On Sat, 12 Oct 1996, William Maxim wrote: > Sy - > > You wrote > > >Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 23:06:41 -0600 > >From: Sy Zabrocki <only4zab@imt.net> > >Sender: owner-pianotech@byu.edu > >To: "'Pianotech'" <pianotech@byu.edu> > >cc: "'Sy Zabrocki'" <only4zab@imt.net> > >Subject: Name This Instrument > > > >One of my customers has an unusual instrument. I promised him I > would use > > this media to at least find out it's proper name. > > > >It looks just like an old upright piano but it is an organ. The > name on > > the fallboard is Sears & Roebuck. The cabinet is mahogany with > some > > flower type designs in the music board. It has 88 keys. The left > right > > pedals are actually treadles and the middle pedal is a coupler. > There are > > three stops which pull out like an old reed organ. There are > probably > > three or four sets of reeds. It still plays quite well. > > > >This is about the third one of these I've found down through the > years. > > I've seen a couple also that looked like an small old square > grand. I > > thought there was a name like "manualo" or something similar for > these > > instruments. > > > >Naturally this owner is curious if there is antique value. He > would like > > any information that might be out there in musicland. > > > >Help us out on the name if possible please. > > > >Sy Zabrocki > > > > possible please. > > > >Sy Zabrocki > > > It is a reed organ. I have serviced (cleaned, repaired, etc) two > of them over the years. One was made by Cornish, and I can't > remember the other. I will forward your request to the Reed Organ > Society and see what I come up with. > > Bill Maxim, RPT > Hi! An interesting sidelight to this story is <why> they looked like pianos. In their heyday, reed-organs were pitched to families who couldn't afford pianos. Consequently the budget-priced organ was made to look like a piano so your guest would think you actually <had> a piano. Kind of like the current practice of putting digital pianos in grand cases, eh?! Gordon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gordon Wilson Keyboard Studio voice 217.328.3975 304 N. Maple Street fax 217.328.3983 Suite 203 toll-free 800.821.1197 Urbana, IL 61801 e-mail gwilson@prairienet.org home page http://www.cu-online.com/~gwilson "Music? Computers? Both!? We want to help!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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