Category Archives: modifiaction

No More Comments.

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 Bunkers out there, ruining it for the rest of us.

ARP String Machine MELTDOWN!

This week is a good one on the ‘bay if you’re an ARP string machine fanatic – also somewhat frustrating.  Click titles to go to the matching auction.


ARP Quartet


ARP Omni

And then these two poor bastards who no doubt had their filters removed for some synth DIY bologna!

ARP Omni sans VCF & ASDR filters

ARP Omni II sans MANUAL

oh man, that’s gotta smart.  On the bright side – if you bought both of these, you could probably cannibalize one to feed the other – it’s totally feasable at 49.99 each!

Buy them for me.

Kawai E600A part 1

I’m about to embark on a project…

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.

The sounds are as follows:

UPPER PERCUSSION

Piano, Harpsichord, Mandolin, Banjo, Marimba, Upper Percussive 4 & 2 2/3, Wow Repeat.

INDEPENDENT SPEAKING VOICES

Tibia 16, String 16, Major Flute 8, Bourdon 16, String Bass, Diapason 8, Tibia 8, Oboe 8, Horn 8, String 8, Clarinet 8, Bassoon 8, String 4, Tibia 4, Tibia 2-2/3, Tibia 2.

Kawai Voice Drawbar

16, 8, 4, 2-2/3, 2.

Kawai Synthesizer

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!!