I was just given a Thomas Californian (1971 or so) organ. It has a few problems (for one thing all E-flats are dead) but I found the service manual in an E-Bay store and ordered it. I hope to have the organ at 100% soon after I get the manual. This organ apparently has separate tone oscillators for each note (adjustable via slug tuned coils)which I suspect, should give it a fuller sound than the slightly newer organs that used divider strings to generate all tones from a crystal oscillator. While I enjoy playing my 5'8" grand piano, the electronic organ has one major feature the piano doesn't. A headphone jack. Very useful late at night.

You received the same number of replies that i did, when asking a question about the differences between playing the organs vs playing the piano.

Maybe you could be my first responder. My question concerned having placed the Roland JV-90 organ mode and trying to play a new song our band wants to try.

In Piano mode i record it and it sounds fine.
In Organ mode all the notes run together and it sounds like crap.

I am just trying to get some tips from people who have played piano, or keyboard for years and had never tried the organ. There are definitely some differences in technique, and I just was looking for some tips.

I you have gone through this transition maybe you could send me a note.

Thanks for any help

a resurrected old thread with a valid question.

Piano doesn't sustain like organ. Usually you can do just as well with fewer notes. Also, choice of sounds (registrations) has a lot to do with it.

As you go lower on a piano keyboard with organ sounds you need to simplify the sounds or it will sound like mash.

On pop organ you usually have an upper-manual (melody) registration (say flute 8' 4' 2' and a string.) On the lower (accompaniment) manual you may have just an 8' and 4' flute. On the pedal (bass/rhythm) you may have just a 16' flute or a string bass.

You keyboard has an organ button that is a preselected combination of sounds or drawbar positions. An organ can have hundreds or thousands of tone combinations. Some sound perfect, others like mud.

A good way to simulate organ on a piano keyboard is to treat everything above middle C as melody and split it (if possible) and use a walking bass line with a bass instrument down below.

In the organ world it's all about the registration.

Thanks for the reply USA.. That certainly answers part of my questions, and that was....Is the Roland screwed up or is it me. Sounds like it is neither the Roland or me, but the nature of the organ mode itself.

I can indeed split the Roland and will try that. There are several modes for the organ on the JV-90 but all of the ones I have found are similar. I need to talk to them to deterine if I am missing some key setting.

Thanks again for the help.

the modes are probably predominately (sp?) drawbar.

try splits and keeping the bass sound simple. I think you will be happy with the results.

J

Unless this Thomas is different from all the others I have seen it has 12 tone-generator boards and a set of octave dividers for each generator. Conn organs have separate generators for each key (73 or 85 total). Most everything these days uses a "top octave generator" with one quartz crystal oscillator and divides to get the lower octaves.

Tom