John Smith Organs - Juliana
FOR SALE
Juliana is a multi-purpose mobile organ. It was designed to play standard 64 note fairground music, but is also switchable to become fully chromatic - which along with the comprehensive percussion section means it can play just about any type of music. Also, arranging your own, or rearranging existing music, is made easy. One of my favourite fair organs is Decap, so I added all the extra percussions, counter melody and tremulants, to recreate a similar sound.
Ill health has meant that I have been unable to take the organ out for the last three years - although it has been played regularly to our neighbours. It has been a very reliable organ, needing virtually no attention. I have not tuned it for three years, and it is still in very good tune.
JULIANA
98 KEY CONCERT ORGAN
98 KEY CONCERT ORGAN
I built Juliana over 2001 to 2003, and installed it in the small Mini Glen caravan, which still retains the cooker, oven grill, sink, double bed, gas and electricity. The outside is starting to look decidedly sad, and needs to be generally tidied up and repainted. The organ in a caravan concept has proved to be a winner - all you need in one compact unit. At rallies Juliana has always been admired for the beautiful tone and its extreme compact size. One of its first outings was to be exhibited - and to entertain - at the Midlands Model engineering Show where it won a first prize.
I am very sadly having to put Juliana up for sale. It is in full Rally playing order, ready to use, with loads of music for all occasions - including the £1,500 -worth I bought originally, plus as much again. My only concern is that any future maintenance of the organ could be a problem due to the fact that a lot of additional items have been fitted over the years, so the wiring is far from standard. The ideal new owner would be someone with electronic skills, to whom I will supply all my circuits, drawings and scales, with the organ. See lots of videos on my Youtube channel under the name ‘gemmadan’, including:
65 key Alan Pell arrangement; and in the Decap 72 key mode;
Specifications:
Percussions
Sizes: (in inches)
Bass pipes 12 + 5 helpers, longest nearly 4 foot long
Accompaniment 28 pipes 12 reeds
Melody 125 pipes + 50 reeds
Counter melody 20 pipes + 20 reeds
Piccolo 14 pipes
Glock 25 notes
Percussions
Bass Drum, Snare with twin beaters, cymbal with 4 beaters loud and soft
Triangle,
Castanet, Maracas, Tambourine, Christmas bell shaker.
Fully animated Bandmaster and Bell Ringer
Eight registers
Back up floppy player with original disks
Many hours of music in all styles
Built in CD music player system for background music at quiet events
Lights
Mains and 12 volt systems.
Spare wheel
Gas bottle
Two awnings
Sizes: (in inches)
Main case is 48 high 44 wide and 24 deep
Side case approx 24 high, 18 wide and 12 deep.
The compact size means Juliana could be housed in a much smaller trailer.
The organ will start and run on an 850 watt generator, (no longer available).
If you are interested in buying the organ please feel free to phone me for more information, best between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. on 01525 712 496
Email me for a full scale scale sheet of the organ at john.smith6607@ntlworld.com
Email me for a full scale scale sheet of the organ at john.smith6607@ntlworld.com
Further technical notes for buyers, or prospective Topsy builders
Juliana has a primary scale the same as Topsy, with a 64-way decoder. To cater for the number of ranks being used, all the melody outputs have transistor current boosters, giving each a max capacity of 1.5 amps A further 32-way decoder is used for the extra pipes, percussions, and registers when in Chromatic mode. Switching over modes is via twin push buttons. There is also wiring to connect a 4-octave keyboard to play the organ remotely - something I only ever used a few times. All this functionality does contribute to the wiring being non-standard and quite complicated looking.
Ideally the wiring in the main tray would benefit from being redone. This would not be too difficult as all the windchests and everything else are connected to the main tray via plugs and sockets. The 8-way register control board has change-over relay outputs. Most of the percussions operate on a separate voltage and have intermediate relays to the decoder.
For maximum reliability I purchased most of the pallet magnets from Petterson in the USA. The pipes have proven to be be extremely stable, with virtually no retuning needed since they were made - just an occasional adjustment of the shades on the highest octave pipes.
The Caravan is solidly built, but in need of some TLC. The tyres are over 10 years old so really need to be replaced. Everything in the van is ready to use - the bed is a double, but with a slight reduction of width under the percussion box. It is very comfy for one, and good for two - not too tall - people. There are two awnings, one old, and the other used three times. I did get the van weighed on my way to Widnes Rally having accidentally driven into an industrial area. It was 16 cwt. fully-loaded.
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Ideally the wiring in the main tray would benefit from being redone. This would not be too difficult as all the windchests and everything else are connected to the main tray via plugs and sockets. The 8-way register control board has change-over relay outputs. Most of the percussions operate on a separate voltage and have intermediate relays to the decoder.
For maximum reliability I purchased most of the pallet magnets from Petterson in the USA. The pipes have proven to be be extremely stable, with virtually no retuning needed since they were made - just an occasional adjustment of the shades on the highest octave pipes.
The Caravan is solidly built, but in need of some TLC. The tyres are over 10 years old so really need to be replaced. Everything in the van is ready to use - the bed is a double, but with a slight reduction of width under the percussion box. It is very comfy for one, and good for two - not too tall - people. There are two awnings, one old, and the other used three times. I did get the van weighed on my way to Widnes Rally having accidentally driven into an industrial area. It was 16 cwt. fully-loaded.
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