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

[jpdesroc at oricom.ca]

15 years ago I’ve been given a vintage Electrohome Kinsman Clarion organ

that had 2 x 61 keys pretty ‘water fall’ keyboards.

And this organ was made of nice walnut wood.

A ton of 12AU7 tubes in it (LOL..)

I salvaged one of the manuals to make a ‘basic’ MIDI master keyboard.

The first picture shows the other remaining manual stored in my basement..

The second picture shows the actual finished product.

I used some of the original organ’s wood parts for my casing.

 

By the way the remaining manual is for sale

But it is heavy and made of sturdy metal (no plastic).

Each key has 4 separate brass contacts touching bus bars.

 



 

 

 

 

 

>>> 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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