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

[Roman Sowa]

Anything can be MIDIfied, and stripping old electronics out is most 
common procedure. I rarely hear the request from anyone to preserve 
original cheesy analog sound of some organ during MIDIfication, which is 
usually made in order to play samples taken from real pipe organ from 
around a world.

Not all MIDI kits cost 120EUR. Half of that is more common. And I can't 
figure out why people still buy old and expensive Doepfer kit, designed
20 years ago with 40-year old technology and still manufactured in this 
form.

Roman



W dniu 2026-09-07 o 21:28, Steve via Synth-diy pisze:
> 
> Yeah, on the German market anyway the most floating around have about 4 
> octaves per manual.
> 
> There is the occasional Dr. Böhm one with more, e.g. from the late 1970s.
> Can those be well MIDI-fied? I guess much easier if you strip the 
> original sound electronics?
> With long traces or even wires for such long keyboard assemblies... 
> would you bother adding anything in between an MCU and those key 
> contacts? ESD protection, any sort of driver ICs? (the available kits 
> seem to have chips like that on them).
> I'd suggest to him using a cheap MCU devboard, instead of some kit for 
> 120€... Would be surprised if there wasn't some MIDI thing on github 
> already.
> He _did_ try arduino before, not successfully though :D But the general 
> will is there, hehe.
> 
> 
> On 07.09.26 20:50, Tom Wiltshire wrote:
>> Sorry Roman, I don't agree about point (2). In my experience, most 
>> home organs have two manuals of 44 keys. Good for making a couple of 
>> monosynths though!
>>
>> I do completely agree that the old keybeds are *far* better than much 
>> that came later. There were some *terrible* Hammond organs made in the 
>> 1970s/80s after they stopped using tonewheels - the electronics are 
>> standard stuff for the era and completely uninteresting - but the 
>> keyboards are absolutely solid and reliable! (but weigh a ton!)
>>
>>
>>> On 7 Sep 2026, at 17:29, Roman Sowa via Synth-diy 
>>> <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> 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
>>>> ________________________________________________________
>>>> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
>>>> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>>> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
>>>> Check your settings at: 
>>>> https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>>> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org
>>> ________________________________________________________
>>> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
>>> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
>>> Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________________
> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
> Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org