10 years ago I very nearly bought a 750BE from a church here in Texas, they wanted $1,200 for it, which was more than I had at the time. Several years later I found an Allen ADC-6500 theater organ in Houston for only $450, which didn't come with any bench or speakers, and I arrived at 2am to an unlit warehouse, where I looked at the instrument via cigarette lighter light, and I bought it. The Allen was probably the better deal, despite needing to locate speakers for it. I grew up listening to the theater organ at an old downtown theater in my hometown, so the Allen was more my style.
Just saw your wonderful tour of your wonderful organ! We have a Rodgers 2 manual organ at our church, but I think it is much older than this one, and just looking at the different stops on these Rodgers organs give me a pretty good idea of what they are like on ours. I am so excited to learn how to play our organ!
*The Rodgers® 750BE two manual and pedal instrument* originally packed four M10 bidirectional plates and one P16 vented box cabinet. Be advised that the P16's dual woofers will need a butyl rubber surround upgrade, as the stock cone surrounds are often victims of foam rot. Time 8:50 The Crescendo pedal is a registration mechanism for the instrument that adds and subtracts ranks consistently with register crescendi on pipes; full back should free all ranks for the rocker tablets above Manual II.
Thank you for sharing this. We have this organ in my church and I am teaching myself to play and have assumed part-time organist duties effective 2/1/15. I will also appreciate the tips people post here. We have real trouble getting our instrument serviced in central Ohio and are struggling with that even as I type this. When it works, it's great. The flexible boards for the manuals are very touchy. It seems that each key has two wires. A key will play intermittently when one wire breaks, not at all obviously when the second one also goes.
mattgoblue Thank you. We have a new company involved and got the bad news that our instrument is compromised based on the style of prior repairs. We may need to buy a new used organ because it is unreliable. We are going to meet with the Rodgers rep in a couple weeks and discuss options. Not good news to hear that the value has been diminished by the repairman. :(
Sorry to hear this. This was a problem for many of those keyboards due to an early assembly technique. The contacts are still available from Rodgers to factory techs. The repair is somewhat time consuming, but easily done. I enjoy working on these organs because they're easy and cheap to repair, it's troubleshooting the many components that's time consuming (thus expensive). There are some good techs in Ohio, so I'm sorry to hear a bad one has molested your instrument. Melvin Lewis in Hilliard (Lewis Electronics) used to work for Rodgers and obviously knows his stuff. Unfortunately, I think he's retired now.
Matt: Congratulations on your "new" Rodgers organ. This instrument will be a good practice instrument for you. As a former Rodgers representative, let me share a little with you. This instrument, the Model 750BE was a "mid-line" instrument that would retail (depending on the speaker configuration) for around $35,000, and was a very popular instrument in the Rodgers line up. It is the last year that Rodgers built their organs with moving stop action. The Rodgers 770, which replaced the 750, had LED stop tablets that did not move. The organ has three sets of generators - one 61-note set for the main channel, one 61-note set for the flute channel, and a 49-note set for the celeste stops. It most likely has three R-100 amps that are located inside the console. Since you posted this in February, I would assume that by now you have found a Rodgers service tech to look over the organ, tune and regulate it, etc. Working with your ear, the Technician can contour the instrument for your particular room. If I remember correctly, the voicing controls on this organ mainly affect the reeds - the Oboe, Trompette, etc. The sound of the Principals is fixed and cannot be changed. For my taste, I always felt that the Rodgers principals were always a little on the "thin" side - I like a fuller, more robust Principal sound. The analog Rodgers Principal stop is more akin to a Gemshorn than a Principal. Your Technician will go though and tune the organ, and then can balance and contour it for your room as you like it. One of the secrets of the analog Rodgers organs is that the techs normally would tune the main set of oscillators to A-440, then tune the Flute oscillators just slightly sharp. That way, you get a natural "beat" between the two which produces a pleasing sound. These organs are quite easy to work on, and parts for it are readily available. The trick is to find a service tech that still works on analog organs. As you know, all of the new stuff is digital. Anyway, good luck with this instrument and happy practicing! (I would be interested to know how things work out with it - you will have to post some new vids of yourself playing the organ so we can hear it).
Stephen Cumming Thanks very much for the informative comment! The organ tech hasn't yet tuned the organ but will keep this in mind when he eventually does come by.
Hello good sir! I'm likely going to be acquiring a Rodgers 110 (from the 1970s) in the near future and if you have a few moments to spare, I would love to know all I can as far as whether or not this is a good idea.
My church has an Essex 546. It’s a late 80s organ if I’m correct. Would you know much about this model? I’m also noticing that some stops are out of tune. Is this normal? Thanks!
I play on one of these models at the church I'm music director at. We're trying to get the funds to replace it though because mice have somehow snuck into the console over the years and chewed on the wires, so about half of it works, and the half that does work is starting to going out on it. It's still playable by coupling the swell with the great as a temporary workaround, so hey, it got us through Christmas at least!
Is that one of the models that can have pipes added to it? The Analogue Rodgers organs from the 1980's sounded better than Allen digital organs from years later. This organ would be a huge upgrade over an MDS!
Thanks for the info & demo! When this was moved w a width of 36 inches, were the two manuals separate from the main housing? Were you able to get a servicing from someone affiliated with rogers or someone else and just curious in your case the cost to bring it back to full function? Thanks
Hello, I recently got this exact model from a local conservatory that shut down. One day I woke up and it stopped turning on. I’m having a difficult time finding some to look at it in the Miami area. Any suggestions on how to locate a technician?
The Phase of the speakers should be observed. The wires have a trace on one side and the speaker terminals normally are labeled "+" and "-" and the trace should go on the "+" side, also the "Spade Lugs" should be tightened to the terminals (using a slot screwdriver) snugly. The organ sounds like it needs tuning (especially the bass notes). I.had a Rodgers Trio for a time It had Ampthanol connectors and the amplifiers in the speaker cabinets, so this hookup is different from the one I had. Allen tends to use passive speakers like this..
we have the same organ at my church except ours doesnt have the dogleg bench but i love it and it fills our church with a nice warm sound. I even have some vids of me playing it on my channel
Congrats on your new treasure! You must be careful with those spade wire connectors, you can not let one touth the other in any fashion, or you will send a short circuit to your amp, and destroy it, or at least blow a fuse. So get a screw driver and tighten down each of those spade wire connectors.
That pedal cabinet is small haha. Have you ever seen a P1 with a 30" Electro-Voice bass loudspeaker? With the turned on stops, (no tabs down) could be as simple as a one of the spring contacts having jumped over it's on/off position. It also needs a serious tuning. This is normal when an analog instrument is moved. It upsets the Allen Bradley tuning ferrite coils. I see you have messaging turned off in your YT profile. If you would like I can email you the svc docs. It is approximately 33megs, plus the factory service bulletins. You can message me through my YT profile page. I would also suggest after you have the pedal cabinet loudspeaker surround(s) replaced or repaired. This can sometimes be done in lieu of reconing, Old loudspeakers with foam surrounds always do this. You will get more pedal energy if you place the cabinet in a corner so that it is facing away from or towards the corner. Experiment to see which sounds best.
The 750 B is from 1981 and the 750 is from 1977. Can't ever go Wrong with Rodgers. It is NOT a digital organ, it is better! It is a TRANSISTOR INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR Tone Generator organ. Which is the ONLY type of Organ Rodgers made until 1990, when they finally felt digital was of a quality on par with the transistor ANALOG models they perfected in the previous 27 years. One must REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE A NEW TECHNOLOGY COMES ALONG IT DOES IN NO WAY NEGATE THE PREVIOUS TECHNOLOGY.! The HAMMOND- TONE WHEEL TONE GENERATORS, the WURLITZER- ELECTROSTATIC REED, and the the ALLEN, CONN, WURLITZER, BALDWIN, and early THOMAS - VACUUM TUBE OSCILLATORS, and the " pretty much EVERY manuf."- TRANSISTOR OSCILLATOR organs. ---ALLLLL of these amazing ANALOG SYSTEMS WERE CALLED: " DISCRETE COMPONENT ANALOG ELECTROMECHANICAL ORGANS ( TONE WHEELS & ELECTROSTATIC REEDS), and " DISCRETE COMPONENT ANALOG ELECTRONIC ORGANS The term " DISCRETE" means that each part only serves ONE FUNCTION. So in other words- Vacuum tubes, transistors, capacitors, resistors, inductors, transformers...any NON-integrated circuit ( integrated means' coming together to do more than one task., the opposite of discrete. SO if you have a DISCRETE COMPONENT ORGAN then you have a great great organ! Not "old fashioned". That is in fact ridiculous because the computer you are on right now has TRANSISTORS, RESISTORS, INDUCTORS< TRANSFORMERS...EVERYTHING that is in that RODGERS 705BE, except it also has DIGITAL components. The MAIN advantages of the discrete component organs are: - ALL PARTS ARE COMMON AND WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE " OFF THE SHELF' FROM ANY ELECTRONICS SUPPLIER - THE ANALOG DISCRETE COMPONENT ORGANS ALWAYS HAVE THEIR OWN TONE SOURCE FOR EVERY SINGLE KEY ON THE KEYBOARD ( pre-coupling, in other words ALL 8' NOTES ARE PRODUCED FROM INDEPENDENT 'TONE GENERATORS'), NEVER SHARED on the 'TRANSISTOR INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR ON ALLLL RODGERS ORGANS 1963-1990, ALLL CONN ORGANS 1949- 1981 ( except cheapo spinets of the 70s), ALLL ALLEN ORGANS UP TO 1971, when ALLEN invented the very first DIGITAL ORGAN. Note that RODGERS waited 19 YEARS before they felt digital was up to par with transistors Fact is, transistors give you an ALIVE, IN THE ROOM, TACTILE sound that Digital simply cannot do. Although they are getting very very close. Besides the 'realism' part, the TACTILE, ELECTRON - INTERACTIVITY of analog delivers all sorts of REAL harmonic phenomena. " ensemble on the microscopic level' if you will. DIGITAL can ONLY mimick, or construct algorithms, NEVER harmonic phenomena. It would take hundreds of TARA BITES just to accurately reproduce the myriad of harmonics which occur naturally in the few hundred individual oscillators and various voicing tabs on this RODGERS 750BE. I might interject here and mention that the 'BE' suffix has me wondering if this organ isn't using 4016BE quad Bi- Lateral switching IC's for the TAB switching. Probably not, BUT if so, then if a tab ever stops working it is probably the $00.25 4016BE associated with the switch. Easy to change. IF it is, always use a chip socket when changing an IC. AGAIN, RODGERS NOVER USED INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (IC') for the SOUND PRODUCTION IN THEIR OGANS. RODGERS NEVER MADE A VACUUM TUBE ORGAN, NOR DID THEY EVER AMPLIFY WITH VACUUM TUBES. This is not true with ANY other manufacture. Vacuum tubes are great though. My 58' CONN CLASSIC vacuum tube individual oscillator TONE GENERATORS sound full and excellent. However, Rodgers actually got in the organ game relatively later, in 1963 and this was the infancy of the SILICON TRANSISTOR initially designed by FAIRCHILD ( aka, later- INTEL), FAIRCHILD Was ROBERT NOYCE and company ( the 8 guys who essentially started Silicon Valley, great documentaries on them BTW). WURLITZER ORGAN CO. was the first to use the FAIRCHILD TRANSISTORS...not certain if that is the brand used in Rodgers. It's actually here nor there because once Silicon transistors hit the market it changed electronics forever! By around 67' ALL organs were transistorized. Then in around 1973 more organ companies were moving to the 'MASTER OSCILLATOR design. YUCK!! MASTER OSC. organs used a single oscillator producing a FREQUENCY at about 2 MEGAHERTZ (Mghz), which is far above hearing rannge. This frequency was then DIVIDED DOWN to create the notes on the keyboard. It is actually a horrible sound in and of itself because there is absolutely NO ENSEMBLE, like you hear from a choir or pipe organ, resulting from the minor imperfection of each voice. SO in order to over come this, manufactures employed lots of FILTERING techniques, and used the then-new BUCKET BRIGADE ANALOG DELAY IC's which could be used to CHORUS the frequencies. A really good organ can have a dozen or more CHORUS BOARDS. Also REVERB helped out for ensemble. SAVE THE ORGANS! THE WURLITZER ELECTROSTATIC CONTINUOUS FREE REED ORGANS ARE ENDANGERED, NEVER DESTROY OR PART ONE OUT! Like the Hammond organ they are electromechanical tone generators, never go out of tune, and due to their 90% mechanical nature they can still be operating with ease in 1,000 years or more, The WURLITZER ES REED ORGANS HAVE A VERY SMOOTH FLUTE, PERHAPS THE SMOOTHEST OF THEM ALL. Like the Hammond they respond amazingly well to the amplification and speakers, not unlike how an electric guitar and it's tube amp are one, it is the same with the Hammond and Wurlitzer electromechanical tone generators. Incidentally these are both INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR ORGANS. The Wurlitzer has the benefit of producing a plethora of harmonics even from it's own tone source- the ELECTROSTATIC REED. The reeds are NOT USED ACOUSTICALLY, BUT ARE USED ONLY FOR THEIR HARMONIC CONTENT, WHERE THE ELECTRICAL IMPULSES ARE THEN FILTERED INTO FLUTE, STRING, and REED( yeas reed, duh) VOICES. THESE ARE THE WURLITZER ELECTROSTATIC REED ORGANS TO SAVE- 44,4410,4420,4430,SPINETS, and 4600,4602,4620, and 4800 FULL SIZE CONSOLE, The 'Holy Grail' is the 4600, a 25 pedal model. The 4602 was the 32 pedal model. Go figure, people like 25 pedals more these days. Especially for the pre- 1950 popular music that sounds so good on them. To hear the 4600 listen to KEN GRIFFIN CRUISIN DOWN THE RIVER album on UA-cam. He also used it on ANNIVERSARY SONGS, SKATING TIME, 67 MELODY LANE, and several others. He also played the Hammond Tone Wheel organ ( B2 and B3). Ken always recorded direct and no Leslie so it gives you a very clear listen to the exact tone of these organs. He used many cool recording techniques he got from his friend LES PAUL, recording pioneer! For more look at the NORTH SUBURBAN HAMMOND ORGAN SOCIETY website, and to see the inner workings of the 4600 go to the TECH ARTICLE heading on the menu and click WURLI 4600 . and then look at the HAMMOND TONE WHEEL ORGAN tech article as well. I play my 4410 ( the soinet version of the 4600) on the opening video of my channel if want to hear what it sounds like through a Leslie horn.
paulj0557 thanks you for that description! Feel like I just learned more from your one response then the couple years I have been researching organs, I have a Rodgers 220 available in my town I might just buy it now, cheers!
Why didn't you put it through it's paces? I'd like to hear it full organ, separate vocing, etc. I'm familiar with it's electronics but I want to hear it while you play anything in the classical organ library. Otherwise it doesn't sound any different than my much smaller self contained Scarborough.
Soon our 750 will be headed out the door. The console itself probably is worthless based on the bastardized repair that was done to it, but our bench and pedal board may be useful to someone.
Hi Rodgers is real crap!!!! In New York they have no reliable service technicians In addition to the pistons never worked.It was poorly designed. The truth of the matter is that Allen is a far superior product. Also your organ is analog. VERY VERY hard to find parts for this. Best of Luck!!!
herb kohler I'm sure that by now, Matt is aware that his Rodgers is an analog instrument. I''m not sure where you get your information Herb, but parts for Rodgers organs are readily available from Rodgers. For the analog instruments, many diodes, transistors, etc. can be purchased at Fry's Electronics or other electronic parts supply companies. I would agree that Allen builds a fine instrument (and pioneered the digital organ movement), but the Rodgers digital organs are tonally excellent as well. It is unfortunate that you have had bad experiences with Rodgers. And by the way, the Rodgers representative for New York is located in East Rutherford, NJ just across the Hudson River from NYC.
+Bryan Garey discrete components are easy to find, where as integrated circuits and proprietary designs become obsolete rather quickly. With this instrument most anyone with electronics knowledge can repair it at the discrete component level.
While some Rodgers parts can be in short supply at times, these old analog behemoths were built with standard components. Pretty much everything can be cross referenced and ordered from Digi-key or Mouser and shipping will almost always be more than the parts. And yes, most of the good service techs are dead or retired.
Rodgers took the time to scan all documentation into digital format. Unless someone physically breaks one of the Allen-Bradley iron tuning coils which would be rather difficult to find, everything else which is discrete is easily found. Rodgers has also published a cross reference chart for transistors. The only oddity are those analog instruments which were manufactured with integrated circuits to operate the capture system and other diagnostics. Some of those ICs may be more difficult to find.
impressive console to be sure...but the sound isn't close to a pipe organ (if it's supposed to be)...oh well....if you plug a MIDI compatible Hauptwerk into it...you will even be happier.....◔̯◔
***** Secondary software is used for reverberation and it sounds great. Hauptwerk organs can not go out of tune except they were recorded out of tune. Have not find any. Hauptwerk sounds 10x better than any digital organ or analog organ for that matter.
***** I quote from www.hauptwerk.com: "Hauptwerk's system is built around the philosophy of using at least one large sample per pipe, (typically 3-10 seconds of a recorded pipe), all including natural attack and release samples of each individual pipe, and recorded with a resolution of up to 24 bit 96kHz. Since all samples are recorded chromatically from a real pipe organ there is no pitch strecthing to "fill in" sections of the keyboard compass. Every note is an individual and unique pipe recording!All samples are held in the computer memory (RAM) to achieve a much higher polyphony than is possible with disk-streaming, commonly used in most samplers. Unlike generic software or hardware samplers, Hauptwerk has complex physical and acoustic models specifically designed to reproduce the features and sound of a pipe organ, and is thus able to achieve much more realistic results. It is also designed for a much higher polyphonythan generic samplers and supports up to 32,768 simultaneous notes!Many digital organs compromise the quality of the pipe samples to allow them to fit in a smaller amount of memory. This results in artificial (synthesized) attacks and releases and very short sustaining portions. These factors alone reduce the realism of the overall sound and randomness of a real pipe.Hauptwerk combines long samples with complex organ modeling to achieve the most realistic sounding virtual organs in the world."
+Nico van Jaarsveld You base this on what? UA-cam audio quality of roughly no more than 192kbps per second audio resolution? CD wav files are 1141kbps per second. You can't judge this instrument based on first trial with problems which can be easily repaired.
10 years ago I very nearly bought a 750BE from a church here in Texas, they wanted $1,200 for it, which was more than I had at the time.
Several years later I found an Allen ADC-6500 theater organ in Houston for only $450, which didn't come with any bench or speakers, and I arrived at 2am to an unlit warehouse, where I looked at the instrument via cigarette lighter light, and I bought it.
The Allen was probably the better deal, despite needing to locate speakers for it. I grew up listening to the theater organ at an old downtown theater in my hometown, so the Allen was more my style.
Just saw your wonderful tour of your wonderful organ! We have a Rodgers 2 manual organ at our church, but I think it is much older than this one, and just looking at the different stops on these Rodgers organs give me a pretty good idea of what they are like on ours. I am so excited to learn how to play our organ!
Sounds awesome! Apparently my brother got one of these and it's going in my room. Can't wait to play it when I get there!
*The Rodgers® 750BE two manual and pedal instrument* originally packed four M10 bidirectional plates and one P16 vented box cabinet. Be advised that the P16's dual woofers will need a butyl rubber surround upgrade, as the stock cone surrounds are often victims of foam rot.
Time 8:50 The Crescendo pedal is a registration mechanism for the instrument that adds and subtracts ranks consistently with register crescendi on pipes; full back should free all ranks for the rocker tablets above Manual II.
Thank you for sharing this. We have this organ in my church and I am teaching myself to play and have assumed part-time organist duties effective 2/1/15. I will also appreciate the tips people post here. We have real trouble getting our instrument serviced in central Ohio and are struggling with that even as I type this. When it works, it's great. The flexible boards for the manuals are very touchy. It seems that each key has two wires. A key will play intermittently when one wire breaks, not at all obviously when the second one also goes.
nahohio Best of luck to you. Having a good organ tech is really important. It's mind boggling how complex the wiring and circuitry is!
mattgoblue Thank you. We have a new company involved and got the bad news that our instrument is compromised based on the style of prior repairs. We may need to buy a new used organ because it is unreliable. We are going to meet with the Rodgers rep in a couple weeks and discuss options. Not good news to hear that the value has been diminished by the repairman. :(
Sorry to hear this. This was a problem for many of those keyboards due to an early assembly technique. The contacts are still available from Rodgers to factory techs. The repair is somewhat time consuming, but easily done. I enjoy working on these organs because they're easy and cheap to repair, it's troubleshooting the many components that's time consuming (thus expensive). There are some good techs in Ohio, so I'm sorry to hear a bad one has molested your instrument. Melvin Lewis in Hilliard (Lewis Electronics) used to work for Rodgers and obviously knows his stuff. Unfortunately, I think he's retired now.
Matt:
Congratulations on your "new" Rodgers organ. This instrument will be a good practice instrument for you. As a former Rodgers representative, let me share a little with you. This instrument, the Model 750BE was a "mid-line" instrument that would retail (depending on the speaker configuration) for around $35,000, and was a very popular instrument in the Rodgers line up. It is the last year that Rodgers built their organs with moving stop action. The Rodgers 770, which replaced the 750, had LED stop tablets that did not move. The organ has three sets of generators - one 61-note set for the main channel, one 61-note set for the flute channel, and a 49-note set for the celeste stops. It most likely has three R-100 amps that are located inside the console. Since you posted this in February, I would assume that by now you have found a Rodgers service tech to look over the organ, tune and regulate it, etc. Working with your ear, the Technician can contour the instrument for your particular room. If I remember correctly, the voicing controls on this organ mainly affect the reeds - the Oboe, Trompette, etc. The sound of the Principals is fixed and cannot be changed. For my taste, I always felt that the Rodgers principals were always a little on the "thin" side - I like a fuller, more robust Principal sound. The analog Rodgers Principal stop is more akin to a Gemshorn than a Principal. Your Technician will go though and tune the organ, and then can balance and contour it for your room as you like it. One of the secrets of the analog Rodgers organs is that the techs normally would tune the main set of oscillators to A-440, then tune the Flute oscillators just slightly sharp. That way, you get a natural "beat" between the two which produces a pleasing sound. These organs are quite easy to work on, and parts for it are readily available. The trick is to find a service tech that still works on analog organs. As you know, all of the new stuff is digital. Anyway, good luck with this instrument and happy practicing! (I would be interested to know how things work out with it - you will have to post some new vids of yourself playing the organ so we can hear it).
Stephen Cumming Thanks very much for the informative comment! The organ tech hasn't yet tuned the organ but will keep this in mind when he eventually does come by.
Hello good sir! I'm likely going to be acquiring a Rodgers 110 (from the 1970s) in the near future and if you have a few moments to spare, I would love to know all I can as far as whether or not this is a good idea.
Stephen Cumming absolutely not tune the flute sharp isn't a celeste!
My church has an Essex 546. It’s a late 80s organ if I’m correct. Would you know much about this model? I’m also noticing that some stops are out of tune. Is this normal? Thanks!
I play on one of these models at the church I'm music director at. We're trying to get the funds to replace it though because mice have somehow snuck into the console over the years and chewed on the wires, so about half of it works, and the half that does work is starting to going out on it. It's still playable by coupling the swell with the great as a temporary workaround, so hey, it got us through Christmas at least!
Is that one of the models that can have pipes added to it? The Analogue Rodgers organs from the 1980's sounded better than Allen digital organs from years later. This organ would be a huge upgrade over an MDS!
6:35 that is a connection that is very similar to an old school rabbit ears tv antenna.
Thanks for the info & demo! When this was moved w a width of 36 inches, were the two manuals separate from the main housing? Were you able to get a servicing from someone affiliated with rogers or someone else and just curious in your case the cost to bring it back to full function? Thanks
Hello, I recently got this exact model from a local conservatory that shut down. One day I woke up and it stopped turning on. I’m having a difficult time finding some to look at it in the Miami area. Any suggestions on how to locate a technician?
The Phase of the speakers should be observed. The wires have a trace on one side and the speaker terminals normally are labeled "+" and "-" and the trace should go on the "+" side, also the "Spade Lugs" should be tightened to the terminals (using a slot screwdriver) snugly.
The organ sounds like it needs tuning (especially the bass notes).
I.had a Rodgers Trio for a time It had Ampthanol connectors and the amplifiers in the speaker cabinets, so this hookup is different from the one I had. Allen tends to use passive speakers like this..
we have the same organ at my church except ours doesnt have the dogleg bench but i love it and it fills our church with a nice warm sound. I even have some vids of me playing it on my channel
Wow this analogue organ sounds better than the current Rodgers digital organ!
No It doesn't.
Congrats on your new treasure! You must be careful with those spade wire connectors, you can not let one touth the other in any fashion, or you will send a short circuit to your amp, and destroy it, or at least blow a fuse. So get a screw driver and tighten down each of those spade wire connectors.
I had no idea! Appreciate the tip sir! Will get on that right away.
The sticky stop is actually not a sticky stop , its a wiring problem in the console
One just came up for cheap near with 5 speakers for cheap. but i don't have the space. ugh
That pedal cabinet is small haha. Have you ever seen a P1 with a 30" Electro-Voice bass loudspeaker?
With the turned on stops, (no tabs down) could be as simple as a one of the spring contacts having jumped over it's on/off position.
It also needs a serious tuning. This is normal when an analog instrument is moved. It upsets the Allen Bradley tuning ferrite coils.
I see you have messaging turned off in your YT profile. If you would like I can email you the svc docs. It is approximately 33megs, plus the factory service bulletins. You can message me through my YT profile page.
I would also suggest after you have the pedal cabinet loudspeaker surround(s) replaced or repaired. This can sometimes be done in lieu of reconing, Old loudspeakers with foam surrounds always do this. You will get more pedal energy if you place the cabinet in a corner so that it is facing away from or towards the corner. Experiment to see which sounds best.
In production from 1977 to 1980.
The 750 B is from 1981 and the 750 is from 1977. Can't ever go Wrong with Rodgers. It is NOT a digital organ, it is better! It is a TRANSISTOR INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR Tone Generator organ. Which is the ONLY type of Organ Rodgers made until 1990, when they finally felt digital was of a quality on par with the transistor ANALOG models they perfected in the previous 27 years.
One must REMEMBER, JUST BECAUSE A NEW TECHNOLOGY COMES ALONG IT DOES IN NO WAY NEGATE THE PREVIOUS TECHNOLOGY.! The HAMMOND- TONE WHEEL TONE GENERATORS, the WURLITZER- ELECTROSTATIC REED, and the the ALLEN, CONN, WURLITZER, BALDWIN, and early THOMAS - VACUUM TUBE OSCILLATORS, and the " pretty much EVERY manuf."- TRANSISTOR OSCILLATOR organs. ---ALLLLL of these amazing ANALOG SYSTEMS WERE CALLED:
" DISCRETE COMPONENT ANALOG ELECTROMECHANICAL ORGANS ( TONE WHEELS & ELECTROSTATIC REEDS), and
" DISCRETE COMPONENT ANALOG ELECTRONIC ORGANS
The term " DISCRETE" means that each part only serves ONE FUNCTION. So in other words- Vacuum tubes, transistors, capacitors, resistors, inductors, transformers...any NON-integrated circuit ( integrated means' coming together to do more than one task., the opposite of discrete.
SO if you have a DISCRETE COMPONENT ORGAN then you have a great great organ! Not "old fashioned". That is in fact ridiculous because the computer you are on right now has TRANSISTORS, RESISTORS, INDUCTORS< TRANSFORMERS...EVERYTHING that is in that RODGERS 705BE, except it also has DIGITAL components.
The MAIN advantages of the discrete component organs are:
- ALL PARTS ARE COMMON AND WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE " OFF THE SHELF' FROM ANY ELECTRONICS SUPPLIER
- THE ANALOG DISCRETE COMPONENT ORGANS ALWAYS HAVE THEIR OWN TONE SOURCE FOR EVERY SINGLE KEY ON THE KEYBOARD ( pre-coupling, in other words ALL 8' NOTES ARE PRODUCED FROM INDEPENDENT 'TONE GENERATORS'), NEVER SHARED on the 'TRANSISTOR INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR ON ALLLL RODGERS ORGANS 1963-1990, ALLL CONN ORGANS 1949- 1981 ( except cheapo spinets of the 70s), ALLL ALLEN ORGANS UP TO 1971, when ALLEN invented the very first DIGITAL ORGAN. Note that RODGERS waited 19 YEARS before they felt digital was up to par with transistors
Fact is, transistors give you an ALIVE, IN THE ROOM, TACTILE sound that Digital simply cannot do. Although they are getting very very close. Besides the 'realism' part, the TACTILE, ELECTRON - INTERACTIVITY of analog delivers all sorts of REAL harmonic phenomena. " ensemble on the microscopic level' if you will. DIGITAL can ONLY mimick, or construct algorithms, NEVER harmonic phenomena. It would take hundreds of TARA BITES just to accurately reproduce the myriad of harmonics which occur naturally in the few hundred individual oscillators and various voicing tabs on this RODGERS 750BE.
I might interject here and mention that the 'BE' suffix has me wondering if this organ isn't using 4016BE quad Bi- Lateral switching IC's for the TAB switching. Probably not, BUT if so, then if a tab ever stops working it is probably the $00.25 4016BE associated with the switch. Easy to change. IF it is, always use a chip socket when changing an IC. AGAIN, RODGERS NOVER USED INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (IC') for the SOUND PRODUCTION IN THEIR OGANS.
RODGERS NEVER MADE A VACUUM TUBE ORGAN, NOR DID THEY EVER AMPLIFY WITH VACUUM TUBES. This is not true with ANY other manufacture. Vacuum tubes are great though. My 58' CONN CLASSIC vacuum tube individual oscillator TONE GENERATORS sound full and excellent. However, Rodgers actually got in the organ game relatively later, in 1963 and this was the infancy of the SILICON TRANSISTOR initially designed by FAIRCHILD ( aka, later- INTEL), FAIRCHILD Was ROBERT NOYCE and company ( the 8 guys who essentially started Silicon Valley, great documentaries on them BTW). WURLITZER ORGAN CO. was the first to use the FAIRCHILD TRANSISTORS...not certain if that is the brand used in Rodgers. It's actually here nor there because once Silicon transistors hit the market it changed electronics forever!
By around 67' ALL organs were transistorized. Then in around 1973 more organ companies were moving to the 'MASTER OSCILLATOR design. YUCK!! MASTER OSC. organs used a single oscillator producing a FREQUENCY at about 2 MEGAHERTZ (Mghz), which is far above hearing rannge. This frequency was then DIVIDED DOWN to create the notes on the keyboard. It is actually a horrible sound in and of itself because there is absolutely NO ENSEMBLE, like you hear from a choir or pipe organ, resulting from the minor imperfection of each voice. SO in order to over come this, manufactures employed lots of FILTERING techniques, and used the then-new BUCKET BRIGADE ANALOG DELAY IC's which could be used to CHORUS the frequencies. A really good organ can have a dozen or more CHORUS BOARDS. Also REVERB helped out for ensemble.
SAVE THE ORGANS!
THE WURLITZER ELECTROSTATIC CONTINUOUS FREE REED ORGANS ARE ENDANGERED, NEVER DESTROY OR PART ONE OUT! Like the Hammond organ they are electromechanical tone generators, never go out of tune, and due to their 90% mechanical nature they can still be operating with ease in 1,000 years or more, The WURLITZER ES REED ORGANS HAVE A VERY SMOOTH FLUTE, PERHAPS THE SMOOTHEST OF THEM ALL. Like the Hammond they respond amazingly well to the amplification and speakers, not unlike how an electric guitar and it's tube amp are one, it is the same with the Hammond and Wurlitzer electromechanical tone generators. Incidentally these are both INDIVIDUAL OSCILLATOR ORGANS. The Wurlitzer has the benefit of producing a plethora of harmonics even from it's own tone source- the ELECTROSTATIC REED. The reeds are NOT USED ACOUSTICALLY, BUT ARE USED ONLY FOR THEIR HARMONIC CONTENT, WHERE THE ELECTRICAL IMPULSES ARE THEN FILTERED INTO FLUTE, STRING, and REED( yeas reed, duh) VOICES.
THESE ARE THE WURLITZER ELECTROSTATIC REED ORGANS TO SAVE- 44,4410,4420,4430,SPINETS, and 4600,4602,4620, and 4800 FULL SIZE CONSOLE, The 'Holy Grail' is the 4600, a 25 pedal model. The 4602 was the 32 pedal model. Go figure, people like 25 pedals more these days. Especially for the pre- 1950 popular music that sounds so good on them. To hear the 4600 listen to KEN GRIFFIN CRUISIN DOWN THE RIVER album on UA-cam. He also used it on ANNIVERSARY SONGS, SKATING TIME, 67 MELODY LANE, and several others. He also played the Hammond Tone Wheel organ ( B2 and B3).
Ken always recorded direct and no Leslie so it gives you a very clear listen to the exact tone of these organs. He used many cool recording techniques he got from his friend LES PAUL, recording pioneer!
For more look at the NORTH SUBURBAN HAMMOND ORGAN SOCIETY website, and to see the inner workings of the 4600 go to the TECH ARTICLE heading on the menu and click WURLI 4600 . and then look at the HAMMOND TONE WHEEL ORGAN tech article as well.
I play my 4410 ( the soinet version of the 4600) on the opening video of my channel if want to hear what it sounds like through a Leslie horn.
paulj0557 thanks you for that description! Feel like I just learned more from your one response then the couple years I have been researching organs, I have a Rodgers 220 available in my town I might just buy it now, cheers!
Why didn't you put it through it's paces? I'd like to hear it full organ, separate vocing, etc. I'm familiar with it's electronics but I want to hear it while you play anything in the classical organ library. Otherwise it doesn't sound any different than my much smaller self contained Scarborough.
Lovely organ.
Pretty nice sound for an older model. I Still love the moving tab stops over the modern lighted ones. (Yawn)
Awesome
Soon our 750 will be headed out the door. The console itself probably is worthless based on the bastardized repair that was done to it, but our bench and pedal board may be useful to someone.
haha someone tried to tune the 16ft down an octave lmao
add some midi to it and hauptwerk.
Sounds horrible. That organ belongs at the dump..
Hi
Rodgers is real crap!!!! In New York they have no reliable service technicians
In addition to the pistons never worked.It was poorly designed.
The truth of the matter is that Allen is a far superior product.
Also your organ is analog. VERY VERY hard to find parts for this.
Best of Luck!!!
herb kohler
I'm sure that by now, Matt is aware that his Rodgers is an analog instrument. I''m not sure where you get your information Herb, but parts for Rodgers organs are readily available from Rodgers. For the analog instruments, many diodes, transistors, etc. can be purchased at Fry's Electronics or other electronic parts supply companies. I would agree that Allen builds a fine instrument (and pioneered the digital organ movement), but the Rodgers digital organs are tonally excellent as well. It is unfortunate that you have had bad experiences with Rodgers. And by the way, the Rodgers representative for New York is located in East Rutherford, NJ just across the Hudson River from NYC.
+herb kohler I have heard that the Rodgers has a better tone, but the Allen is more reliable....and yes I also have heard parts can be hard to find.
+Bryan Garey discrete components are easy to find, where as integrated circuits and proprietary designs become obsolete rather quickly. With this instrument most anyone with electronics knowledge can repair it at the discrete component level.
While some Rodgers parts can be in short supply at times, these old analog behemoths were built with standard components. Pretty much everything can be cross referenced and ordered from Digi-key or Mouser and shipping will almost always be more than the parts. And yes, most of the good service techs are dead or retired.
Rodgers took the time to scan all documentation into digital format.
Unless someone physically breaks one of the Allen-Bradley iron tuning coils which would be rather difficult to find, everything else which is discrete is easily found. Rodgers has also published a cross reference chart for transistors.
The only oddity are those analog instruments which were manufactured with integrated circuits to operate the capture system and other diagnostics. Some of those ICs may be more difficult to find.
impressive console to be sure...but the sound isn't close to a pipe organ (if it's supposed to be)...oh well....if you plug a MIDI compatible Hauptwerk into it...you will even be happier.....◔̯◔
awful sound. Why don't you get Hauptwerk?
Nico van Jaarsveld I'll need to look into that. For now I'm just glad to have an instrument for home practice!
Nico van Jaarsveld Once its tuned it will sound much better. Also have the individual stop levels roughly checked out.
***** Secondary software is used for reverberation and it sounds great. Hauptwerk organs can not go out of tune except they were recorded out of tune. Have not find any. Hauptwerk sounds 10x better than any digital organ or analog organ for that matter.
***** I quote from www.hauptwerk.com:
"Hauptwerk's system is built around the philosophy of using at least one large sample per pipe, (typically 3-10 seconds of a recorded pipe), all including natural attack and release samples of each individual pipe, and recorded with a resolution of up to 24 bit 96kHz. Since all samples are recorded chromatically from a real pipe organ there is no pitch strecthing to "fill in" sections of the keyboard compass. Every note is an individual and unique pipe recording!All samples are held in the computer memory (RAM) to achieve a much higher polyphony than is possible with disk-streaming, commonly used in most samplers. Unlike generic software or hardware samplers, Hauptwerk has complex physical and acoustic models specifically designed to reproduce the features and sound of a pipe organ, and is thus able to achieve much more realistic results. It is also designed for a much higher polyphonythan generic samplers and supports up to 32,768 simultaneous notes!Many digital organs compromise the quality of the pipe samples to allow them to fit in a smaller amount of memory. This results in artificial (synthesized) attacks and releases and very short sustaining portions. These factors alone reduce the realism of the overall sound and randomness of a real pipe.Hauptwerk combines long samples with complex organ modeling to achieve the most realistic sounding virtual organs in the world."
+Nico van Jaarsveld You base this on what? UA-cam audio quality of roughly no more than 192kbps per second audio resolution? CD wav files are 1141kbps per second. You can't judge this instrument based on first trial with problems which can be easily repaired.