[sdiy] Salvagable keys from old keyboards, organs? (for Virtual Organ build)
Mike Bryant
mbryant at futurehorizons.com
Wed Sep 9 00:06:02 CEST 2026
*
1950-1990 white elephants organs are usually free for the hauling
If someone knows of any such 'white elephants' needing hauling around south Manchester way please let me know !!
________________________________
From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org> on behalf of Phillip Gallo via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Sent: 08 September 2026 21:19
To: cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com>
Cc: synth-diy at synth-diy.org <synth-diy at synth-diy.org>
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Salvagable keys from old keyboards, organs? (for Virtual Organ build)
This thread began with the implementation of GrandOrgue sample in a institutional quality (or impersonated quality) instrument.
The obvious idea is to get a multi-manual 5 octave organ and replacing the tone generation with "organ sample" reproduction.
Described this way only institutional quality organs would do unless two keyboards is enough (parsimonious from most Console or Theatre instruments POV.)
The next obvious is get a somewhat large contemporary keyboard (1950-1990 white elephants organs are usually free for the hauling) Rip the guts out of this desperately broken organ unit and recover the case as a housing.
Good Luck! With time, effort and wisdom this would quickly acquire bragging rights. You could steal the (or leave in place) tabs from the original organ to re-use for the Stops of the new instrument.
If a broken or un-usable instrument give life to a new one.. how wonderful.
On the other hand, history shows we rarely regret saving an instrument, but we frequently regret destroying them.
I have a Yamaha Electone 205D and a Lowrey Symphonic Holiday both sport dual 44 key manuals. The Lowrey has a wonderful, waterfall keyboards of the type Jean-Pierre Desrochers's Electrohome Kinsman Clarion pix shows.
The Yamaha has "diving board" keys. Neither keyboard impedes performance (yet). This is lucky due to the reality of Roman's observations about "mechanical quality" not guaranteeing switch integrity.
Time unmakes some things while the issues involved with "Have organ, Will Travel" usually implies possible degradation.
The Kinsman Clarion organ keyboard as large as it is (a Hammond of the era is even larger), if playable then i bet it describes as nothing short of "wonderful".
After playing the generality of commodity MIDI keyboards, playing these of waterfall .. soft yet elastic; ..easy yet firm keys immediately produces the imagining of it driving your gear instead of those bubble contact switches (although there are fine keyboards available today using the this using this tech) .
Note:
It's important to keep the young from reading Allen Douglas or the result can very often be at least one organ in the bedroom or garage.
p
On Tue, Sep 8, 2026 at 10:10 AM cheater cheater via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:
no, i've played with the "lesser" ones too, they really are good
quality and have a great sound. they're just not ph4t b455 m0n573rz so
if someone's a moron they don't know how to use em in a song. but
musicians know what to do with em.
On Tue, Sep 8, 2026 at 5:37 PM Steve via Synth-diy
<synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:
>
> On 08.09.26 11:53, cheater cheater via Synth-diy wrote:
> > Any electone is much too good an instrument to scavenge for anything.
> > They are sophisticated, high quality instruments, do not destroy them.
>
> Some people on an organ forum seem do disagree for some of those,
> attesting thin sound and saying things like "Yamaha was never really an
> organ company".
> I certainly would not suggest destroying like an D85 or E70 (?) - those
> things can sound incredible :-D
>
>
> On 08.09.26 13:07, Roman Sowa wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> IDK either :-D It's what he found, I guess.
>
>
> - Steve
>
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 8, 2026 at 1:11 AM Michael E Caloroso via Synth-diy
> > <synth-diy at synth-diy.org<mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:
> >> 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<mailto: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<mailto: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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