Need suggestions for a "pedal organ" project

[Enzo]

I don't know where you are, but here in Lansing we have a little free newspaper that comes out every week or two, and it is nothing but classified ads. Lots of cars, but plenty of miscellaneous stuf too. It can be picked up free in a thousand places around town - convenience stores, lobby and doorways of restaurants and stores, etc. if your community has something like our "Wheeler Dealer" it would be a good thing to check.

[methodofcontrol]

good thought enzo. (we call it the "penny saver" here in the north east)

had a thought....if i find a decent organ to canibalize, how set are my tone parameters as far as the original circuit goes? i mean...if i don't find the sound i'm looking for on the first organ w/ good pedals that comes along, how easily tweakable is the sound? should i be more picky (tone-wise) as to which organ i plan on ripping apart?

[Enzo]

To me, the organ would merely be a source for the pedal assembly. Sturdy pedals with switches on each. I would come up with some other tone generation. The organ may or may not work, but the innards will no doubt be large and bulky.

[oc disorder]

A slight deviation from topic but this was interesting to me re older
home organs

http://www.kenrockwell.com/organ/

Wurlitzer 950 Theatre Organ
Internal Leslie Speakers. Wurlitzer's top-of-the-line.
"This was my dad's. This model was made from 1977 - 1980 in DeKalb, Illinois and sold originally for $26,000. That's $84,000 in 2005 dollars! We sold it to an enthusiast in Philadelphia, PA for $1,200 in March 2006."

Also his wife used to go out with the son of Mr Leslie Himself..!
What a small world....

[methodofcontrol]

that's a crazy wurlitzer!


back on topic: a friend of mine had a decent suggestion.
1) buy/find an old organ with adequate foot pedal assembly
2) remove pedal assembly intact for intended use
3) buy/find a 24 pin printer cable
4) solder bare wires attached to male end to pedal contacts
5) buy synth w/ appropriate functions and solder bare wires attached to female end of printer cable to key contacts.
6) connect foot pedals to synth via printer cable

24 pins should get me almost 2 octaves (1 pin for ground, 23 for notes)
and keeping it modular allows me to swap out keyboards when they break
or i get bored w/ their sounds.

i thought it was an interesting idea, although it might be a last resort.
i'm trying to keep the whole thing as compact as usably possible.
just thought i'd toss the idea on the table for interested parties. i mean, you can get the korg mini-synth for like $200, and it has some cool sounds. assuming you can get the organ assembly for free, it doesn't really cost you anything else. whereas a midi pedal assembly is around $300 used, at which point you're probably not too concerned about saving money so you might as well buy an awesome midi-synth to go with it.

[Enzo]

careful, the receiving synth probably does not switch all its keyswitches to one common. Most are matrixed. The idea is fine, just watch how it needs to be wired.

[sean k]

I recently did the synth stick by Tim Escobedo with all the mods and also added an extra oscillator controlled by a pot as opposed to the length of VCR tape and found out that it sure is an easy way to build oscillators.
http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folk...ynthstick.html
Once I got it going I put it through another of his thingies, the T.M.K,( too many knobs)
http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folk.../opampfuzz.gif
from
http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folk.../snippets.html
and then into a pair of germanium fuzz boxes and I got some very nice bass sounds.
It wouldn't be too hard to build a bunch of these oscillators with just resistors, trim pots and caps then tune them all up and figure out how to switch them on and off. As for velocity I guess something akin to it could be to use a lm13600 as a vca with all your pedals spring mounted and working a pot or ldr to control the vca. Beyond me that part but if you look at things like the nurse quacky which uses the strength of the input signal rectified to drive some leds. God, this is getting complicated.
As an aside I just built this crap drum tone thingy but it's kinda cool in that mixed with an oscillator output you could get the string sound being plucked on the front end and it also had an avalanched transistor used with an inductor across the amping transistors resistor to give a smaltzy cymbal sound which could add string buzz. I think it could be done!

[methodofcontrol]

whoa. i'll have to look into all of that, but thanks for the info!

[dentsinger]

I say build it

Presented here is not a step by step but a generalized vision to offer up. Ty to prototype the first one or two pedals before wasting money.

Go to Lowes or Home depot and buy some 1x2 stock as well as whatever you plan to use as an enclosure.

Go to the hardware aisle and take note of the drawers where the short metal springs are. Since there will be some good amount of leverage force, find one's that have a strong resistance to compression. I would buy maybe 1 or 2 just for testing.

Go to you're local electronic parts supply and purchase a momentary lever switch or two. Try going as heavy duty as you can afford. Drill a hole towards the back of your pedal laterally through the 2" width. This is your axis.

Think about some rod now that you'll be using for the pedals to use as an axis and how you'll mount it in the enclosure. You will want to allow space underneath the pedals for a small block of 1x2 (say 2").

Now I'd drill with a forstner bit into the small block just deep enough for the spring to sit in and have enough exposed for proper springiness. This little block would be mounted towards the front and underath the pedal of course. Next I'd mount the lever switch at the back underneath the pedal. There has to be enough room for the switch to be always open, but we also don't want the switch being crushed underneath, so we need to adjust for the proper height using something underneath the pedal and just above the lever. You could also just bend the lever up just enough to get the same effect.

There's a generalized mechanical solution for you. The rest depends upon your willingness to get your hands dirty with some electronics. It depends much on what you're willing to settle on for a bass tone as to how you're going to interface with it. I'd probably find a cheap keyboard and gut it rewiring each switch to each of the lower keys. Put the guts inside, mount you're 1/4" output and call it a day (or week).

[methodofcontrol]

hey guys...here's another update on my progress:

i found a vintage analog pedal synth for a decent price, so i decided to go for it and get accustomed to what i like and don't like about these things. if i decide to build one in future, i'll know what features i want and which to avoid.

anyway, the model i scored is a multivox mx150. looks exactly like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=016

it's pretty cool so far. i plan to draw out a schematic of it so that cloning will be an option. i'll post it as soon as it's done if anyone wants to take a look.

[tube power]

This is very intriguing having been keenly interested in the Moog Taurus III,
(from a very pedestrian, nose against the glass perspective.)

There are always a half dozen old organs in my area, lots of retirees in Fl.

I would like to take a serious stab at constructing a stand alone pedal bass.

Just the pedals, some kind of simple tone generator, into a pedal or two out to an amp.

The thread has never really gotten into actual details, probably because the specific
hardware was never aquired.
I am waiting on a Craigslister to get back on a $20 organ with pedals.
If I get it I'm going in...