Vintage organ brand seeking..

[jpdesroc]

The Mystery Organ Brand Name quest is over !
Unpacking my leftover manual from my vintage mystery Organ
to take pictures for you guys I found printed on the right side
of the keyboard the name 'Electrohome Kinsman Clarion'.
So far I didn't find any details on the net about this organ model.
But now you can go and have a look at some detailed pictures
I took tonite:
http://www.arcenson.com/public/Electrohome_Organ/
Note the very nice waterfall manuals this organ had !
Sorry, I made a mistake about the wheels on the left and right sides,
they were not illuminated but made of transparent plastic.
I remember the actual stops were made of rocker tabs removed after time.

Maybe someone will have a schematic and some complete pictures of that Organ..
I'm now able to seek for another of that organ model for its keyboards.
Thanks anyway for your SO APPRECIATED feedbacks !
J-Pierre

[OrgansR4Me]

I have some older "How to Service Organs" type books that mention Kinsman. I'll try to see if any of those show wheel type controls.

[Jan Girardot]

Electrohome is or was a Canadian manufacturer/marketer of many products. Between 1961 and 1963 they contracted with Kinsman of Brattleboro, Vermont to build a series of organs, virtually identical to the Kinsman organs sold in the U. S. Tone generation was provided by sets of vacuum tube oscillators driving chains of neon lamp frequency dividers. Parts are identical to the U. S. models, if you can still find some of them "alive".

. . . Jan
the OrganGrinder

[jpdesroc]

Electrohome is or was a Canadian manufacturer/marketer of many products. Between 1961 and 1963 they contracted with Kinsman of Brattleboro, Vermont to build a series of organs, virtually identical to the Kinsman organs sold in the U. S. Tone generation was provided by sets of vacuum tube oscillators driving chains of neon lamp frequency dividers. Parts are identical to the U. S. models, if you can still find some of them "alive".

As you state it looks like My mystery organ was a Kinsman Clarion organ (with Electrohome also printed).
I found this Kinsman Duchess picture that has the same type of keys on its manuals
but with 44 notes each.
http://www.arcenson.com/public/Elect...an/kinsman.jpg
The black metal plates aside the keyboards & rocker tabs at left are surely the same type of switches as the Clarion..
I saw eBay auctions existed for lots of 18 x 12AXY Kinsman branded tubes (oscillators tubes).
I clearly remember there were LOTS of 12AX7 inside it !
I'll try to find pictures of this Clarion..
Thanks everybody !

[OrgansR4Me]

Technical information about Kinsman Organs can be found in Chapter 6 of Electronic Organ Handbook by H. Emerson Anderson (sells occasionally on Ebay). There is a mention of models B and C and an illustration of a spinet model named CP. The photo isn't large enough to identify the wheels but a legend shows the positions of tremulant and sustain.

[Ordinary_Man]

Thanks for giving us the solution to the mystery. They were ahead of their time with the wheels. Very much like the wheels on MIDI keyboards.

[Jan Girardot]

While some information on the Kinsman line will be found in the Anderson book, above, it does not cover the last models, before Seeburg bought the company. The original Kinsmans used half of a 12AX7 (dual triode) as the master oscillator for two-note groups (D/D#, etc.) each tone family(C, C#, D etc.) with that high frequency applied to a string of neon lamp dividers which provided all the lower octaves. Later models used a 6C10 Compactron, a triple-triode which provided the master osc. for three consecutive tone families, still using the neon divider stages.

When Seeburg bought Kinsman, the organ designs were junked, but the Rhythm King drum machine was turned into the Select-A-Rhythm, some of which found their way into the Gulbransen line, also owned by Seeburg.

Hope this is of interest.

. . . Jan
the OrganGrinder

[JBW]

I much prefer my Hammonds, but I must admit that I do have an old Seeburg, Kinsman "Princess" model out in the garage. The true story behind this organ is that the original owner was the "little old lady organist for the church for 40+ years". It was her home organ that she practiced on. After she passed away they couldn't even give it away, so my sister-in-law heard about it and offered for me to take it off their hands since she knew I had this affliction that causes me to collect organs. It is in great condition, but is a very average sounding organ. As discussed above, it is a mix of tube and neon and looks pretty interesting from the back when everything is glowing. The Mrs. wants me to thin things out a little, so it is already in the garage, soon to go out the door. Since its tubes are worth more than the organ is whole, I will probably salvage what I can and get rid of the rest. Maybe part of the cabinet can be the case for a Frankinleslie I've been saving parts for......?

Kinsman Princess -small pic.jpg