Are You Washed in the Blood - Baldwin Organ

[jimruthw]

Reminds me of the music my husband and I heard when we were in seminary in Ft Worth , TX. Beautiful !

[southerncrescent1401]

@jimruthw Thanks

[GooglFascists]

Being of the Pentecostal persuasion, (Church of God, Cleveland, TN), we

went with our pastor to a service at a denominational church. When we

walked into the vestibule it was unmistakeable. There was a Baldwin

organ playing. Our pastor said: "Dear Lord that organ sounds like a

funeral parlor!"

Troublesome or no, Hammonds are worth it all. We've had 3 Hammonds

over the last 60+ years and except for a few new tubes they performed well.

(Got to keep the tone wheel motors oiled up, though).

[southerncrescent1401]

@GooglFascists You are right! Many of the Baldwin organs that are used in churches usually voiced like a church pipe organ. The voice of a Theatre pipe organ is a lot different and produce a more "happy" sound as they use a lot of tremlo.

[paulj0557]

Update: I ended up getting the Wurlitzer 4500. The HT2 Baldwin was gone because I was dragging my feet a little because the 4500 ended up being free. Well guess what everyone? I love 1930's theater organ music. The 4500 with it's puny little 4'' speakers ( more like 5'' btw) sound terrific! There are 8 speakers in a 4500, 4520 etc. 8! So the blending of the Spectratone in the entire arrangement of amplification is what matters. The 4' & 2' tibia w/ vibrato sounds great! The organ works 100% too

[onlinemonikers]

This is really great. 

[southerncrescent1401]

@onlinemonikers Thanks for the compliment!

[calzeph]

Wurlitzer had Spectra-Tone, which is a far cry from a Leslie. Those 4" speakers on the rod only took the treble and they used some kind of a phase-shifter for the lower notes. I demonstrated Wurlitzer for years and felt the Leslie speaker was far superior. In the mid-1970s, Wurlitzer changed to real Leslies.

[paulj0557]

@calzeph Nope, actually the internal 8" Leslies had phase shifting- called the 'Total Tone Modulation' and the 'Orchestral Ensemble' was also a part of this system that was switchable. It had it's place certainly, but actually separate from this phase circuit was another phase circuit that kicked in the lower frequencies on the 12'' speaker while the Leslie was turned on. All tibia's go through 8" Leslie & this 'phased' 12" & 6x9. My 625t has it. Sounds great too! The 4500 sounds rich and pure!

[ChucklesKeys]

I was organist for a church and we had the big Baldwin 645 three manual organ with 13 H5 Baldwin speaker systems hooked to it. It was in a sanctuary that would seat 6,000. We also had a Hammond B3 and a couple of Leslie speakers. I liked the Hammond better because you could not "rock" on the Baldwin. Plus, we had lots of problems with it. When playing it, it would light up and sound like all keys and stops were pressed. It scared me. Had repairman out a lot of times.

[paulj0557]

@ChucklesKeys If you had 13 H5 speaker systems you probably were taxing the line out system to the max and getting horrible impedance issues. I can't think of any organ I'd play that was made in 89. It is peculiar that the 645 would have been an IC divider oscillator system as late as 1989. Nothing wrong with that mind you. We live in horrible times for music appreciation. What's up with all of the 'rocking out' at church anyway? What ever happened to singing hymns gently? Stimulation's overated

[paulj0557]

I am going to pick up for free on Tuesday January 1/11/11 either a Baldwin HT2 or a Wurlitzer 4500. Both organs are the first solid state ( fully transistor- no tubes) consoles from each company. And both are 1964 models.

The Baldwin HT2 has a 32 pedal board and a horseshoe cabinet. The Wurly 4500 is a straight across cabinet, but with theater tabs & 25 pedals.

Neither organ has a Leslie, but use their own method for rotary sound.

PLEASE can anyone who knows about the 4500 explain sound to me?

[southerncrescent1401]

@paulj0557 I don't know much about the Wurlitzer organs. A local church gave a Wurlitzer to our church. I have problems with the bass pedals. It has a odd rotary speaker. The speaker is only about 4" in diameter and is attached to a rod that rotates with a counter weight to balance it. I like the Baldwin set up a lot better.

[squidgetpj92]

I HAVE ONE OF THOSE!!! just given to me as a granduation/b-day present by my parents.

[onenessgal]

Very good! Your big Baldwin organ sounds great. I still favor the big Hammonds that you play. I wish I could get a Hammond like you play on your other videos. Wonderful song and playing.

[southerncrescent1401]

Tanks for the compliment onenessgal! My parents purchased this organ for me when I was 14. At the time Hammond organs had gone away from the tonewheel generator and went solid state. I had two before the Baldwin that were continually requiring a service man. After getting the Baldwin I didn't need the service man again until 21 years later. He still remembered me! If we had eBay and internet classified then, I would have got an older Hammond. There was none for sale in my area.

[garysdeskcom]

@southerncrescent1401 The old Hammond organs were like pianos. They needed very regular maintenance. I love the sound, but had bad luck with my old Hammond. I would purchase a Hammond in a minute, if I knew it was in good shape. Some of the old Hammonds are wonderful organs, even when they are 50 to 60 years of age. I am an organ fan, but they are very expensive new now and there are few dealers.

[garysdeskcom]

The big Baldwin organs were very nice. Their small organs were painfully limited and did not sound nice. I wish Baldwin and the other good organ manufacturers we lost were still in business. Even Baldwin pianos have been in serious financial problems for years.

[waadams]

Awesome man. I, too, have a 1969 Cinema - never repaired - although the tremelo is sleepy at first now.

[southerncrescent1401]

I was worried about replacing parts but I have found artisianorgan's channel on YouTube where they took an old Baldwin organ and converted it to digital. But as longs as this one will last, I'm not going to change it. But is is good to know that the console can be used again.

[organpipe8]

Nice - love those Mass-Rowe Chimes, I had a set at one of the Churches where I played... Thanks for sharing †

[doothless]

I've owned both--Baldwin and Hammond. Hammond wins hands down!

[092149]

this guy really knows how to play!

[nathanielscott]

The chimes are a nice addition to a home organ!

[CurtBrian]

Hello...which hammond organ models did you own? Thanx

[southerncrescent1401]

My first was a Hammond Phoenix, It was a continous problem. Then it was traded in for a Hammond T-500. It wasn't as bad. The T-500 was traded in for the Baldwin Cinema II

[CurtBrian]

Oh wow sir those are terrible Hammond models! I thought you were talking about like maybe a B3-C3-A100-M100-H100-E100...Th­ose are the good models. Those other models (the ones you had) were cheaply made and were rushed together to try to compeat with cheaper organs which was a bad bad choice and brought down the quality reputation on Hammond

[billynoful]

an elderly lady many years ago gave our church her Hammond Phoenix, it had problems after problems, the problems stayed fixed less than a month, so now it's dead.

[southerncrescent1401]

I can relate to that.

[jeepram]

sounds fantastic!

[craig9843]

I have a Baldwin Organ very similar from around the early 70's. I'll have to find out which model. I have it stored in another house...I hope its not ruined.