[sdiy] Salvagable keys from old keyboards, organs? (for Virtual Organ build)

[Michael E Caloroso]

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.

MC

On Mon, Sep 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM Dixon, David via Synth-diy <
synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:

> 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.
>
> 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...
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbtxMdQE64A
>
> Cheers,
> Doc Sketchy
>
> On Sep 7, 2026, at 9:29 AM, Roman Sowa via Synth-diy <
> synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>
> [CAUTION: Non-UBC Email]
>
> 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
>
> 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.
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> A lot of organists just take off the shelf M-Audio keyboard and say it's
> just good for what they need.
>
> Roman
>
>
>
> W dniu 2026-09-07 o 17:43, Steve via Synth-diy pisze:
>
> Howdy,
> I met a very young fella who became enthusiastic about playing church
> organs, where I practise singing.
> 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.
> 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.
> 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.
> He says he needs 61 keys.
> I am wondering now:
> 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.
> 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
> 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.
> - Steve
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