Rodgers Custom 4-Manual Organ - For Hauptwerk Too

I am now purchasing a new concert organ for my home - something I thought I would probably never do. I have been extremely happy with my Rodgers 945 which I purchased new in 1991. Not only is it marvelous digital organ with a complete three-manual American Classic specification, but it has been the ideal organ for controlling Hauptwerk.

Then I saw an ad for a large four-manual custom Rodgers of the same vintage in my local dealer's newsletter during the pandemic...

Buying an organ during the pandemic presents the same problems as buying just about anything else. I could not go to a nice organ showroom and try it out under ideal conditions. In fact, the dealer had closed down his showroom and moved all his inventory to storage. He is still doing a very good business selling organs from storage. However, this one is just too big for most of the market. Here is a photo:



In order to try out the organ, we moved it into my garage. It is too large to fit through any existing door in my home! After a series of tests, I made an offer and it was accepted. The organ remains in the garage while my wife and I are taking bids on enlarging our front door! Luckily, the frame was built for a double door. The builder, however, placed a single door in the center flanked by fixed panels. We will have these removed and a proper double door installed. The organ will then pass through the door and into our living room where it will be connected to our existing Rodgers speaker system.

At the moment, I can only play eight of its 24 audio channels at a time in the garage! Its enough for testing, but not for actual playing. Fortunately, I have moved one of my Mac Mini computers to the garage and configured a full Hauptwerk system for the organ. I can play it completely as a Hauptwerk organ in the garage.

Here is a video I recorded as a demonstration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol9K_axxAa8

The music in the video is a new transcription of mine. As usual, you can find the sheet music on my web site:

http://www.nightbloomingjazzmen.com/Les_Sheet_Music.html

This organ was built by Rodgers in 1995 as a hybrid pipe electronic combination for a Los Angeles area church. It has the typical American manual divisions, plus two floating divisions that controlled pipes: Positiv and Bombarde. I have a long spec sheet that was assembled for the contract in 1995 - which I converted into a 1990s-style Rodgers spec sheet:

http://www.nightbloomingjazzmen.com/NBJ_Organ/Rodgers_Custom_4M_Brochure.pdf

I'll update you as I configure the audio system and move the console into the house. I will also let you know when my 945 will be available for sale. I will be selling it on consignment through the same dealer.

Les

How fabulous! I’ll be excited to see it in the house.

Congratulations, Les!

This is wonderful!

What an amazing project for you

Lawrence

Les,

Simply awesome news and good fortune for you! The console looks in great condition, appears to operate fine, and it even includes an adjustable bench - Wow! I will share a lengthy story with you in a PM. Best of luck with the double door project. Your wife is more understanding than a Hauptwerkian could hope for

Mark

Mark,

My wife knew what she was getting into when we were dating. I was working for my father while going to university. My father had his own business inventing and selling patents for digital organs! He was the inventor of the system that became the Allen Computer Organ - the world's first digital organ. My parents had two 3-manual organs in their home at the time.

We now have a total of 11 manuals - but we will be selling three of them with the 945! This does not count the dozens of keyboard synths we have - plus a ton of brass and woodwind instrument - oh, and a grand piano.

I do earn a secondary income from all this - but not during the pandemic.

My wife is indeed very understanding. I am very lucky.

Les

Well, this project is now finished (Mostly...)

Recall that this 4-manual organ was simply too large to fit through our existing front door - so we replaced the front door:



Then, we had movers come to place the organ in our living room. However, it no longer played at that point! After several sessions with our very helpful local Rodgers dealer, we found a loose screw in one of the electronics cages! Clearly it had worked itself into a bad position during the move to the living room. It took out four sets of fuses with it - and this took some time to track down. In any case, it is all working today:



All the organs internal voices play - 24 channels mixed down to the seven cabinets I have behind the grillwork. Three additional powered monitors handle the Hauptwerk voices. I can switch between these using an iPad which communicates with a programmable mixer inside the console. In fact, I can create new mixes with effects at will - quite a nice system.

Don't forget to purchase my older Rodgers 945 organ, which is now playing in my garage!

Lovely system, congratulations!

Everyone,

I have just posted a web page that documents the process of procuring this organ as well as building its new audio system and replacing the front doors to our home. You can find this at my web space:

http://www.nightbloomingjazzmen.com/Custom_4M_Rodgers.html

I have given credit to many people who have helped with this project too. Perhaps some of this can help you on your own organ projects.

Les

Written here with a good measure of envy, Les. That instrument is a piece of art. Thanks for sharing your vision and perseverance. No doubt you could have done without the problems. But on the plus side, problems like you experienced give you an up close view of the inner workings. Congrats and wishing you many hours of playing enjoyment.

And cheers to your wife. No doubt she knows how important music is to you.

Just curious, how long approximately does it take for the Rodgers from power on to be ready to play?


Rgds,
Ed

Ed,

One disadvantage with buying a custom version of anything is that there is generally no service manual available! Even the Rodgers technicians I worked with on this were making guesses based on similar instruments they had encountered before. Indeed, I learned a great deal about the inner workings of the organ. Hopefully I won't have to call on that knowledge very often!

The organ takes about ten seconds between turning on the power switch and playing. The Hauptwerk computer is always on - needing only to awake from sleep mode. From past experience, this only takes about three seconds. The same is true for the powered monitors I used with Hauptwerk. The Rodgers console itself takes about five seconds to boot. The slowest component to turn on turns out to be the Behrenger X32 mixer - accounting for the ten seconds approximate warm up.

Ten seconds is not as fast as my Rodgers 945 system - but it is also nothing to worry about. If I turn on the organ from a standing position by the time I am seated and centered on the bench it will play.

As for my wife, Karen, she has always been very understanding of my music side. This organ was nothing compared to building my theater organ. The theater organ project took two years to complete - and there were times it looked like it might never be done.

And, Karen bought herself a new car yesterday - this certainly helps too!

Les

Wonderful playing and I love that arrangement you played. I wish you continued success with moving the organ in your residence but I have to say a garage organ isn’t too bad either!!!