<div dir="ltr">Old Yamaha 1970s "Electone" home organs are a good source for scavenging parts. I used to own an E-5, those have a pair of 61 note keyboards. I scavenged a ribbon controller out of one of those.<div><br></div><div>MC</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Sep 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM Dixon, David via Synth-diy <<a href="mailto:synth-diy@synth-diy.org">synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div style="line-break:after-white-space">
I have been salvaging keyboards from old organs for many years. In Vancouver, we have “junk day” once or twice a year where people can leave big unwanted items in front of their houses to be picked up by the sanitation department for free. Of course, people
put things out a few days early, and people drive around looking for good stuff. I’ve picked up many old electronic organs in this way. I used an old Farfisa keyboard for my modular synth. I used a Yamaha keyboard for my DS-3100 polyphonic synth project.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Yamaha keyboard was a matrix keyboard with bubble switches and diodes. I simply removed the PCB and replaced it with PCBs of my own making which brought the contacts for each key out to pin headers. The bubble switches are surprisingly responsive
to touch, and can facilitate lots of articulation. You can hear all about it in this YouTube video, between about 2:00 and 4:00...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbtxMdQE64A" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbtxMdQE64A</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div>Doc Sketchy<br>
<div>
<div><br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>On Sep 7, 2026, at 9:29 AM, Roman Sowa via Synth-diy <<a href="mailto:synth-diy@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a>> wrote:</div>
<br>
<div>
<div>[CAUTION: Non-UBC Email]<br>
<br>
1. yes, you can get dirt cheap organs, especially in Netherlands, that's what I heard the most. About 100 EUR might get you nice big organ with decent keyboards<br>
<br>
2. Typical old (20-40 years) organ has 61 or 56 keys. It must be very old or specificaly made for certain playing style if it has 4. You'd be surprised how those very old keyboards are excellent mechanically, but unfortunately they have poor contacts made of
silvered springs.<br>
Basicaly all organs younger than 40 years use plastic keys and rubber contacts with diode matrix, sometimes spring contacts, but also matriced. And no, they were not made in "max cheap" mode ever. you may need to clean it, or replace contacts, but it's not
comparable to today's definition of brand new cheap keyboard.<br>
<br>
3. There's no such thing as decent cheap keyboard. Either it needs a lot of work to restore it and install new contacts, or you buy new one especially made for organists. Good Fatar organ keyboard cost about 600 EUR. And I haven't mentioned yet the modern wooden
keyboards made for MIDI organ consoles today, that's 2 to 8 kEUR.<br>
<br>
A lot of organists just take off the shelf M-Audio keyboard and say it's just good for what they need.<br>
<br>
Roman<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
W dniu 2026-09-07 o 17:43, Steve via Synth-diy pisze:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Howdy,<br>
I met a very young fella who became enthusiastic about playing church organs, where I practise singing.<br>
He is not averse to some tinkering, if not super experienced. He e.g. MIDI-fied the pedals he got used "cheap" using a MIDI-fying kit, I reckon like how Doepfer or similar sell them.<br>
He has been looking for months now, for an affordable solution to get some manuals i.e. keyboards assembled to be able to play the GrandOrgue software on a computer at home.<br>
I gave him the tip of looking for salvagable home organs of the 1970s or so... But those seem to have mostly 4 octaves per manual.<br>
He says he needs 61 keys.<br>
I am wondering now:<br>
1. were there ever home organs one might get for cheap or free today, made with modular-ish key assemblies, where you could use parts from more than one organ to assemle an octave more for each manual? I remember seeing some YT disassembly vids of 1980s or
so keyboards where they had octave-wise panels.<br>
2. speaking of: are there any old mass-market keyboards one might get cheaply, from what ever decade, with 61 keys which one might salvage? Reasonable playable ones, too? :-D<br>
I'd reckon they were made in a max cheap way that doesn't invite well the extraction of only the keys/matrix parts, but who knows.<br>
- Steve<br>
________________________________________________________<br>
This is the Synth-diy mailing list<br>
Submit email to: <a href="mailto:Synth-diy@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">Synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a><br>
View archive at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/" target="_blank">https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/</a><br>
Check your settings at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy" target="_blank">
https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy</a><br>
Selling or trading? Use <a href="mailto:marketplace@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">marketplace@synth-diy.org</a><br>
</blockquote>
________________________________________________________<br>
This is the Synth-diy mailing list<br>
Submit email to: <a href="mailto:Synth-diy@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">Synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a><br>
View archive at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/" target="_blank">https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/</a><br>
Check your settings at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy" target="_blank">
https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy</a><br>
Selling or trading? Use <a href="mailto:marketplace@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">marketplace@synth-diy.org</a><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
________________________________________________________<br>
This is the Synth-diy mailing list<br>
Submit email to: <a href="mailto:Synth-diy@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">Synth-diy@synth-diy.org</a><br>
View archive at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/</a><br>
Check your settings at: <a href="https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy</a><br>
Selling or trading? Use <a href="mailto:marketplace@synth-diy.org" target="_blank">marketplace@synth-diy.org</a><br>
</blockquote></div>