Hey everyone, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. This is a reed organ, sometimes called a pump organ. This instrument has traveled with me a long, long way.
Reed organs hit their peak of popularity in the late 1800s. They were super popular because you didn’t have to tune them and they were light, so they’re really easy to move out west. This one is serial number 15,468 and it followed my great-grandmother from Wisconsin to California.
It came to my studio with me in the early 2000s and then it moved with me to Seattle. This one’s held up well, but it’s challenging to record. The bellows make all sorts of creaks and it runs about a quarter step sharp, but the width of the sound and the vibe it lends to a track is hard to beat.
And that low F, these stops open up registers in the back and this is the OG expression pedal, which opens up all the stops. They’re not expensive instruments, but it’s hard to find one that works. The wood is brittle.
Pretty sure the bellows are leather. This one gets a feature today because it needs some TLC and actually all I really wanted to tell you was this. Don’t ever use wood glue on an instrument repair.
Melt your own hide pellets or use something like Titebond. These products are designed to be steamed open if a luthier ever has to revisit the repair. Wood glue is stronger than wood and if you try to open it up again, it’ll destroy the instrument.
