In August of 1998 I purchased the Seybold Organ from Butterfield & Butterfield for $287.50. However the bench was missing. On contacting the previous owner whom liked the bench and wanted to keep it.  I was able to acquire the  original bench for $250.00.

I also was told that since the console would not fit through their door, only the front center of the organ was inside the house. They had taken a power saw & cut away the bass boards and top. Busted out the front, and side moldings to make it fit in the hole in the outside  house wall.  Replaced the panels with plywood  to fill the openings. The rest on the console that was outside was subject to the weather & house paint.

Well this is how the organ looked when I received it. Panels, molding, the base board, and the top molding had been chopped off.  The bottom back cover & pipe top missing.

In October of 2002 the Southwest Chamber Music used a Burdett parlor organ that I had restored  and tuned to concert pitch  but had need for a louder instrument

So it seemed like a good time to restore the Seybold packed in the back of the shop, besides I have not even heard it play.

Starting with the console I had to strip off blue and white house paint as well as a fake dark wood finish that was applied at some point of its life. Several holes needed to be filled as well as the wood joints re-glued as being exposed to the rain.  Holes from a chime keyboard were found giving evidence that this instrument was at one time in a church.

  Panels were made for the sides. A base board  was milled to match what little was left.

A custom blend of stain had to be created to match the old wood with the new. The  panel molding had to be made larger to cover the damage to the sides due to the originals being busted out.

The top Molding was milled and fitted to the cover.

Since the original top of false  pipes was missing  and this would make the instrument about ten foot high, I decided to just add a flat lid that could be opened for more volume. This could also be easily removed if the  pipe work was ever to be added at a latter time.

Below is a picture of a sister organ of the same model. I only know of one other of these organs in existence.

Work then was started on the pedal board. All of the felt was replaced. Wood repairs made and broken tabs at the end of the pedals replaced.

Castors were added to the pedal board & console for moving.

The drawknobs were disassembled, re-felted, repaired, and refinished. Evidence was found that this system was worked on before as I found several parts in the wrong places.

Some of the refinishing

Face board  & front grill restoration.

Now lets start on the inside. On the reservoir after removing the old leather and duct tape, new hinges were installed.

The ribs were hinged and new leather gussets made.

The release valves that keep the reservoir from closing too far found to have been glued shut, so that was corrected also.

At some point the organ’s original hand cranked pump system was replaced with an electric vacuum pump. I bet the person that had to crank the organ had something to do with that.  With that thought in mind I thought it best to reinstall the vacuum pump  and not recreate the hand cranked pumps.

The vacuum pump housing was falling apart due to water damage.

And the electrical system was not fused. Being a ten amp motor I thought it wise to add a circuit breaker.

Besides rebuilding the vacuum pump housing a whind duct was made to replace the dryer hose that I found on it.  The system is lined with sound absorbing material to cut down on the noise of the motor.

A regulator valve was added to the system so the reservoir would not shake or be over loaded.

The pedal trackers were rusted and bent.  New felt bearings and hold down bar had to be made.

The pedal rocker arms needed most of the pitman seats and all the felt replaced. Each of the thirty  pedal notes pulls down the front of the rocker arm pushing up on the bass reed  pitman and also a tracker for the pedal couplers of the Great and Swell manuals. Note that above picture show how felt was added to the bottom of the trackers as a quick fix.

Above the pedal rocker arms is the bass reed chest.

This is what you have after removing a rats nest  and the long dead residents. Wood had been chewed way  & valve springs corroded through.

    Bass pallet valves re-leathered.

Well we covered what is under the main reed chest so on to the next level up.

Upon first look at the inside of the main reed chest all was fine.

On a closer look there was an infestation of carpet beetles so all of the felt had to be replaced.

Below is the original Swell pallet valves with the GT to SW coupler levers.

Removal of the felt & leather of the front Great  pallets.

One of the rear Great pallets, notice the felt eaten up by the carpet beetles.

Re-felting  and leathering of the Great pallets.

The Swell pallets.

Great pallet valves being reinstalled inside of the main chest.

The rail with the round holes is for the Pedal trackers which go through the chest.

Swell pallets installed with SW to GT coupler above front Great pallets.

 Below is a pallet that allows vacuum behind the GT Flute 4’  mute,

Installation of the rocker arms that connect the front & rear Great pallets.

Below is the completed  inside of the main chest. Adjustments  were made at this time to each note of the Great rocker arms between front and back pallets. Also  each note of the SW to GT coupler had to be adjusted  & repairs made.

At this point 214 pallet valves have been rebuilt in the main & bass reed chest.

Work on repair & felt replacement of Great & Swell key boards.

Replacing the cloth hinges of the “Gt to Pd” & “Sw to Pd” couplers.

Each installed just above their respective manual.

 The octave coupler is located under the Great manual. Any note coupled to the Great will have it’s octave above played as well when this is on. Below are the Great pitmans being re-felted for the octave coupler.

Great manual installed with  Swell pitmans & Pedal coupler.

Swell manual installed and pedal coupler stickers installed.

Side view of  Swell showing top pedal rocker arm.

Coupler stickers & coupler levers. When the coupler is turned on the back of the coupler is lowered. When a pedal note is played, the rocker arm pushes down on the sticker, in turn the sticker pushes down the front of the coupler. The fulcrum in the middle of the coupler will push down the Swell key. The fulcrum is also the key depth adjustment. The same system is also on the Great Manual.

Upper pedal trackers that go through the chest connecting to the upper pedal rocker arms.

Expression shades after hinges being replaced.

The Reeds

Above from the top. Located in the back reed pan the Great:

Pipe Diapason 8ft.- Delicato 8ft.- Reed pipe 8ft.

In the front reed pan the Great :

Pipe Melodia 8ft.- Flute 4ft.

From the top: located in the front reed pan the Swell:

Principal 8ft.-Harp Aeolian 2ft ( 2 rank)-next to it the Vox Angelica 4ft.- then below them the Cello 16ft.

Located in the bass reed chest the Pedal:

Bassoon 8ft.- Bassoon 16ft.

In all 572 reeds that had to be  hand cleaned.

Above is the Swell reed cells. Notice that  they all different in scale.

Below are some of the mutes being re- leathering.

Again the Swell looking from the organ back.

Mutes & reeds being replaced.

Reed Cells from the back, notice the elongated Rear Gt reed chest

For the Pipe Diapason larger philharmonic reeds.

Looking from the front the Great reed cells.

Close up of Seybold’s Pat. Pipe Reed cell.

The reeds are set far back in the cell and another scaled  empty reed cell above it with a hole connecting the two for a resonator effect.

High end of Pipe Reed cell showing the very narrow  Delicato reed cells  above it.

This a detail of the front Great  reed cells. Smaller Melodia on top.

The lower Flute reeds cells are set  back,  the mute does not seal in front of each cell but seals  a chamber in front of all the cells in common. Thus in the lower right you will notice a pin sticking up. When the mute is lowered to the off position, the pin is pushed down into the chest, opening that internal chest pallet  pictured earlier next to the Gt. pallets. The result is the vacuum is set up behind the mute when the stop is off.

These are the wood resonators over the Pipe Diapason philharmonic reeds of the Great.

Vox Humana , wood resonators, & new bottom back cover installed.

The speed of the Vox Humana is controlled by two pieces of screen

When one of the screens is rotated it polarizes the whind opening thus controlling the amount of air flow.

Starting with the bass reeds I started to tune and voice.

and tuned,

and voiced,

and tuned,

For forty–seven hours………..

Reed voicing notes of interest:

On this instrument each rank of reeds are of a different scale of both reed and reed cell.  The Organ was around 24 cents flat of concert pitch, it seem so the previous tuner tuned the organ to the upper 4ft. as they are paper thin and hard to tune and little evidence of tuning  was found there. The Vox Angelica  4ft. was  changed to 8ft. so this was corrected. Also since this voice is on the Full Organ stop at 4ft. it was tuned to concert pitch & not as a celeste.

The Full Organ system was found installed backwards leaving some stops off.

The Pipe Diapason philharmonic reed is set below a wood resonator  reinforcing the fundamental harmonics. The effect is somewhat like a wooden resonator Diaphone of a pipe organ.

The Reed Pipe  had a wide straight reed and the dual reed cell.

The effect is a greatly reduced upper harmonics

and a full rich tone.

This was the Seybold Patent.

Starting from the top:

Cello 16ft. has a large tall reed cell and a wide scale straight reed.

Producing a loud tone with strong upper harmonics.

Center:

The two rank Harp Aeolian narrow scale curved  reed and small reed cells  produce a delicate  celeste.

Bottom:

Principal: standard scale, tone is that found in most reed organs.

From the top:

1: Pipe Diapason philharmonic straight reed.

Loud strong tone.

2: Principal straight reed.

End of tongue thickened for lowering the pitch,

also this dampens the upper harmonics.

3: Delicato  narrow straight reed.

Tongue is set very low in reed, soft tone.

4: Melodia curved reed.

Medium tone upper harmonics greatly reduced.

Grid scale is ¼”

From the  Right:

1: Pipe Diapason philharmonic large scale reed.

2: Principal lower octave  reed.

3: Delicato reed.

The 1/16” hole  drilled at the end allows air to be pulled over the tongue reducing it’s travel to produce a light tone.

4: Melodia curved reed.

5: Upper octave 4ft. reed.

The 3/32” hole drilled at the reed base lets air through

so the reed does not cipher.

This was found on all of the top octaves of the 4ft.’s and also on the top octave of the Delicato.

Specifications

Serial #  Console - 14258  Reed Chest - 10741

Built 1903-1908

Dimensions

Height : 6ft. Top Open,  65” closed

Width: 81”

Depth: 35”  With Pedal Board & Bench : 5ft.

Weight:  Console-625lbs. Pedal Board – 60lbs. Bench-45lbs

Total: 730lbs.

Electrical: 10 amp.

Additions for concert use:

Music Rack & Pedal Lamps

Removable 30ft. AC power cord to 15AMP circuit breaker.

Castors & removable handles for moving.

Sound absorption added to quite vacuum pump.

The Builder

SEYBOLD REED-PIPE ORGAN CO.; Peoria, IL;

established by William Seybold in 1902, sold to Strohber Piano Co. in 1903 and moved to Elgin, IL. William Seybold died in 1904 and the company which bore his name was then operated by William Grote, president, and William F . Bieltmann, factory superintendent, who had learned organ building in Germany. Production began in Elgin with eleven employees; cases and some other parts were purchased from others. By 1905 Seybold, by then staffed with fifty employees, was producing ten instruments per day including cases. Renamed Seybold Piano & Organ Co. in 1908, capacity was ten organs and five pianos per day. In 1910 the work force was up to 80 and a total of 10,000 organs had been produced. In 1913 Seybold merged with F. Engelhart & Sons Company, owners of the Peerless Player Piano Company and the National Music Roll Company, to form the Engelhart-Seybold Piano Co. , with offices in Chicago, but the new enterprise went bankrupt 18 months later. The former Seybold plant was acquired by the E.P. Johnson Piano Co. in 1916 and used for piano production.

Gellerman’s International Reed Organ Atlas Second Edition – Robert F. Gillerman c:1998

On a “Full Organ”  playing  six notes on the Great and two notes in the Pedal the Organist could be playing up to

one hundred thirty two reeds.

It took 325 man hours to rebuild this instrument………..