The Organ Forum

I have been given a Conn 544, but it needs some attention.  The notes tend to be “scratchy” and sometimes non-existent (including the pedals), so I presume I will need to clean the contacts with De-oxit.  Also one of the keys on the lower keyboard is actually broken, and will need to be repaired.  Now my problem is lifting the keyboards to access the contacts and remove the broken key.  I soon worked out how to lift the top of the organ to get in to that part of the organ, but cannot work out how to get into the keyboards from there.  Any suggestions as to what I need to do now?

Glen Lewis

Conn manuals are held by pins set in spring clips.   I suggest a careful tug upward holding both panels (right and left) but not any keys.   Conn keys are well known for breaking.   Fortunately there are alot of salvaged keys out there to use.    I keep a box handy but fortunately have only had to use one key -- on the move of my recently acquired 3 manual I snapped a key tightening the tie down strap.  (won't tie any down accross the keyboards again!)   You'll find the copper tongue seating the key requires a little effort to remove but the rest of the replacement is a piece of cake.

As far as the cleaning you'll find alot of notes here on previous threads and you'll probably be interested in discussions here on the bus bars which may account for the intermittent tones.   I've had good success playing away most of the scratchy connections and you may want to try that before resorting to extensive service.

Hope you enjoy this new instrument.

Thanks so much for that - it worked just as you said - with a little bit of tugging I was able to get the keyboards up and start removing some of the dust.  By playing away the scratchy connections, do you mean just by playing the organ, the scratchiness will eventually go? If that does not work, there seems to be a number of alternative remedies mentioned in other threads, such a spraying with De-oxit, or moving the bus bars sideways slightly, and even using a soft eraser on them - do you have an opinion as to which is the best?.   

Thanks again for your advice

As you guessed, playing the organ to improve connections involves just keying the notes.  Depending on how severe the situation is you can play a song or just work through the keys with repeated keying of any troubled keys.   The same usually holds true for the voicing tabs.   Just keep at the connections through keying until the maximum improvement is noted.   After that comes the dusting and deoxit cleaning.    I've not tried shifting the bus bars.  That is probably a last resort.    Keying and cleaning has always worked to my satisfaction.   Maybe I've been blessed to have gotten pretty good instruments most of the time.    They usually have been ignored for a period of time and just need a good workout!  Thanks for your message.    Sounds like you have things well in hand now.

Thanks again for all of your help, I am confident that I know what to do now.

Another problem has now developed.  Having managed to access the Conn keyboards, I then removed two keys which were damaged.  These fell apart in my hands.  They had obviously broken at some time in the past, then been glued then reglued again.  Now they can no longer be glued anymore, and need to be replaced.  So can anyone sell me a G and an A key for my Conn Minuet?  I should mention that I live in Adelaide, South Australia, so it will be great if anyone in Australia has some Conn spares, but I expect I will have to buy them from someone in the USA.  So if anyone out there has either of these keys and is willing to part with them please drop me a line (where ever you are).  I will of course pay for them and any postage.  The organ looks a bit ugly at present with these 2 keys missing from the accompaniament.

Many thanks

Glen Lewis

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the keys are regularly canabalized from discarded instruments.   Getting them there in Australia shouldn't prove difficult.   Key your eyes on Ebay auctions.

A temporary fix often suggested here on the forum is that if the broken keys are in a place that interferes with playing the organ, move them from an octave you won't be using.

Keep us up to date on your progress.   If nothing works out for you there I have a friend who hopes to move to Australia sometime in '09.  (She married an Aussie in July)   She knows alot about posting to Australia and can probably help me get them to you.

I have now transferred keys from the upper end of the accompaniament (which are less played by me) to fill the A and G gaps lowerdown as a temporary measure, as you suggested, so at least I can play  the  Conn in a reasonable fashion now.

However finding replacement keys will not be easy here. Probably due to Australia's much smaller population there is just not the pool of secondhand organs and parts to draw on.  Prices here are generally 2 or 3 times what would be paid in the USA for such instruments, and so organs tend to be repaired rather than broken up and sold as replacement parts.  If you have a couple of keys which I could buy, or know someone who has them, then I would be very interested in purchasing them.  Sending them here should not be a big problem.  Wrapping them in some corrugated cardboard and then sending that inside a padded postage bag through the mail should get them here a safely.  It would not be a problem for me to transfer payment for the keys and the postage before they are sent. Perhaps contact me direct at perlyglen@bigpond.com if this is possible.

My congratulations to your friend who decided to marry one of us, I am sure she will feel very much at home here - once she gets use to the accent and the cricket!

I have keys and will check with Rose about posting them.   It may be after the holidays as I work for a large broadcast and internet sales organization in the US and we are going full speed right now with alot of required overtime.   If I can do it with reasonable cost, I'll not ask for any payment since I'm assuming that will make customs much easier.

Thanks so much for that.  Let me know if I can ever do anything in return for you.  Customs is not a problem here, just as long as the items are worth less that A$1,000 and the items are sent through the ordinary (US) mail and not through a private carrier (eg Fedex etc)

I got to see Rose this afternoon.  She assured me that both she and other family members have shipped several packages through our local post office and it will not be hard to get the keys to you.   I'll send you a private message later in Dec. and get the address.

Thought I should add a note so this post won't fall off my list.

Thanks a million for that.  My postal address is Glen Lewis, Post Office Box 56 Meadows, South Australia 5201, Australia.  Perhaps give me a bank account or some other means of repaying you for the postage and any other costs etc.

I sent you an Email, not realizing that you had already posted your address.  If it doesn't turn into a crazy week with having guests for the holiday dinner I hope to ship next week!   Merry Christmas.

A couple other things to do to get all notes playing properly.

The vinyl bus bars get worn out and you'll probably see groves worn into them by the contact wires from the keys. You can push the contact wire array  for a key slightly right or left so it hits fresh contact bar vinyl OR you can rotate the contact bus bars to make the silver contact wires hit fresh vinyl.

Playing notes a lot can help, too.

Conductive vinyl was used to eliminate the clicks & pops of a hard silver contact bus bar.   The tibias have silver contact bus bars but the keying electronics have a soft turn on/off for the tibia voices. 

Watch ebay as stated earlier. I bought an octave of spare keys and brass key springs -- just in case -- for a Conn 651. All Conn keys were the same. I now made a midi interface that can mount on top of a Conn keyboard. I did it mainly to play orchestra bells (also often found on ebay for about $200-$300 US.) Having the spare keys on my workbench really helped in designing the magnetic contacts for the interface.

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Digital Pipes
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