is a fünfschiffige Hallenkirche), was built at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and was made famous through the activities of Thomas Müntzer in 1525.

Bach's working life in the Reichs city of Mühlhausen in 1707-08 - brief though it was - yielded important church music compositions. To mark the Council Election he composed this cantata, which was performed in St. Mary's Church on 4th February 1708.

The Telemann Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1952 by Eitelfriedrich Thom. It devotes itself chiefly to performing works by unknown composers of the 16th to 18th centuries in the middle German region. The orchestra uses historical instruments.