Hi, all:

I thought I'd share this with people here. Clyde, especially, might be interested, as I know you're an organist.

The organ in the picture here was being offered FREE by a fellow about two hours drive from me. I persuaded a friend to take his pickup down there and we came back with it.

It's just a shell: the keyboards and stops etc. are only wired out to bussboards. The intent is that it be wired into a "midi brain" to control a virtual organ, such as Miditzer or Hauptwerk.

Miditzer, the virtual Wurlitzer theatre organ, is the natural one because, while the cabinetry is custom work, all of the hardware, keyboards, even the bench, are genuine Wurlitzer theatre organ parts.

The fellow who created it spent fifteen years working on it! He passed away recently at the age of 93. He passed it to a friend, the fellow I got it from, who is an organ tech. He decided to pass it on because he simply has too many projects.

The music making aspect: in his garage/workshop, this man has more organs than most people would ever even SEE in a lifetime. The Wurly shell he gave me was the smallest one. He has built a full, multi-rank pipe organ into his garage, with a beautiful full sound; it includes custom built swell louvres and more. He is also active with a nearby theatre organ society who have restored and maintain the largest theatre pipe organ in Canada. Music from every finger of this man!

My challenge now is to turn this into a music making device. So far, I've managed to get the console lights working.

Here's the organ in my living room (where my wife insisted it must go, as it was too beautiful to leave in the garage. I have a very supportive wife.)