[sdiy] One Octave Foot Pedal Project

[Theo]

Don't think there is a real "standard" for the number of pedals on a pipe
organ.
The choice between straight, concave and radiating concave might be a matter
of "school" and also cost.
Sure enough  radiating concave seems the most ergonomic for most pp.
But straight and concave pedalboards are also common at least in the
Netherlands.
I actually prefer concave above radiating concave.

My pedalboard is a 2nd hand from a church organ and has 30 notes with
"Dutch" (straight, flat) pedals.
However the pedals rise towards the side under the bench,
pedals on the outside more so than those in the center,
result is a "semi" concave board.
This makes playing easier than on standard straight boards,
especially when you go with one leg behind the other.
Me likes it :)
BTW Never seen this elsewhere.
Maybe it was a experiment to fit a more ergonomic board to a organ build for
a straight board.


Theo




----- Original Message -----
From: Roy J. Tellason <rtellason at blazenet.net>
To: Synth-Diy <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 2:15 AM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] One Octave Foot Pedal Project


> On Saturday 10 July 2004 10:44 pm, Glen wrote:
>
> > Just in case anyone wanted more details:
> >
> > The AGO (American Guild of Organists) standard for a pedalboard is 32
> > notes. The surface of the pedalboard is concave in shape, and the pedals
> > are arranged in a radiating pattern--not parallel to each other. You
will
> > find this on full-size organs, especially pipe organs or electronic
organs
> > built to sound and play like pipe organs.
>
> Having had to move these several times while working on them (and yes,
they
> are normally removable without too much trouble :-),  I know exactly what
you
> mean here...
>
> Best one I can recall was a 1940 vintage Wurlitzer that was in a church,
that
> had, after it had been put in place,  had a "choir loft" built around it.
> That didn't give me a whole lot of room with the bench and pedalboard in
> there.
>
> As it turned out,  there was next to no electronics in the console,  it
was a
> _reed organ_!  Most of the electronics were in the tone cabinets,  and it
> took some doing to get to them.  That involved carrying what I needed up a
> rather rickety wooden ladder that was NOT attached to the wall and up
through
> a hatch to get to where they were.  Tube checker,  etc. went up the ladder
> with me.  The floor up there was carpeted with dead bats,  over which I
had
> to walk to get to the tone cabinets <crunch, crunch...>
>
> Darn near 30 years ago and I still remember it well!
>
> > The BDO standard is 30 notes. I'm not sure what the abbreviation stands
> > for, but it seems to be a standard somewhere other than in the USA.
>
> Don't think I ever encountered one of those,  only 32,  25,  and 13 on
spinets
> (sometimes 12 if it was a real old Hammond :-).
>
> > Hammond organs with supposedly "full pedalboards" had only 25 notes, the
> > pedalboard surface is flat, and the pedals are parallel to each other.
This
> > was done as a cost cutting measure, once Laurens Hammond decided that
most
> > organists didn't use the highest notes of the AGO pedalboard very often
> > anyway! Later, Hammond did produce some organs with full AGO
pedalboards,
> > but this was only done on a few models intended to please the
pipe-oriented
> > AGO crowd.
>
> Do you happen to recall which models those were?  Most of the Hammond
stuff I
> encountered was smaller models.  Some of the later solid-state stuff was
> truly awful,  in terms of how much noise came though when you weren't
playing
> anything.
>
> > Smaller organs,  especially those made for home use, often had a 13 note
> > pedalboard, instead of a full pedalboard. It is flat, with cantilevered
> > pedals mounted in parallel fashion, permanently attached to the organ.
(The
> > larger pedalboards are not usually permanently attached to the organ.)
This
> > is no doubt a big cost cutting effort, and it relies on the idea that
most
> > beginners won't miss those extra notes anyway.
>
> One pro player I used to do work for had a couple of different sets of
pedals
> that he'd use with a small Rhodes.  He wanted to be able to use them with
his
> Hammond spinet as well (I don't believe that this guy actually hauled that
> thing around himself!),  so I got a hold of a friend of mine who was good
at
> woodworking,  and we built a "box" of sorts under there where the old
> pedal-board lived.  I installed a power connection,  and a length of wire
> that terminated in a 1/4" plug,  and was wired to the pedal drawbar.  It
> worked out pretty well,  actually,  and he was pleased with the result and
> could get the sound he wanted,  and didn't need a separate amp for that
pedal
> board.
>
> > As for portable organs, such as combo organs, I believe that most of
those
> > had 13 pedals. I can't say that with certainty, because I haven't
> > personally seen too many portables with a pedalboard attached.
>
> I remember a bunch of those that had a _connector_ for one,  but don't
> remember too many with pedals attached,  either.  Though one of my
earliest
> recollections was some of the nifty bass sounds you could get out of a
> Farfisa with that one octave of reverse-colored keys (I must've been about
14
> or 15 at the time  so yeah,  it was nifty back then!  :-)
>
> > Also, the bottom note is always a "C" note on all the pedalboards I've
> > seen. (I've seen quite a few.)
> >
> > As a historical note, there were also a few "double" pedalboards made a
> > long time ago. I'm told that they had two rows of pedals, with one set
> > hinged at the organ side of the pedalboard, and the other row of pedals
> > were hinged at the player's side of the assembly. Yes, one pedalboard
> > "pointed" toward you, while the other pedalboard "pointed" away from
you,
> > and the two pedalboards met each other in the center of the assembly. It
> > seems this was an early attempt at a "two-voice" pedal system--not just
two
> > notes, but potentially two different organ voices simultaneously
accessible
> > from the pedalboard. I've never seen one, and they were something of an
> > experimental feature that apparently died out a long, long time ago.
> > (Possibly due to the impact of a large meteor?)   :)
>
> This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing.
>
> > So if you want to gather up some maple hardwood and make your own
> > pedalboard, and you want to make it to some sort of common standard, the
> > above information should help a little bit. If anyone needs standard
> > dimensions for pedalsticks, I could probably come up with that also. It
> > shouldn't be too hard to build your own from scratch, instead of relying
on
> > cannibalizing an existing organ.
>
> Speaking of cannibalizing,  the worst setup I ever saw was one where
somebody
> had removed all of the actuators from the pedal set of a B or C series
> Hammond (I don't recall which model) and mounted something in the console
> that had little bitty *push buttons* on it!  This was some aftermarket
gizmo
> that somebody had bought,  and had installed,  and the sound was truly
> horrible.  The person who called me in wanted the original setup restored,
> so I did that,  and in an attempt to fix that aftermarket crap I had to
> replace *all* of the push buttons,  as they were all pretty much shot.
> Broken contacts,  partially broken contacts -- these were _open frame_
> buttons!  Not at all robust,  and certainly not capable of withstanding
the
> force that was being applied.
>
>
>
>
>
>