Carousel Organ , Issue No. 47—April, 2011 Wilhelm Bruder ... Bruder Söhne Model 76 and...

Carousel Organ, Issue No. 47—April, 2011

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The Starkton orpowerful sound-ing organs are

were advertised in themid 1920s. Starkton’swere available in twomodels, Model 76 andModel 77, the Model 76has no percussion.Although they werenever really classified asa Starkton by WilhelmBruder Söhne (WBS),the firm always firstreferred to them by theirmodel numbers and thenin the subtext they usedthe word Starkton. Forthe purposes of this arti-cle I will use the wordStarkton when talkingabout these organs.Figure 1

In this article I examine a variety of organs that playon the Model 76/77 scale. The Starkton organs were partof a rationalization programme after the First World War,when changes to the tonal structure of the firm’s organsalso took place. It is very likely that Eugen Bruder, whowas in charge of their music arrangement department, hada substantial input into the design of these organs.

The Starkton Model 77 organ’s small size (2 metreshigh, 2.10 metres wide and 0.75 metres deep), defy theseinstruments decibel output and their musical ability,which was probably one of the reasons for their populari-ty; the other was obviously that they were well priced. InQ David Bowers’ Encyclopedia of Automatic MusicalInstruments, page 825, there are two photographs takenfrom a WBS catalogue. Bowers states that in the 1930s aModel 76 cost 1400 DM. Converting that into poundssterling in 1930, we get a price of £70.00. If I then use aninflation formula to calculate the organ’s equivalent pricetoday we arrive at a figure of £2500.00! [$4,050—ED]

A Starkton with reed pipes normally had a total of 113pipes. The whole top section of the case contains the five

mitred trombones. Thelargest resonator runsonce around the insideof the case, plus a littlemore—just over eightfeet long! This givesthese small organs theirdeep sonorous bass andunlike many organsthey have no flue basspipes or helpers.Figure 2

The tracker bar has46 holes and althoughthe original books haveholes punched for forteand piano, there is nomechanism to operatesuch functions in any ofthe Model 76 and 77instruments that I havefound.

The scale as seen in Figure 3 comprises five notesallocated to the bass, 15 notes for the accompaniment(trumpet section) and a further 17 notes for the melody.This makes a total of 37 holes providing the musicalnotes. It’s worth noting that in the Starkton, and in otherGerman organs, the accompaniment doubles up as a coun-termelody. Then there are three holes for percussion, twofor the snare drum and one that operates the bass drumwith Chinese cymbal, and finally one hole for the action

Wilhelm Bruder SöhneModel 76 and 77 “Starkton” Organs

Part I

Jonathan J. Holmes

Figure 1. A Starkton Model 77, owned by the author is painted in its originalcolor scheme of circa 1935.

The Starkton Model 77 organ’ssmall size . . ., defy these instruments

decibel output and their musicalability, which was probably one of thereasons for their popularity, the other

was obviously that they were wellpriced.


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cut off. This makes 38 holes utilized on Model 76 organsand 41 holes used in Model 77 organs. If we include theholes designated for forte/piano functions a total of 43holes have a designated function leaving three blank.

Although generically very different, for comparisonpurposes, let’s look at another popular WBS instrument,which are common in and unique to the UK. The 46-key-less WBS instruments that were commissioned byChiappa Limited in the 1920s and 1930s to play on theGavioli scale. A number of these popular WBS 46-key-less organs have survived into preservation. Chiappaalready had patterns for this scale, so it is likely that thiswas one of the reasons for the British/Gavioli 46-keylessspecification.

Wilhelm Bruder and SöhneModels 76/77 Starkton’s

Musical Scale

1 unknown or not used2 F-lowest bass note3 Cut out4 G5 A6 C7 D8 Bass drum and cymbal9 G-lowest accompaniment/trumpet note

10 A11 A#12 B13 Snare drum14 Snare drum15 C16 C#17 D18 E19 F20 F#21 G22 G#23 A24 A#25 B26 C-lowest melody note27 C#28 D29 E30 F31 F#32 G33 A34 A#35 B36 C37 C#38 D39 E40 F41 F#42 G43 Forte44 unknown or not used45 unknown or not used46 Piano (nearest to the hinge of the

Figure 3. The Model 76/77 Starkton scale.

Figure 2. The Model 77 advertised in the Wilhelm Bruder Söhn Catalogue, circa 1926.Courtesy: Paul Fleck Sohne


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WBS catalogues show that they had their own rangeof organs which were similar in size to the organs orderedby Chiappa, including the Starkton and their Models 78and 79. As far as we know no Starktons were ever import-ed into the UK before preservation. The WBS Gavioliscale organs were commissioned by Chiappa Limited inLondon because of the compa-ny’s need for a supply of smallorgans to accompany a newtype of fairground ride thatwas being imported into theUK from Germany, the“Chair-O-Plane.” Figures 4& 5

The importation of theserides into the UK started inthe early 1920s. These smallorgans were also used onsteam yachts and cakewalkswhere space was limited. It’s pos-sible that Chiappa Limited did not contemplate makingthese small organs themselves because of their own com-mitments, but it’s more likely that it was for financial rea-sons. The good exchange rate and Germany’s economiccollapse at that time made the price of these organs verycompetitive.

Chiappa imported many of these tuneful little organs.Exact numbers are not known at present, but the Chiappaarchives would probably hold that information includingthe purchase and sale price to UK showmen. It’s believedthat more than thirty of these instruments were purchasedfrom WBS. Chiappa then sold them with music fromtheir own pattern library to showmen all over the UK.There seems to be two distinct designs for the facades,while the pipework specification remains roughly thesame throughout the period of their production. One dif-ference is that in early organs the trumpet pipes are onlyon the bottom 10 notes of the melody, while the remain-ing pipes in the rank are stopped flutes; later organs havetrumpets over the whole rank. Some of these organs havesince been altered—in my view this has been detrimentaland not an improvement. The most common change is theaddition of a glockenspiel while many have had their

feeders removed and been socalled updated with the addi-tion of a blower.

Two unaltered examplesare those owned by MargaretCooke Serial No. 3543(Figure 6 on center spread)and Amersham FairgroundOrgan Museum (Teddy Reed).Serial No. 3633 circa 1925(Figure 7 on center spread).

I decided to discuss the46-keyless Chiappa / WBS

instruments thereby providing a comparison for readers tothe Starktons, as the 46-Keyless Gavioli scale is wellknown to British fairground organ enthusiasts. Whileattending the 2008 Waldkirch organ festival, KevinMeayers discovered the original WBS factory scale stickfor these Chiappa ordered organs in an organ builder’sworkshop where some of WBS workforce transferredwhen the WBS factory closed.

Figure 4. A WBS Chiappa organ in Jacob Studt Jr’s Chair-O-Planes, Wantage Market, circa 1925.

FHT 0386 © Fairground Heritage Trust

Figure 5. WBS Chiappa organ in Mayne’s Chair-O-Planes, Heston MayFair, 1942. FHT 1609 © Fairground Heritage Trust

The WBS Gavioli scale organswere commissioned by Chiappa

Limited in London because of the com-pany’s need for a supply of small

organs to accompany a new type offairground ride that was being import-

ed into the UK from Germany, the“Chair-O-Plane.”


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A Starkton is not much larger in physical size to theChiappa / Bruder organs, but its pipework is of a largerscale and of course the Chiappa / WBS organs do not havethe normal German mixture ranks. More importantly theydo not use the scale in the same way, i.e. the accompani-ment as a true counter melody; therefore the sound is verydifferent. Today the 46-keyless Gavioli scale is extreme-ly popular with both professional and amateur organbuilders who have produced new instruments with vari-ous degrees of success. The scale is also the basis for the52/54 keyless organs built by a variety of builders includ-ing Dean, Leach and McCarthy. The one major benefit ofthe Gavioli scale, compared to the Model 76/77 scale, isthat it’s virtually chromatic, thus making arranging musicsomewhat easier. Please see the comparison charts tocompare these two small types of instruments built byWBS.

If you compare the scales and the pipe work (Figures3 & 8) you can see there are many differences, but onemajor difference is certainly the way the music isarranged i.e.by using thea c c o m p a n i -ment sectionto play ac o u n t e rmelody on thet r u m p e t s .This gives theStarkton afuller richersound andallows them a r k e r[arranger—Ed] to bemore creative.

It is important to realize that in the Models 76/77organs, the pipe work was not standardized and variationsdo exist. A number of organs were built with a softer toneand these instruments did not contain any reed pipesalthough they usually had a small mixture. But in oneexample, Serial Number 3799 (Figures 9 and 10 on cen-ter spread), the melody and accompaniment comprisestwo ranks of pipes throughout. One rank is open and theother rank is stopped. The bass comprises one rank ofstopped pipes at 8'. Obviously this organ has a much mel-

A Starkton is not much larger inphysical size to the Chiappa / Bruderorgans, but its pipework is of a larger

scale and of course the Chiappa / WBSorgans do not have the normal

German mixture ranks.

Figure 8. Scale comparisons between the Bruder Starkton and the Bruder Chiappa organs.

Figure 9. The Starkton Model 77, Serial No. 3799,showing the two ranks of stopped and open flutes. Theorgan may be seen in Figure 14 on the center spread.

Photo: Charles Stebleton.

Scale Comparison Chart


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lower and softer sound which is considerably different tothe normal Model 76/77.

It is possible that towards the end of WBS in 1941 theModel 76/77 scale became a universal scale that was usedon small to medium organs.

It has been suggested that these softer-toned organswere designed for smaller machines, such as juvenilerides. It should be noted, however, that even organs hav-ing only flue pipework can still be called a Starkton, i.e. apowerful sounding organ. Just because a Model 76/77 hasno reed pipework does not mean that it was softly voiced.In fact Model 76 Serial Number 3647, (Figure 11 on cen-ter spread) has loudly-voiced stopped flutes (Figure 12)instead of trumpets. It also has the normal three rank mix-

ture. However the bass pipes are stopped flutes. Thisorgan has also got one unusual feature in that the mixtureranks are housed in a swell box made of cardboard andwood. The box’s opening is in the top of the organ andcomprises a simple wooden hinged flap. This allows theoperator to leave it open or to close it at his wish! RussellWattam, who is familiar with this organ (restoration andtuning at AC Pilmer Automatic Music), states Whetheropen or closed it makes little difference; it also makes fora very difficult tuning job. Quite why they should havegone to such trouble is hard to understand.

If we look at the front of a standard Model 76/77organ, the first rank that is visible is on the melody, and isnormally either large-scale stopped flutes (Figures 13 &14, both on center spread) or as in the MBSI and myinstrument, violin pipes (Figures 1 & 15).

Figure 12. The interior of Starkton Model 76, Serial No. 3647 (seeFigure 11 on the center spread) showing the large stopped flutes thattake the place of normal trumpet pipes.

Photo: Russel Wattam/AC Pilmer Automatic Music

Figure 15. Starkton model 77, Serial No. 3690, circa late1920s in the holdings of the Musical Box SocietyInternational.

Figure 16 Cross section to a scale of 1:25 of Model 77 Organ,Serial No. 3648 (see Figure 12) own by René Weiss.

Photo: René Weiss, 5614 Sarmenstorf, Switzerland


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It seems that the rest of the pipework in these organsremains the same. There is however some evidence thatexperiments took place in using double-mouthed pipes tofurther increase the decibel level of these organs. Thetypical layout of these organs can be seen in the drawing(Figure 16) by René Weiss. This shows his instrument,which has stopped flutes as the front melody rank ratherthan the optional violins.

During my research I came across the followinginstruments:• Model 76 in the Museum of Mechanical Instruments,

Bruchsal, Germany. Serial No 3645, 1926. Figure 13• Model 76 with only flue pipe work and no percussion.

This instrument is owned by Tony Henley, Harrogate,North Yorkshire. Serial No 3647 1926. Figures 11 &12

• Model 77 owned by René Weiss in Switzerland. SerialNo 3648 1926. Figures 14 & 16

• Model 77 owned by the Music Box SocietyInternational (presently in storage in the USA). SerialNo 3690 late 1920s. Figure 15

• Model 77 owned by myself in Penzance, Cornwall,UK. Serial No 3790 mid 1930s. Figure 1

• Model 77 with only stopped flute pipes, owned byCharles Stebelton Ohio, USA. Serial No 3799 mid1930s (Figures 9 & 10). Interestingly this organ has atwo-stick snare drum mechanism, which is operated,by a single hole.

• Model number not allocated (Figure 17). I haveincluded this organ for comparison purposes althoughit’s not strictly a Model 76/77. This organ is owned byJoe Hilferty, York, Pennsylvania in the USA. Theorgan has the Serial No 3810 and dates from the late1930s. It’s one of the latest serial numbers known fora WBS organ. The organ plays on the same scale as aStarkton, but has considerably more pipes. In addition

the instrument uses the forte/piano functions. Duringnormal play i.e. piano, 95 pipes are available. Whenthe forte hole is punched a further 83 pipes areswitched into play giving the organ a total of 178pipes, compared to the Model 76/77’s 113 pipes . Thefifteen note trumpet rank in this organ runs from “e” inthe accompaniment to “e” in the melody—somethingthat is also seen in Model 79 WBS organs. This is acompletely different range to Model 76/77 organs.Although we shall probably never know, it has beensuggested that this organ dates from a time when WBSwere trying to rationalize its production and music.It’s interesting to note that this organ has more pipesthat a normal Gebruder Bruder Model 107. Was it acase of using up what they had in stock, even possiblysecond hand pipes? The front is in the 1925 WBS cat-alogue and is allocated to a Model 110 / 111 organ thatwas a roll playing instrument. It’s probable that theyused a front that they had in stock.

In addition, here in the UK some people may beaware of the remains of a Model 77, Serial No 3764 whichdates from circa 1930 (Figure 18). This instrument todayplays on the 42-key Verbeeck/Anton Pluer street organscale and is now owned by Frank Heaton. Changing thescale has altered the character of the organ completely!One of the reasons given for the change and adoption of anew scale was the unavailability of music, but as you willsee later in this article, music is readily available for theModel 76/77 Starkton scale. (For more information aboutthis organ refer to the following articles: Allan GuestKF2/03 and Jan l.M.van Dinteren KF3/03)

Figure 17. Unknown model WBS organ playing on the Starkton 46scale. Photo: Joe Hilferty, York, PA

Figure 18. The ‘Royal Bruder’ owned by Frank Heaton. This is a muchrebuilt, enlarged and altered organ that started life as a Model 77 Starkton.


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A further half a dozen Starktons are known to exist inEurope in Holland, Germany and Switzerland, includingone rebuilt by Carl Frei. A Model 77 façade is on displayin the Eltztalmuseum in Waldkirch.

Photographs (Figures 19 & 20) from the Paul FleckSöhne archives, show two Model 77 organs working onthe fairgrounds of Germany and Switzerland. It’s inter-esting to note that the organ in Figure 19 has had a glock-enspiel added into the void under the main wind chest.From examination of my organ, and as you can see in thedrawing by René Weiss, this would have been a relative-ly simple modification to make, as the front rank wouldbe the range of the glockenspiel.

It’s interesting to note that by far the majority ofStarktons that were built seem to have stopped flutes onthe melody rather than violin pipes. But as I have alreadysaid, many variations were built and the ones I have infor-mation for, only represent a small cross section of thenumbers that left the factory.

Although with a different scale, and different in otherways, it’s worth mentioning the following. In the circa1926 WBS catalogue they advertise three versions of roll-operated Starktons. These organs used the GebruderBruder Model 111 43 Airophon scale and roll operatingsystem. The roll mechanism and the vacuum bellowswere a standard Gebruder Bruder product; WBS pur-chased these from Gebruder Bruder and then built a roll-

Figure 19 (above). A Starkton Model 77 organ now owned by PaulWeber, Richterswil, Switzerland. Photo taken at the Herbestmesse(Autumn Fair) in Basel.

Figure 20 (below). A Starkton model 77 organ with a non-standardfront. The owner and current location of the organ is not known at thepresent. The photo was taken at the Oktoberfest in Much, Germany.

Both photos : Willy Vanselow, Waldkirch/ArchivePaul Fleck Soehne-Orgelbau, Waldkirch, Germany

It’s interesting to note that by farthe majority of Starktons that werebuilt seem to have stopped flutes on

the melody rather than violin

Figure 21. A Wilhelm Bruder Sohne circa 1926 catalogue showing roll-operated Models 100/101/102. These were also designated as Starkton’s byWBS. Paul Fleck Söhne reprint.


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operated Starkton using their chests, mechanisms andpipework. Three models were offered in the circa 1926WBS catalogue (Figure 21). The Model 100 was adver-tised as Jazz Besetzung, which meant that this model didnot have trumpets but saxophones. In addition they hadfurther percussion--a wood block and a triangle. Twomodel 100 organs exist in Bavaria and both have glock-enspiels, which were fitted in the factory at the request ofthe showman. There is evidence that one of these Model103 organs was imported into the UK and used inLawrence Bishton’s Cakewalk fairground ride (Figure22). It was imported into the UK by Fred Hands ofNottingham—he imported only roll-operated organs fromWaldkirch. He also invented his own roll playing mecha-nism. The roll-operated organs, however, were not popu-lar with showman, unlike the United States. As theseorgans are quite different to the Model 76/77 Starktoninstruments I will not discuss them further.

The Starkton 41 scale is not scrambled, as is the casewith the majority of Waldkirch-built organs. The adop-tion of this type of unscrambled scale was also starting tobe utilized by other Waldkirch builders such as GebruderBruder in their 43-keyless Model 111. (See above)

The Starkton scale is far from chromatic, as you cansee in the comparison chart, and this restricts the reper-toire of music that can be arranged successfully. Themusic is spaced at the standard French spacing of 3.5 mmcentre, although the music is pulled through the key frameat the higher speed of 4.6 metres per minute, compared tothe French organ speed of 3.6 metres per minute. Thefaster speed, roughly 25%, has a number of benefits, butprimarily it allows for better repetition using the standardpunch size and the standard tracker/bar box hole. A slow-er speed would have meant smaller holes which wouldmean the action would have had to work quicker and be a

lot more sensitive. The downside is that music costs a lotmore. The music books are 180 mm wide. A normalStarkton works on a wind pressure of 9” or 230 mm water.That WBS used the 3.5 mm spacing is interesting as thiswas the spacing used in the key frame in the WBSChiappa organs. Did they use this spacing as a result ofthe Chiappa organs (they then went on to use this spacingon other instruments). I believe this is unlikely to be theonly reason as this spacing was not unusual in Waldkirchas the Gavioli branch factory would have used it.

The repertoire that is available, even today, forStarktons is quite comprehensive, with music arranged bythe great and the good. But obviously this is only an indi-cation of what was originally available. Unfortunatelynone of the WBS factory patterns exist, but what we dohave, are arrangements including classical books byGustav Bruder such as the Jolly Robbers Overture byFranz Von Suppe; Rigoletto Potpourri by Giuseppe Verdi;and wonderful (and extremely large) books featuring thework of Franz Lehar and Paul Linke. The only originalpatterns that are left are in the Heinrich Voigt and the CarlFrei / Gustav Bruder archives. The rest of the music avail-able are copies taken from the various books that havesurvived with the few organs that still exist.

So far I have been able to discover the following peo-ple that can supply original / period music:-• Gerhard Kern and Frederic Keller, in Germany/France,

now own the Carl Frei Archive which includes workby Carl Frei Sr, Gustav Bruder. Gustav Bruder’s pat-terns were acquired by Carl Frei after his death in1972.

• Heinrich Voigt, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany has pat-terns by the Ruth arrangers, and others. When theRuth factory closed down in 1938 Voigt acquired theirpattern library. It’s also very likely that they havesome patterns that were commissioned from GustavBruder.

• Paul Fleck Söhne in Waldkirch, which today is run byStephan Fleck, can offer approximately 85 patterns forthe Model 76/77 organs. These include some that aremedley/potpourri books. Arrangers in Stephan’s hold-ings include the work of the WBS factory arrangers,Eugen Bruder and Gustav Bruder. In addition there

Figure 22. A Model 100 Starkton organ on Lawrence Bishton’sCakewalk fairground ride.

The Starkton 41 scale isnot scrambled, as is the case

with the majority ofWaldkirch-built organs.

Continued on page 20 . . .

Figure 6. 46-keyless WBS/Chiappa owned by Margaret Cooke. Photo: Kevin Meayers

Figure 7. 46-keyless WBS/Chiappa owned by the Amersham Fairground Organ Museum.Photo: Amersham Fairground Organ Museum

Figure 11. Starkton Model 76, Serial No. 3647.

Figure 14. Starkton Model 77, Serial No. 3648, c

Owned by Tony Henley, Harrogate, UK.Photo: AC Pilmer Automatic Music

circa 1926. Owned by René Weiss, Switzerland.

Figure 13. Starkton Model 76, Serial No. 3645, circa 1926, in the Deutchsches MusikautomatenMuseum, Schloss Bruchsal, Germany. Photo: Deutch Musikautomaten Museum

Figure 10. Starkton model 77, Serial No. 3799, circa mid-1930s. In the Charles Stebleton, collec-tion, Carrol, Ohio.


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are some by Carl Frei Sr. From around 1936/7 EugenBruder was no longer well enough to continue as thefactory arranger (due to the deterioration in his healthsecondary to war wounds) so from that date onwardsGustav Bruder provided patterns to the factory.

• Kevin Meayers has arranged some new books for thescale and also has an arrangement to supply books viathe patterns owned by Paul Fleck Söhne, HeinrichVoigt, and Keller & Kern.

• Andrew Pilmer has some copies of old books includ-ing those by Gustav Bruder, Carl Frei Sr. and the WBSfactory arrangers, plus some arrangements by himself.He has also access to other books for copying purpos-es from Paul Fleck Söhne, Heinrich Voigt, and Keller& Kern.

Dean Organ, Bristol acquired the only two books thatwere with Frank Heaton’s Bruder when Andrew Pilmerimported it into the UK. These two books are rather aptfor an organ that was exported directly from Waldkirch tothe USA. Both are factory arrangements; the march Starsand Stripes by J P Sousa, while the other is the AmericanNational Anthem The Star Spangled Banner that is clev-erly entwined with an arrangement of Yankee DoodleDandy!

I have purposefully not included in this article a com-prehensive list of all the people that can supply newlyarranged music for this scale.

Some owners, of organs playing on this scale, havesupplied me with lists of music books in their collection.I would be grateful if other owners of organs playing onthis scale would contact me, as I am trying to build up aclearer picture of variations, serial numbers and anyknown dates of manufacture. I would also welcome a listof music that you hold, and to aid this I have a drawn up

a simple form that makes recording the data easier. Allpersonal information will be treated in strict confidenceunless permission is grated to treat it otherwise. Pleasecontact me by email on [email protected] if you feelyou can help and are willing to take part in this survey.The information will be shared with all that have an inter-est. So far very few books of music in collector’s librariesexist in any of the pattern libraries!

Part two will cover the restoration of my own Starkton.

© Jonathan J Holmes 2010

AcknowledgementsI would like to especially mention RaphaelLuethi of Paul Fleck and Söhne who gave meso much information and confirmed many ofmy findings. In addition I would like to thankthe following Jory Bennett; Klaus Biber –Badisches Landesmuseum; FairgroundHeritage Trust; Paul Fleck Söhne, Waldkirch;Tony Henley; Joe Hilferty; Kevin Meayers;Andrew Pilmer; Michael Smith; CharlieStebelton; Russell Wattam and René Weiss.

BibliographyWaldkirch Street and Fairground Organs by H. Juttemann

(translated and revised by Andrew Pilmer) 1993Wilhelm Bruder Söhne catalogue circa 1926 reprinted by Paul

Fleck SöhneDie Orgelbaur-familie Bruder by Valesca Heizmann 2002Ignaz Blasius Bruder – Schwarzwälder Drehorgelbau by

Herbert Jüttemann 2006Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments by Q David

Bowers 1972 Key Frame (back issues), Journal of the Fair Organ

Preservation Society

Figure 23 Disposition & pipework comparisons between the Bruder Starkton and the Bruder/Chiappa organs.

Jonathan initially trained as a piano builder and has worked on many different types of mechanical musical instru-ments including orchestrions, reproducing pianos and player pianos, rebuilding his first instrument at age 14. 10 years ago he

had a heart transplant that has let to his early retirement which gives him more time for his hobby and to research.

A special “thank-you” to Jonathan Holmes, author, and David Smith, Editor of the Fair Organ Preservation Society’s Key Frame for allowingthe reprinting of this article which appeared in a recent (KF3-10) issue of the Key Frame.

. . . Continued from page 17

Carousel Organ, Issue No. 49—October, 2011

8

Having discussed the instruments that use this scale ina previous issue of the Carousel Organ (April,2011—#46), I now turn my attention to the restora-

tion of my own instrument (Serial Number 3790—the num-ber is stamped throughout the instrument). Figures 1 & 2 Aspreviously mentioned, I purchased my instrument fromGermany via Dean Organs, Bristol, United Kingdom.

When Richard Dean sent me the photographs (Figures3 & 4) nobody actually seemed to know exactly what type oforgan it was. I came across a similar organ on the websitesite of Paul Fleck and Söhne, where they were advertising aCD of a Model 77 owned by René Weiss. The organ sound-ed promising, as I had the opportunity to play one of thetracks, via their website, St Petersburg Sleigh Ride a galloparranged by Gustav Bruder. I decided immediately that Iwould contact Richard Dean first thing the following dayand asked him to secure the organ for me. It was a leap offaith, as I had only seen photographs, but Richard assuredme that he knew the dealer well. In fact the organ turned outto be exactly as described.

The instrument could be best described as in goodrestorable condition—it was just extremely dirty. There wasa large amount of woodworm in the two bottom sleds and thelower mouldings that runs along the bottom of the organ’scase. Luckily there was no sign of woodworm in the chest,pipes, bellows, front or percussion. Prior to coming into theUK the organ had been partially dismantled, and had beentreated by subjecting it to gas fumigation. This is anextremely good way to treat such an instrument and—it isused by museums and art galleries world-wide. Objects ofany size can be treated by this method, either at a specialist

Restoration of a Wilhelm Bruder SöhneModel 77 “Starkton” Organ

Part II

Jonathan J. Holmes

Figure 1 (above). The cut-off mechanism (mutes the organ when theend of the book has passed through the keyframe) showing the organ’sserial number, 3790.

Figure 2 (below). The organ as first seen in storage in Germany.

Figure 3. The drum mechanisms prior to restoration.


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company’s works or via a mobile unit. Unfortunately the gasthat was used has since been outlawed and a new type offumigation is offered.

The problem with woodworm (furniture beetle), whichis not always understood, is that their life cycle can be up tofive years from egg to adult beetle. In the United Kingdom,they normally hatch and lay their eggs in the summer.Although the instrument was gassed, I also treated it usingwoodworm fluid, injecting every hole with a syringe. It’salso important that all surfaces are treated, especially anyjoints. When the beetles hatch out and crawl over the sur-faces the residue of the insecticide should kill them.However I will keep an eye out for any evidence they havereturned.

New sleds and mouldings were made from AmericanOak a wood that is not much liked by the beetle (Figure 5).While cleaning the case, I was surprised to find out that thevarnish on the woodwork was in fact shellac based. Becauseof the damage to the finish I decided to refinish the casekeeping its original natural wood finish. Many organ cases

have been painted during their lifetime, usually white whenit comes to German organs. Once the case had been rebuiltand refinished I had to decide where to start with the rest ofthe organ.

Previously I had dismantled the organ and put all thepipes on trays and laid them out in the order that they cameoff the chests. The percussion mechanisms and action wereall photographed before dismantling and then put on shelvesin my workshop. Drawings had been made of the pipe lay-out, as many of the pipes mouths in the mixture do not facethe same way. This is so that there are no problems with thespeaking of these small pipes.

I decided to start work with the bellows and reservoir.Although the bellows leather seemed to be reasonable, therewere some problems in that one of the double acting boardshad become loose (Figure 6). The boards are hinged using apiece of rope that is stretched and then fixed in place using asmall wooden dowel. Having cut the leather for the bellowsand reservoir and cut out new ribs using thin birch plywood,I then recovered the bellows and reservoir, having alreadyreplaced the flap valve leather and the wood battens aroundthe edges that strengthen and help fix the leather (Figure 7).

Figure 4. Internal view when the organ arrived in my workshop.

Figure 5. New sleds made for the bottom of the case.

Figure 6. The completed bellows installed in the case.

Figure 7. Inside of the reservoir showing internal flap valves. These aremade up of leather with a backing of thick rubber cloth.


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Although they work reasonably well I was not satisfiedwith the end result and I have decided to commission KevinMeayers to rebuild them once the organ has been playing fora while and settled down. The bellows can be taken out quiteeasily, but you also need to take out the windchest! I willdisassemble the organ, and strip and dismantle the bellowsand clean off the old glue before Kevin does the more tech-nical work.

The bellows and reservoir had been recovered a numberof times during the organ’s history, and at least on one pre-vious occasion due to water damage. Toward the front of thebellows, on the two lugs that are used to fix the bellows intothe instrument, there are two pencil notes; one says 41 notand the other say Mod 77 (Figure 8).

I then stripped down the pipe chest and found that all thepallet guide pins had corroded (Figure 9) to such an extent,that most had broken off. These were replaced with newphosphor bronze pins. The pallet leather was worn and pit-ted and was also replaced. The wind ways were cleaned andthen hot glue was flowed into each chamber to make surethat there was no air leaks from one channel to another. Allthe leather gaskets were replaced as were a number of paperpatches which covered knots and splits that mostly datedback to when the organ was built. The pallet springs wereremade using phosphor bronze wire and the grooves treatedwith graphite (Figure 10).

The pipework was generally in good condition. The tun-ing wires in the trumpets had corroded and some had brokenoff. These were replaced with new ones, made to patternalso out of phosphor bronze wire. Each of the original wireswere heated slightly to expand them just enough to loosenthe wire in the reed’s boot. This is a job that needs to bedone with great care, as it’s easy to burn and damage a bootwith excessive heating. It was not necessary to replace thetuning rods in the trombones. The resonators, however, werecoming apart, especially where they had been mitered.These were all repaired and carefully clamped using hotglue. Figure 11

The mixture’s pipe work was in reasonable condition,apart from two pipe feet and all the tuning shades. The metalshades had either broken off or they were about to. Booths,the well-known pipe makers, supplied me with some pipemetal to the same specification as originally used. The footand cap of one pipe was very badly damaged and it had beenpoorly repaired in the past. A local church organ buildingfriend, David Grinley, managed to put the pipe pieces backtogether and to make a new foot. Figure 12

The stopped flutes on the melody are situated in the backof the organ—they add foundation tone. These had sufferedfrom some bad tuning practice. Over time the stoppers hadobviously gotten very stiff; as a result a tuner had used pli-ers on them which resulted in all of them having the tops of

Figure 8. Positioning lug on bellows showing pencil annotation.

Figure 9. Pallet guide pins showing corrosion and general poor condi-tion.

Figure 10. Chest and pallet springs.

Figure 11 (below). Pipework trumpets followed by the three rank mix-ture.


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their stoppers completely chewed off! Figure 13. Thesewere replaced with similar style stoppers to facilitate tuning.The final two ranks are the front ranks that in my organ area rank of melody violins and behind on the accompaniment,a rank of open flutes, some of which have beards. The vio-lins and half of the open flutes behind them are fixed tunedranks. These pipes had been repainted a number of timesover the organ’s lifetime, but by no Leonardo Da Vinci.White gloss paint had been sloshed down the sides, in themouth and even all over the freins! The pipes were sanded,cleaned and then repainted.

Now if that was the only challenge that would have notbeen a major problem, but that was not the case. It happenedthat one violin pipe had been replaced sometime in theorgan’s history, perhaps it had been pulled out or vandal-ized—its frein and its scale was totally different to the rest ofthe pipes in the rank. When it came to laying a scale and tun-ing the organ Kevin Meayers found that the fixed tunedranks had been butchered. A total of five pipes had been cut

off far too short or badly damaged and because of this it wasnecessary to make five new pipes. The feet and friens fromthe original pipework have been utilized in the newpipework as well as a few other parts. The result of KevinMeayers work is that you would be hard pressed to decidewhich ones are the new pipes. The tuning of the organ wasnot straight forward, as it is not tuned to equal temperament,as used today on modern keyboard instruments.

The bass drum mech-anism was in good orderand required only therecovering of the pneu-matic and the pouch(Figure 14). The snaredrum mechanism wasanother case: the beaterscomprised two metal rodswith a screw thread onone end for the woodenbeater, while the other endwas not a standard design.In fact it had a sharp pointlike a nail and this hadbeen driven lengthwaysinto the top board of thepneumatic, causing aweak point resulting in asplit developing in both pneumatics’ top boards. Afterexamining other Wilhelm Bruder organs, I have not replacedthe beaters in the same way, but as per the standard pattern.There were also other problems with splits in the mecha-nism. Finally the mechanism has unusual return springs,which are original although not to the pattern usually seen.These springs are being replaced by standard WilhelmBruder pattern springs. The original springs resembledlarge pallet springs (Figure 15).

Figure 13. Trumpets prior to restoration and replacement of tuningwires and the stopped flutes. Note the condition of the stoppers.

Figure 12. Completed pipework.

Figure 14. The bass drum mechanism.

Figure 15. The unusual snare drum springs are original to the organ, asI have come across the same type of spring in a basic Model 76 in theUSA.


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The drums themselves were in a poor state. The snaredrum had most of its nickel plating missing, while the bassdrum needed refinishing. All the metalwork on both drumswas replated and the drum skins were replaced. A localdrum specialist, who has worked on other drums from othermechanical musical instruments, fitted new hide drum skins.

The area that needed the most work was the primary andsecondary action (Figure 16). These required a completerebuild and all of the primary motors and pouches wererecovered. The motors were done with a Zephyr skin, andthe pouches with leather, new valve facings were cut andnew millboard washers were purchased from Russell’s.Unfortunately during reassembly and testing, a number ofproblems came to light. The screw holes that secure the pri-mary chest to the pouch board were drilled in the most stu-pid places. Many actually lined up with the edge of the holesthat fed the pouches so they had split! It must have left thefactory like that. The bleed covers suffered from the sameproblem (Figure 17).

While testing and getting advice from Kevin Meayers, itbecame obvious that the pouch board was substandard. Itseems that they drilled the pouch wells on one side of thewood, but then discovered that they were in the wrong place.Instead of getting another piece of wood they just turned itover and drilled more pouch wells on the other side. Theproblem was that on the misdrilled side they just stuck apiece of card over the top. Over time, although it looked ok,

it started to leak from one chamber to another and from oneside to another! I had not noticed these leaks at first, so theunit needed a complete rebuild once again! Because of thesemany problems I decided to ask Kevin Meayers to undertakethe remedial work. I know I should have checked the chan-nels and pouch board more extensively in the first case, butsomehow I didn’t.

The final and obviously the most important part of theorgan to require work was the keyframe. I had the rollersrecovered and all the metalwork was nickel plated as per theoriginal finish. At the same time I had the snare drum and thefittings from the bass drum also cleaned and replated. Thewood was cleaned but not refinished. The springs werecleaned and the mechanism degreased before repacking itwith new grease. The lead tubing from the keyframe to theprimaries was in good condition so it did not need replacing.

One major problem, that was not initially discovered,was that the keyframe box had delaminated. It was possiblefor charged air to leak from one chamber to another (Figure18 & 19). This meant that although it partially worked, itwas necessary to close off the bleeds completely, which wasobviously not right. The keyframe box comprises a numberpieces of wood laminated together with a central chamberdivided by zinc partitions. The whole thing is glued togetherand then there is two small blocks of wood that keep ittogether. It became necessary to dismantle the whole box—which was not difficult. Kevin Meayers took the two fixingblocks off each side and right away the whole mechanismfell apart. It’s probable that the keyframe got wet and there-fore all the hot glue used had been weakened or washedaway or perhaps unseasoned wood had been used. KevinMeayers rebuilt the keyframe for me including replacing thetracker bar, the original was badly worn and pitted. Thedrive gears were also excessively worn, so they have beenreplaced. Figure 20.

Figure 16. Rear of the organ showing restored primary and secondarychest and the cut-off.

Figure 17. Primary motors prior to restoration.

Figure 18 (above).Bleed board showingrepairs that were nec-essary so that thescrews could betightened.

Figure 19 (right)The keyframe boxshowing damage andzinc dividers


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The final part of therenovation was the refin-ishing of the front. Thecolor scheme on thefaçade when the organarrived was obviously notoriginal, as it was possibleto see where some areashad been repainted a num-ber of times in differentcolors. The paint wascarefully stripped, usingpaint stripper.Photographs were takenthroughout the process andI also took specimens ofthe paint. It turned out thatafter the initial gesso fin-

ish, a type of undercoat, there were two distinct colors, thesewere a light blue, as seen on other organs of the period, andbright orange. The carvings had a mix of decoration, somewere gold while other areas had been decorated in silver. Adetailed paint scheme was drawn up and paint was speciallymixed to match the original colors.

The col-ors are brightand unusualfor a fair-ground organ,but it’s impor-tant to realizethat this is nota Victorian orE d w a r d i a ni n s t r u m e n t ,but one datingfrom the1930s, theJazz Age andthe period alsofamous for ArtDeco (Figure21). In this

country the work of the well known designer Clarice Cliffecertainly used these colors on her ceramics. Taking this intoaccount and the rather angular design of the front the colorscheme makes perfect sense. Other designs for facades forWaldkirch organs from the 1920s and 1930s have angulardesign features. The only part that has not been repainted isthe three marbled panels, I decided to keep the original facto-ry finish as it was in reasonably good order and I have hadthem restored by a fine art painting conservator.

When I purchased my organ it came with only nine booksof music all in an original hopper (the hopper was configuredfor continual playing). All the tunes dated from the 1930s(probably supplied new with the organ). All the books werebadly damaged, worn and torn. Because of this I decided tohave them repaired and separated into single books.

The organ is powered by a new 3 phase ½ horse motorthat is controlled via an inverter, this makes it possible for theorgan to run on a normal domestic supply i.e. 240 volts or aportable generator. The unit has a built in speed controlwhich allows me to adjust the crankshaft speed to the recom-mended speed that is specified in Wilhelm Bruder’s cata-logue, 70 r.p.m. The keyframe is driven directly off theorgan’s crankshaft and while some of these organs have adirect gear drive, mine has a more complicated drive using asmall leather belt which runs across the back of the organ,then it turns 90 degrees, before going over a tensioningdevice, then it drives the lower roller of the keyframe (Figure22). The crankshaft was in a very bad way when the organarrived in that it was very loose and had come apart so youcould in fact bend it! A local engineering company repairedand straightened the shaft.

The organ has been built into a purpose-built trailer witha lifting front panel. The lower panel lifts out and on itsreverse it will have a reproduction of the Wilhelm BruderSöhne’s logo and letterhead. This can be used to cover thetrailer’s wheels. There are double doors at the rear, to allowthe organ to be loaded on and off when necessary. The widthof the trailer is six feet, which is larger than really necessary,but this allows the windchest and bellows to be taken out ofthe case without taking the organ in and out of the trailer.Because of the design of the case, the windchest and bellowscan only be extracted from the rear of the instrument. Thetrailer was built by Tyrone Snell Trailers, Cornwall, UnitedKingdom.

AcknowledgementsKevin Meayers, Chesham, Buckinghamshire; David

Gridley, organ builder, Penzance, Cornwall; Photographs ascredited.

Figure 21. The completed organ with its new paintscheme. It is viewed here in a purpose-built trailer witha lifting front panel.

Jonathan initially trained as a piano builder and has worked on many different types of mechanical musical instru-ments including orchestrions, reproducing pianos and player pianos, rebuilding his first instrument at age 14. Ten years ago

he had a heart transplant that has led to his early retirement which gives him more time for his hobby and to research.

Figure 22. The keyframe drive mechanism.Figure 20. The restored keyframeinstalled in the organ.

Carousel Organ , Issue No. 47—April, 2011 Wilhelm Bruder ... Bruder Söhne Model 76 and...

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Transcript of Carousel Organ , Issue No. 47—April, 2011 Wilhelm Bruder ... Bruder Söhne Model 76 and...