[sdiy] New toy

[Ken Stone]

Ever get the feeling you were in a Warner Brothers cartoon? I brought home
an old organ from a garage sale Saturday, though when I powered it up I got
no sound, other than the usual background noise you would expect from an
amplifier. The thing looks fifties, and obviously used tubes, though was not
as heavy as one may expect for something full of inductors.
So I took off the back to see what was going on with the tone generators. To
the left was quite a nice tube amp with what appears to be pushpull 6L6
output, and a substantial 12 inch speaker. To the right, on shock mounts was
a large chipboard box. At this point I knew exactly was I was looking at. So
after removing a dozen screws, I removed the box side and was presented with
.... a box. Again I removed a dozen screws, and removed the lid, and guess
what... another box. This time admittedly there was something else - a
crafted wood blower housing with a dirty great electric motor sticking out
of it. More screws were removed, and this time I hit paydirt. There are over
80 little reeds, much like those in a Wurlitzer electric piano, though this
time they are excited by the blower. Pickup appears to be electrostatic.

Unfortunately the motor has gone open-circuit, probably due to corrosion, as
there appears to be a moderate amount of corrosion in the reed box, despite
the silica gel and all the successive boxes. Why all the boxes? to kill any
sound escaping from all those vibrating reeds, and to isolate the reeds from
any external interference. Each box was separated from the box it contained
by a 1/2 inch layer of foam, though this has long since turned to dust.

The beast is a Hohner "Honerola", and searching the internet found mention
of it once or twice, but with no details or photos. I get the feeling this
thing is historically significant, and quite rare. It has a single 61 key
keyboard, with 16', 8' 4' 2 2/3' and 2' stops, as well as four I cannot read
(in german). It also has an optional extra pedal board, and optional extra
expression pedal. Volume is usually controlled by a sprung knee lever if the
expression pedal is not present. It is in a beautiful 50's style varnished
(pine?) pale colored console.

Has anyone on the list seen one before, or have an info on them?

Ken
_______________________________________________________________________
Ken Stone   sasami at blaze.net.au  
Modular Synth PCBs for sale <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/synth/>
Australian Miniature Horses & Ponies <http://www.blaze.net.au/~sasami/>
Catgirl Paradise <http://www.anime.net/~kens/>