If you’ve noticed, I rarely update this page. Part of the reason is the non-stop deluge of comments from people making demands, trying to buy things that I’ve made pretty clear aren’t mine, and people trying to sell organs – which I can safely say are 99% scams. Well, congratulations dumbasses – no more comments. I am DONE with your laziness in finding out about things like:
A) Where you are.
B) What the purpose of the place you are is.
C) What a blog is.
Half of you people seem to think I’m running a store, even though it says RIGHT UNDER THE TITLE
“No. I don’t own them. Stop asking!”
And you run your mouth at me making demands like “I need this manual. I will pay five dollars. I need you to get it here by Friday.” without even checking to see if I have the manual in question or if you’re actually in a store!
And then there are you sad, sad old folks who are all to willing to give up your personal info, credit card numbers and all to a total stranger you’ve never even seen in hopes of getting the organ pictured.
Enough. I warned you months ago, but nothing has changed. You’ve just about killed what joy I had in doing this blog. When I get an email saying that a new comment awaits my moderation, I literally GROAN. I really wanted to just have a blog where people came and drooled over crazy organs, maybe talked about their experiences and shared videos etc. There have been a few of you that did just that. To you I say thank you and also I’m sorry. You were who I had in mind when I started this, unfortunately there are many more Archie Bunkersout there, ruining it for the rest of us.
“[V]ery nice Yamaha MR1 player organ. Everything works. missing one small knob. and we no longer have any of the player cards. But, you can play it yourself…..doesnt need the player cards for that! This is a great instrument that I dont want to store any longer! Comes with bench. Has smoke colored plexi glass hinged top.”
Asking price is $125.00 US. I bet you could haggle it down!
Here’s the manual (right click the image choose ‘Save Link As’) to help you decide.
It seems that the Hammond Piper Autochord is the most popular item here on Organ*Pron. Whether that’s because you all have one and want to see how much you can get for it (probable), or because everyone suddenly thinks they’re super cool (unlikely) I DON’T KNOW.
SO. Here’s an AUCTION (auction finished) out of Scottsdale, Arizona. The seller is asking 49.99 US. This one has a bench! PICKUP ONLY, although they will deliver anywhere in The Valley for 50.00 plus sales tax. Really nice clean model. Click for larger image.
“Thomas Monticello 371 Organ.. With MOOG Preset SYNTHESIZER.. A Sound For Everyone.. Owners Manual.. Two 44 Note Keyboards.. Power And Color Glo Switches.. Organ Control Panel.. Lower Keyboard Control Panel.. Synthesizer Control Panel.. Upper Keyboard Control Panel.. Radial Arc Pedal Keyboard.. Expression Pedal.. LESLIE And Variable Controls.. Pedal Voices.. Tremulant.. Solo Voices.. Percussions.. Headphone Jack.. Pedal Keyboard.. Lots Of Music Books And Bench Included……………………….
Church Registrations With MOOG Synthesizer:
Full Organ: Clear, Tone Good Choral Accompaniment.. Baroque Ensemble With Reeds.. Brilliant Ensemble With Reeds.. Sforzando: Bold, Brilliant With Reeds And Strings..
Special Registrations Moog Synthesizer And Organ: Barrel Organ.. Concert Grand Played In Octaves.. Harp.. Hawaiian Guitar Chorus.. Highland Pipers Chorus.. Honky Tank Piano.. Musette.. Marimba With Flute.. Novelty Reed With Organ.. Sitar.. Theatre Organ Tibia Vox Chorus.. Vision Ensemble With Organ………………….
Solo Moog Synthesizer Registrations: Smooth Trumpet.. Fat Trombone.. French Horn.. Tuba.. English Horn.. Bassoon.. Sub-Tone Clarinet.. Baritone Sax.. Alto Sax.. Violin.. Electric Bass Guitar.. Plucked Bass.. Flute.. Slide Flute.. Recorder.. Alley Cat.. Warbler.. Singing Voice.. Moon People.. Jaw Harp.. Happy Voice.. Tweedle.. Fire Siren.. Wart Hog…… PLUS: You Can CREATE Your Own Sounds.. Even The PHASER Sound From Star Trek…………….
Owners manual and music books included.. Even the Day Glo Self learning books…
NOTE:
It Would Take Pages To Describe Everything This Organ Can Do…………..”
I am FALLING ALL OVER MYSELF to recreate that Phaser sound from Star Trek on an organ! Finally, a dream fulfilled!
Okay, so I got this off of craigslist for 85 bucks total (50 for the organ, 35 to ship). It’s HUGE and weighs about 400lbs. I live on the second floor of an apartment building with rickety little homecrafted wooden stairs. Needless to say, the poor thing had to spend two days under a tarp in the alley. And wouldn’t ya know it, there was a massive storm that first night!
Luckily, MIRACULOUSLY, it survived getting wet and my pal Carlyle Haire and I hauled the thing off to his beautiful one story house in Lithonia, Ga. Everything works great (although I didn’t hook up the massive twenty-five pedal array, I’m certain that’s in order as well).
As you know, this is one of those ‘Fun Time’ band-in-a-box type consoles and not an organ in the classical sense of the word. In fact, with all of the levers down, it’s damn close to a synthesizer in it’s character. It still has a full set of drawbars, but a B3 it ain’t!
Being that I’m an experimentalist at heart, I’m ga-ga about this machine. It’s organ enough that you’ll know what you’re hearing when it’s played, but synthy enough that I can alter it’s sounds around to make it my main console.
The onboard drumbox is fantastic, super-fakey to the point of being textural at times. The auto chord function is really cool with deep basses and interesting progressions.
VOICES: Player Sound 16, Player Sound 8, Tenor Sax, Trumpet, Wow Mute.
DRAWBAR: Attack, Decay, Level, Cut, Peak.
okay, so there’s a mini analog synth in there. The ‘Player Sound’ levers allow the user to modulate on the fly.
Kawai Autorhythm
The on board drumbox is turned on when you flick the ‘Rhythmer’ tab (yes, ‘Rhythmer’)
The black and white pushbuttons are in two rows of 8.
TOP ROW: Waltz, Ballad, March, Tango, Rock I, Rock II, Rock III, Bossonova
BOTTOM ROW: Swing I, Swing II, Swing III, Samba, Mambo, Beguine, Cha-Cha, Rhumba.
Kawai Electro Chord
Break, Electro Chord, Rhythmer
Yeah, this thing is pretty awesome for what it is.
But this weight issue is an….issue.
So Carlyle and I have been thinking about this: Shedding the heavy, HEAVY wood, separating the amplifier and placing both into their own dedicated plexiglass consoles!! The other idea is have absurdly big handles, casters and built in dolly. I want to use this live, dammit!!
The Hammond Piper Autochord is the first ‘organ’ I ever got almost ten years ago. I paid 50 bucks to punk rock mavericks The Black Lips who practiced next door to my buddy Jason’s house (although it may have been Carbonas as they both played in the same house at the time, I can’t remember, man). I know! Most Piper owners get theirs for free!
Anyway, the Piper was issued in the year of my birth – 1970 – and was apparently the first organ to employ the ‘autochord’ system. As you can tell from the above photo (not mine), its brightly colored buttons and relatively compact size, that the Piper is of the ‘Family Fun’ category of organ.
It’s operation is weird. When the levers are in the ‘up’ position, they are off. Flip them down and they activate. The same is true for the Bass, Reverb, Rate (tempo for the on board drum box), Repeat (tempo for banjo, and vibrato) and Volume (main, drum box, solo percussion) sliders – down is louder, down is faster. It’s the opposite of almost EVERY other electronic device ever produced!
The levers are split into five sections – Bass, Accompaniment, Vibrato, Percussion and Solo.
The sounds are:
PERCUSSION: Piano, Harpsichord, Guitar, Sitar, Mallet Vibraphone, and Banjo.
SOLO: Trombone, Accordion, Flute, Violin, Trumpet, and ‘Dynamute’. What is ‘Dynamute’? Well Duke Ellington tells me that it’s that ‘Wa-Waa’ sound that a trumpet makes. As you serious musicians know, you can’t have a Sitar without that essential ‘Dynamute’ sound!
But it doesn’t really matter as none of these sounds are anything like what they claim to be, and that’s great. Sure it’s kinda cheezy but, as with any instrument, it’s all about how you use it. I’ve made some real creepy, atmospheric, Krautrock inspired tracks using the drum box and banjo with vibrato and the killer on board reverb.
It’s a shame, when I got this, it was dead mint. Then I moved into a rental house where, surprise surprise, the basement became a lake whenever it rained – and that year it rained almost every day in June. Before I was able to get a dehumidifier, the damage was done. The bottom of the unit is water damaged and I’m going to have to take it apart and clean it thoroughly to get rid of the clicks and pops.
But this may be a good thing as I’ve been wanting to replace the speaker with a quarter inch plug, and if possible, route the drum box to it’s own dedicated plug. Also, I’m curious if the volume pedal can be toyed with as I’d like to modify it to be an ad hock ‘overdrive’ by pushing it further than it was meant to go.
Here’s something interesting I’ve noticed. My Piper has a tape deck connected to a swivel that comes out from under the keyboard on the right hand side. I guess that was so 1970’s moms could toke joints and jam along to their favorite Helen Reddy / Captain & Tennille cassettes while the hubby was at work and the kids were at school. Well, this isn’t all that strange as this was a featured item of the Piper (thanks, Duke). BUT! If you check out the picture below you’ll notice that….
This one has it’s deck built into the unit! But WAIT! There’s more!
This one has no tape deck, but has an entirely different console / speaker cover with a silver chord guide (?) above the manual!
And none other than the legendary DUKE ELLINGTON pimped the Piper upon it’s release in1970!
In case you’re not in the mood to make your eyes bleed trying to read what the Duke had to say, I’ve done the heavy lifting for you (and am now typing this blind):
“For a long time you had two choices when you bought your first organ. You could get an inexpensive one that was easy to play, but sounded like a toy. Or, you could get a complicated one. And after two or three months of practice, treat your friends to a soul-stirring rendition of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’.
What you couldn’t get was an organ simple enough to learn on, but sophisticated enough to still be fun later on.
And that’s what I like about the Piper. It sounds like organ’s supposed to sound.
After all, it’s a Hammond and they invented the electric organ in the first place. But the Piper doesn’t have a mass of pedals or a double keyboard. So it’s much easier to play.
Besides, the Piper does a lot all by itself. Push a button, and you get rhythm. Hold your left hand on a couple of keys and it plays chords automatically.
There are seven different rhythms, too. Latin, Western, Parade, Rock, Ballad, Waltz and, one of my favorites, Jazz.
And the Piper can sound like a Piano, Harpsichord, Sitar, Guitar, Marimba, Banjo, Trombone, Accordion, Flute, Violin, Trumpet or any combination of them.
And it’s got an earphone jack.
And a dynamute effect. (You know the wa-waa sound a trumpet makes? That’s a dynamute effect.)
You can even get a Piper with an optional built in cassette recorder.
And you know what you can get a Piper for? Less than a thousand dollars.
Look, if you’re a real organist, there are 35 Hammonds to choose from. And there isn’t one I wouldn’t recommend. But if you’re just starting, and what you mainly want is a good time, look at a Piper.
After a few days, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you started sounding a little like Duke Ellington.
Well… at least a little like Count Basie.”
Now, let’s alter a few lines for the sake of truth:
“And the Piper makes weird sounds called (but sound nothing like) Piano, Harpsichord, Sitar, Guitar, Marimba, Banjo, Trombone, Accordion, Flute, Violin, Trumpet or any combination of them.And the Piper can sound like a Piano, Harpsichord, Sitar, Guitar, Marimba, Banjo, Trombone, Accordion, Flute, Violin, Trumpet or any combination of them.”
&
“And you know what you can get a Piper for? Less than a dollar.”
What I like is that you can tell Duke turned the unit on, played it for about 1:30 to get a feel for it, then recited the features, pimped real Hammonds and disses Basie. Check, please!
HAMMOND PIPER AUTOCHORD FUN FACT:
When promoting the Piper, Hammond toured a group called ‘The Piperettes’! The Piperettes!!!
There was also a Hammond Piper II, but I haven’t played one. Hey, organ fans! How about one of you submit your take on the Piper or Piper II in the comments section?
And now I leave you with the most disturbing video I’ve seen on Youtube in a while. The ruthless owner disabled embedding, so follow the link. Pray for that Piper, folks.
Organ*Pron 
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