Schober Organ Notes No. 57
OVERTURE
This issue will arrive somewhat late and will be different than what I
had planned, without diagrams or photos this time. I thought that I would
be back in New York a few weeks ago, but for many reasons including hurricane
Floyd, I am still in Vermont with much to be taken care of yet. Fortunately,
damage in Vermont was light, except for downed trees and electrical lines.
I hope that you have all recovered if you did suffer any consequences of
Floyd. Thomas Thomson emailed that he will soon ship the Schober Archives
to me. That will provide me with material for future Organ Notes articles,
and it will be easier for me to locate instructions, schematics etc. for
our members.
GARDEN STATE THEATER ORGAN SOCIETY
Our member Calvin Bacon, a member of the Garden State Theater Organ Society
wrote that for two years they were rebuilding a 1928 2/8 Wurlitzer in the
Brooks Theater in Bound Brook New Jersey. The town was flooded, and he
says that they have to start all over. They have a web site with pictures:
http:/www.gstos.org/flood.htm
KYEBOARD CONTACT CLEANER
In the Keyboards & Contacts article in ON 56, I did not have the address
of the manufacturer of CRAMOLIN SPRAY, Caig Laboratories. Our member Nelson
Boen found it for me, as well as pertinent information about the company.
Then I read past issues of ON, where it was published some time ago. It
is 12299 Thatcher Court, Poway, CA 92064, 800-224-4123. They no longer
make CRAMOLIN Spray; the substitutes are DEOXIT, but be careful it is not
100% safe for plastics. The second substitute is R-5. It evaporates faster
and is safe for plastics. Caig Laboratory products are sold by MCM Electronics
(mail and telephone order) 650 Congress Park Dr. Centerville, OH 45459,
800-543-4330.
PORTRAIT
Bill Kohrumel is the assistant "honcho" of our group who does the graphics
and set up of our newsletter. I wanted to do a long article about him,
but he is very modest, so all I can do is say that our newsletter would
be a regular typed page without his great help. Here is what he wrote as
his "portrait":
Years ago, I had the urge to buy an organ, so I started looking around.
I went to Aeolian, and bought a Hammond A-100. Back then, nothing sounded
like a pipe organ, except a pipe organ itself. My Hammond was far from
it, but I liked it. I think that was about 1956.A couple of my friends
had organs of various types, so we got together and formed an organ club,
going to each others houses for the evening. Then, somewhere around 1970,
one of the friends bought and was assembling a Schober Recital organ. That
sort of perked up my interest. Later on when he got some sound out of it,
that did it. So I ordered Schober's Theatre model. I just about got started
on it, when the company I worked for got a lot of work from McDonnell Aircraft,
and we start working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I would get up and
eat a meal, then work on the organ, then pack a lunch, and go to work,
come home and go to bed, get up and eat, and so on. I don't know how I
did it, but I managed to build my Schober Theatre organ. However, I was
not pleased with the outcome. It was noisy, and it just did not sound anything
like I thought it should. So I asked someone, (and I don't remember who),
but he referred me to Fred Henn. When I found out that he was the head
of Schober Orphans, I felt as though I had found a good friend, and joined
the group. He put out a newsletter every other month. At that time, I had
bought a new computer and printer. When I got the first newsletter from
Fred, I got the urge to attempt to improve on it. So, I re-typed all the
text, put it in a template that I made up, and made a printout of his newsletter.
It looked pretty good, so I sent Fred a copy, and asked what he thought
of it. He said it was great. Then I asked the big question, "Would you
like for me to format every issue for you?" Fred said "Sure". I believe
that was in 1994, and I'm still doing it, and enjoying it. Fred and I have
been friends now for 5 or 6 years, and I might add, a better friend I have
yet to meet. Then, about a year ago, I found another member that lived
in St. Louis. We became good friends via email, and we talked about my
Theatre Organ. He seemed to be very knowledgeable about Schober organs,
and I asked him if he had time, would he come out to my house and see if
he could do anything about all the noise. He came out one day, and in about
an hour, he improved the sound about 110%. His name: George Reim. The guy
is a genius. Now, we have a new "boss" for Schober Orphans. His name? Alex
Kruedener. A very likeable, friendly person, just about like George Reim
and Fred Henn. He knows what he's doing, he has his head on straight, and
I like him. I think in the future, he will lend a lot to the Schober Group.
And one more. The man that made the email edition of Organ Notes a reality,
Jack Gildar. It was his idea, and he does a good job of it.
SCHOBER RELATED ITEMS
Parts Available
Jim Reinhart has a power supply, swell shoes, pre-amp vibrato board for
a Recital as well as a Reverbatape. He will accept just about any offer
that includes shipping charges. Contact him at jimrein@ismi.net
Parts Available
Registration circuits, stop filters, a set of tone generators, control
assembly, pedal switch kit (some springs damaged), decoupler, power supply,
preamp/vibrato, pedal clavier and instruction manual are available for
any reasonable offer from: Henry Vollenweider Fernnandina Beach, FL (904)
261-7114 hvollen@net-magic.net
Parts Available
Ralph E. Thoren has just about everything for a Consolette II available,
including 4 keyer boards (but not the voicing board) for percussion, and
the keyboards. He would prefer to sell the lot for $50 plus $20 shipping.
Contact him care of Richard Stein, 249 Spring Creek Road, Sagamore Hills,
OH 44067, (330) 467-6704, grumpy@gwis.com
Recital Available
A partially assembled Recital is available from: Quint Meek 405 E. Main
Street Georgetown, KY 40324 (502) 863-5229 qmeek@prodigy.net
SWAP, SELL OR GIVE AWAY
Fred Henn has the following items: 11804 (silicon transistor) percussion
keyer boards, 11237 (germanium transistor) percussion voicing board, keycaps
& screws, stripped keyboards, Theatre stops & misc. Recital stop
tabs, Reverbatape, 05106 pilot light assembly, 045100 SCRP (for power supply),
swell shoe assembly, power supply. From a Baldwin 5 Organ, swell control
box w/multi leaf switches & resistors. Brass "Great" and "Main Full
Echo" plates, hinge pins, Swell shoe assembly, feature strips, keyboards
and misc. items. An unmounted set of metal chimes.
Also the following non organ related items: Set of amplified computer
speakers (MidiPro MD58), 3 button mouse w/9 pin connector, mono cassette
recorder with hook up wires, RCA phono plug to 5-pin DIN plugs, 6' cable
with 2 RCA plugs on one end and 4-pin DIN on other, 12VDC/40ma, 24VAC/1.2A,
15VDC/1A and a 9.5VDC50ma wall transformers. TELEX AMPLITWIN amplified
stereo headphones w/3' cable (operates on 2 9V batteries, REALISTIC stereo
reverb system (42-108) w/docs. BISSELL power steamer carpet/floor cleaner.
Fred says: "I will swap for an electronic keyboard with standard keys,
or a Dolby surround sound amplifier, or what have you. Make an offer. (What
can you lose? You might have something I need…you never know)." Contact:
Fred Henn 230 N French Road Amherst, NY 14228 (716) 691-9495 oranur@juno.com
WANTED
Fred Henn is looking for a George Wright VIDEO. Can anyone help him? (See
his address above)