The Organ Forum

That was "Niles IL", which was right on the border of Chicago. Lowrey & Hammond weren't too far away, nor was Gulbransen.

 The southern California factory was in Van Nuys and  many years before was the Robert Morton factory.

 

It's a small world.

Toodles

I found it interesting reading all the replys on Thomas, as my first electronic was by choice a Trianon 606. I agree some of the stops are not so great particularly dia 8' only suitable for soft music.When attatched to external leslie speakers and the console speakers off gives a very satifying sound.On one occasion the Trianon was a feature in 820 seat theatre, and used by five different organists from various parts of Australia, it was a big sound. the repetative statement of "do your best with what you have" or words to that affect applies in my view to any instrument that we play, pedal pump -electronic-pipes classic and theater. I now have in addition a thomas califorian, celebity deluxe, plus other brands of more recent productions. All are different and enjoyable, back to the thomas, one of the most annoying factors is the repeat top octave. The Trianon has and always will be I suppose my favourite. The layout and feeling is like sitting at a 3 decker theater pipe organ(if I use a lot of imagination) One of my favourite photos is of the trianon with it's horshoe shape alongside one of the collection of 1950s classic cars with their wraparound windshield. In these days of improved sound production which in itself a great benefit.I would love to install a variety of orchestra stops similar to what the roland keyboard contains. Also some combination pistons would help for quick changes. One of my musical collegues said of entertaining from the organ, many people have their own opinion that your the very best there is, whoever you are. But that is their opinion. Not a lot of young music students know anything about organs, stop management, expression. These days keyboards, most are difficult to alter the settings without interrupting the music.so it is great to sit up at the Thomas Trianon with a Roland on one side in easy reach and make music, great rhythmn.  Paul       

I did a really bad thing when I was a teenager in 1986, I let my father talk me into buying a THOMAS CALIFORNIAN 263b as my 2nd organ.   I had started out on a Wurlitzer 4040, which had an excellent sound , but had just a few stops on it.  I should have kept that wurlitzer.  The Thomas was horrible. The only thing I thought that sounded good was some of the sound effects and the rhythm unit. NO Leslie, the trems were bad!  The only way it the Thomas would have sounded any better is probably if it had been hooked up to a LESLIE. Well, I put up with that piece of s**t for 2 1/2 years and then convinced my father to buy  me a Hammond.  My organ 'career' took off and I even took organ lessons [I had previously taken 6 years of piano] I learned there is no substitute for good sound.  The hammond I got didn't have much on it either (m-103 with 145 Leslie) but it had a powerful sound quality that was pleasant to listen too. Thats been my only experience with THOMAS. I understand that they had better models that sounded nice. Bob Ralston on Lawrence Welk used a thomas for many years and it sounded wonderful.

from

Anthony, in Hayward, CA

All very interesting, the discussion on Thomas. I have refurbished a model Celebrity 821 some years back and am currently refurbishing a celebrity 811 This model isn't much different to the 821. I had a Trianon 606 that I picked up for $50 but there was so many faults due to poor quality electronics and the fact that mice had infested it.   I kept some of the parts though.     The circuitry was fairly similar in all the models mentioned, discrete components, solid state throughout.    My first organ was a very small Yamaha followed a year later by another larger Yamaha then I bought a Thomas Bel-Air model 555 for $2400 Australian dollars in 1970. This was a lot of money then for an Electronics tech just out of his apprenticeship.   The dealerships in Australia put huge profit margins on their imports.  I remember the Celebrity 821  that I longed for being $4000 retail.  

    Repairing the Thomas 811 has been a long hard slog, so many faults, mainly in the keying boards & divider packs. Also the electrolytic capacitors  are of such poor quality that  I find I am replacing  most of them.     CONN & BALDWIN used much better quality components than did Thomas or for that matter Lowery.
 

     Does anybody know an easy way to replace Thomas key contacts in the upper manual on a Celebrity 621 or similar, ?? Thomas did not make this organ easy to repair.   The 5 year warranty on the tone generators only was a joke,  the rest of the organ was more likely to fail than the 12 plug in  master oscillator- divider cards.

        Good discussion on Thomas, oh yes the cheaper organs were not very satisfying to play. As were the cheaper organs of other brands. I have vowed not to refurbish anything less than a console now,  some CONN spinet's allowed.

  CONTACT :-  robert1917@bigpond.com
 

 

 

virtualorgan:

 I bought a Thomas Bel-Air model 555 for $2400 Australian dollars in 1970. This was a lot of money then    The dealerships in Australia put huge profit margins on their imports. 

Shelling out  AUD$2400 for a 555 Bel Air in 1970 certainly was a lot of money back then, as Steadfast Enterprises, the Australian Importer/Distributor for Thomas organs had a published recommended retail price of AUD$1495 for that model.

Shalom,

Ian

 

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"If music be the food of love, play on!" - William Shakespeare.

I obtained a blue book with organ prices in it years later and found this price of  almost $1500 out.   Did this price include the Band Box & rhythm ?? I remember  these units being an optional extra, well that's what I was told anyway by the agents in Newcastle. Does $4000 equate to the Celebrity 821 as well ?. This was a price I was told in Sydney.  Now I am refurbishing these organs in my  early retirement, you just can't see the value for money at all.   

      At the time as far as bangs per buck was concerned THOMAS beat  the likes of CONN, LOWERY and HAMMOND.   The  brands mentioned  had much better  build quality  than Thomas except for Lowery which seemed to be about on a par.  Even thinking of writing a book about the various brands, Electronic technical level with circuits in the period 1966 to 1976.  The solid state pre IC period of organ manufacture. As most of the companies don't exist anymore,  copyright may not be a problem.   There is little or no info on the net except for Hammond, it would seem.

 

Regards Robert       robert1917@bigpond.com