[sdiy] New toy

[Theo]

Never heard of this one, but have seen (and repaired) some Hohner "home
keyboards" from the '70 and '80 that used reeds.
These didn't have amplification and sounded like accordions.
One had a second motor that was used for vibrato by opening and closing the
air input of the blower.

Hohner also did electric pianos that used reeds (Pianet).
I don't know what type of pick-up the pianet used.
Interesting was the way the reeds where exited.
When a key was pressed, little suckers pulled down the reeds.
About 3/4 of the key- travel the upward force became too large for the
sucker and the reed was released.
There was no real velocity sensitivity, but when you banged the keys there
was some nice added distortion :)

What are the text (fragments?) on the stops you can't read?

Cheers,
Theo


From: Ken Stone <sasami at blaze.net.au>

> Ever get the feeling you were in a Warner Brothers cartoon? I brought home
> an old organ from a garage sale Saturday, though when I powered it up I
got
> no sound, other than the usual background noise you would expect from an
> amplifier. The thing looks fifties, and obviously used tubes, though was
not
> as heavy as one may expect for something full of inductors.
> So I took off the back to see what was going on with the tone generators.
To
> the left was quite a nice tube amp with what appears to be pushpull 6L6
> output, and a substantial 12 inch speaker. To the right, on shock mounts
was
> a large chipboard box. At this point I knew exactly was I was looking at.
So
> after removing a dozen screws, I removed the box side and was presented
with
> .... a box. Again I removed a dozen screws, and removed the lid, and guess
> what... another box. This time admittedly there was something else - a
> crafted wood blower housing with a dirty great electric motor sticking out
> of it. More screws were removed, and this time I hit paydirt. There are
over
> 80 little reeds, much like those in a Wurlitzer electric piano, though
this
> time they are excited by the blower. Pickup appears to be electrostatic.
>
> Unfortunately the motor has gone open-circuit, probably due to corrosion,
as
> there appears to be a moderate amount of corrosion in the reed box,
despite
> the silica gel and all the successive boxes. Why all the boxes? to kill
any
> sound escaping from all those vibrating reeds, and to isolate the reeds
from
> any external interference. Each box was separated from the box it
contained
> by a 1/2 inch layer of foam, though this has long since turned to dust.
>
> The beast is a Hohner "Honerola", and searching the internet found mention
> of it once or twice, but with no details or photos. I get the feeling this
> thing is historically significant, and quite rare. It has a single 61 key
> keyboard, with 16', 8' 4' 2 2/3' and 2' stops, as well as four I cannot
read
> (in german). It also has an optional extra pedal board, and optional extra
> expression pedal. Volume is usually controlled by a sprung knee lever if
the
> expression pedal is not present. It is in a beautiful 50's style varnished
> (pine?) pale colored console.
>
> Has anyone on the list seen one before, or have an info on them?
>
> Ken
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Ken Stone   sasami at blaze.net.au
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