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C600 Theatre Organ Project C600 Organ Project


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C600 Theatre Organ Project

Arthur W. Critchley, Dip. El., C.Eng., M.I.E.E., P.Eng.
Classic Organ Works, Markham, Ontario, Canada


Acquiring the Beast
Some time during 2001, Classic Organ Works was offered a Devtronix theatre organ by a private
individual in Etobicoke, Toronto. Devtronix organs had been supplied as kits and Jim Anderson, then a
member of the Toronto Theatre Organ Society, had built one around 1979. Unfortunately, he had died
during 1999 and his widow died two years later. The family then wanted to sell the house but lurking in
the basement was this humongous white organ console. It appeared to be worth a lot of money so they
tried offering it for sale to several churches but none wanted it. Finally, they found out about Classic
Organ Works and their technician Arie Vandenberg went along to assess it. It was not in good shape,
being barely playable and with obvious signs of damage to the speaker cone surrounds which had
disintegrated with age. He reported back to Classic and informed me about it, knowing that I had long
been looking out for a secondhand theatre organ console. So I went with him for a look and listen, and,
as he had said, the sound was pretty awful and half of it did not work at all. The keyboards had seen
better days and were uneven and noisy. There was also a lot of other stuff with it in the form of speaker
cabinets and a huge mobile cabinet with all the electronics connected to the console via an enormous
umbilical cord of multicore cables.
However, the console was just the kind of thing for which I had been looking for several years. It
was a Devtronix French-style, three-manual, Paramount console in white with gold trimmings and a
double-row of tabs in a horseshoe. This model was a 90% scale of a WurliTzer console. It had been
nicely made although it was showing signs of wear and tear. I was not interested in the electronics parts
of it or the speakers as I could acquire those kinds of things myself, but a properly-built horseshoe
console with all those tabs was worth having and would save an enormous amount of work for which I
did not have facilities. Concealing my excitement, I discussed the possibilities of removing it with the
family and made them an offer that was quite a bit lower than their asking price, but, as they had not
had any interest from elsewhere, they had lowered their expectations. After some haggling, a deal was
agreed upon for the whole lot and a deposit paid. We would return with a van in a day or two and pay
the balance at the time of removal.
Removal was easier said than done due to a very narrow flight of carpeted steps (with an iron
railing) from the basement complicated by the exit being at right angles through a door at the top.
Fortunately, the console came apart with the top simply being sat on pegs in the base unit. Luckily it
had not been completely built in situ! All of the electronic equipment was in a separate wheeled cabinet
some four feet wide by four feet high by two feet deep that comprised about ten wooden shelves with
boards mounted on them in clips. There were masses of transistors and literally miles of wire. Several
large-diameter multi-core cables led into the console and there were ten speaker cabinets in various
sizes, including a Leslie cabinet and a high-frequency horn, as well as several power amplifiers.
Arie and I set about dismantling the system and carefully took the console apart, disconnecting
cables that went between the upper and lower halves. It was extremely heavy with all the electronics
inside so we disconnected and removed whatever we could. We could have gone through some double
doors via the back garden but the route was tortuous and there was a narrow gate en route, so we
elected to go via the stairs and out through the front door. We tipped the top part on its end and shunted
it up the stairs one at a time to the top, being careful not to damage the trim. There, we spun it round
ninety degrees on the carpet and shuffled it sideways through the basement doorway (having taken off
the door). It just made it! The trip to the van was relatively easy. The base gave no trouble but the C600 Organ Project


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electronics cabinet suffered by being tipped on its end the frame collapsed and all the boards ended
up in a mess at one end, breaking off many wires. Undaunted, we carried it up the stairs, spun it round,
and carted it off to the van. The speakers, pedalboard and bench followed with no trouble. The red-
carpeted platform was a problem as it was too large to get into the van although it would easily pass
through the basement doorway. It was agreed that the family would deliver it to Classic by open truck
on a fine day.
Having got the organ into the van, I paid the balance and was informed that there were several other
organy items which I might as well take as they would only be thrown away if I didnt. These
included some Wurlitzer posters, about twenty organ LPs, old theatre organ magazines, several useful
reference books and all the schematics, invoices, notes and other details about the organ, including
original Devtronix information and console plans. Some of these things were collectors items and I
accepted them gratefully.

What to Do With It?
Back at Classic, the system was thoroughly inspected and it was decided that there was little point
in trying to resurrect the electronics as, not only was it a dated system, but also most of it was in bad
shape anyway and had suffered in the move. It would have taken an awful lot of work to put it back
together and the tonal results would not have been all that good when it was done. In its day, however,
the Devtronix organ was among the best electronic theatre organs. Modern organs, with sampled tones,
and computer controls, easily outclass the technology of twenty-odd years ago.
Accordingly, the decision was made to gut it completely, leaving only the keys, tabs and
pedalboard. A state-of-the-art Classic combination-action control system would be used that would
provide many desirable features hitherto almost impossible to implement. Whatever tonal system might
be used could be thought about later when the console had been made to work as all would use the
same kind of serial data stream. The various boards were removed, all inter-connecting wiring cut, and
the boards sorted out according to function. When that had been done, they were cleaned up and offered
for sale via the Internet to several organ-enthusiasts lists where there were bound to be previous
owners of Devtronix systems requiring spares or extra boards to expand their organs. After a while, all
the boards had been disposed of except the reverberation unit and power amplifiers that could probably
be used in a new system. The monetary return from the sold boards compensated for most of the
original outlay.

Keyboards
The console was cleaned up and all wiring scrapped it amounted to quite a pile! Most of the
inter-connecting wiring was old Post Office 26-gauge solid copper wire as used in telephone systems
and would not be suitable for use on the crimped connecters that were going to be used. The keyboards
were inspected and found to be plastic Pratt-Reed types in rather rough shape with many rubber bushes
perished. These limited the travel of the keys at both up and down limits and had gone hard, causing the
keys to clank. Because these bushes had perished at different rates, the keys looked uneven and were
noisy. However, the second-touch buffers were mostly quite good, which was a relief as they were
obviously a special shape and would be hard to replace. New rubber bushes were located at Organ
Supply Industries in the US and enough ordered to rebush all the keys, together with the special silicone
lubricant that would prolong their life. As it happened, only the lowest keyboard (Accompaniment) was
bad enough to require all its bushes changing. The other two keyboards were usable as they were,
which was a relief as to change the bushes require removal of all the key tops and springs so that the
rubber bushes