Portable Reed Organ Mod

 For more about reed organs, visit my Estey portable post.

I've wanted a portable reed organ for years. They're more than loud enough to be heard on the street, and they compete well with other musicians who play instruments that can actually be heard without electricty (not guitar.) They're the only keyboard instrument with good range that can be heard from afar and not simultaneously weigh as much as a young cow.

I swiped this "Imperiale" reed organ off Craigslist. It seems like it's from the 50's or so, from what I can find online, and not of any exceptional value. Before I did anything to it, I had to find out how it worked.

The instrument itself sits inside a superstructure that includes the pedals and bellows. It's easy to lift the whole thing out. The holes you can see convey suction from the bellows below.

It's extremely simple. The keyboard it its own structure which sits on top of the box containing the reeds. When you press a key, it pushes down one of the many pins below:

...which in turn shoves a wooden block out of the way of a hole, above which is a reed. These blocks are freely set under a row of simple wire springs. In the above picture, you can also see the shudder which (sort of) controls volume, and the way it's lifted up by the knee lever. To remove a reed, you open the shudder and reach inside with a special hook. One didn't make noise when I got it, and it was as simple and taking it out and blowing it off.

 

 

The above wooden box mates directly to the wooden platform in the second picture, with a paper gasket between the two. The suction is never enough to leak through any one valve and create a sound.

My goal for this thing was to make it more portable, and that's what I did, probably in March. Since it was never meant to fold up, I had to do some strange things, such as having the legs fold in two places.

 

 

Loose pieces are stored inside with the pedals.

 

It's necessary to attach six wooden crutches with wingnuts to keep the legs from wobbling. The knee lever attaches with a blind nut and thumbscrew.

 

The steel rods attaching the pedals to the bellows have been replaced with rope. When everything is screwed down, you pin the legs open with the crossbar the pedals are attached to and flip the whole thing up.

 Setting it up is a little more involved than I would like, though it still only takes a few minutes. The whole thing can be carried around on one of those little dollies old ladies use for their groceries, or in a bike trailer. I've done a lot of busking with it. A lot of people ask me if it's a piano...