Home » Audio » Thermionic Emissions » Goodwill Amp
Goodwill Amp [message #9977] Sat, 21 July 2007 22:38 Go to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
I debated buying this thing at the Goodwill as I'm gonna have to borrow a truck to move it tomorrow, but I figured for $15, WTH.

It's a Baldwin Orga-sonic organ complete with everything (bench and all) but the two 6L6 output tubes. A 5U4 rectifier, and a total of 38 6SN7's. I figure the PT on the amp is probably good for 400V, who knows on the tone stack. There are numerous bits of iron all over the thing. I'm assuming the speaker is a field coil? type, so to use the OPT I would need a power resistor to make up the difference? To bad it doesn't have two mono amps in it, though.

I guess I'll try to find out something about it before I tear it down for parts and try to take lots of pics to keep track of everything.

It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9978 is a reply to message #9977] Sun, 22 July 2007 12:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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According to the tell-tale sticker.

Anybody have any info about these?

Re: It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9979 is a reply to message #9978] Mon, 23 July 2007 08:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
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Are you saying it's an amplifier from an electric organ? How does it sound? Have you hooked it up to a music source and speakers yet?

If it was designed to use speakers with a field coil, the field coil probably serves double duty as a power supply filter coil. Other than that, you can run the output through the output transformer to a fixed magnet speaker. Just be sure the B+ circuit path through the field coil is maintained using a separate coil or something.


Re: It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9980 is a reply to message #9979] Mon, 23 July 2007 12:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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"Are you saying it's an amplifier from an electric organ?"

Well, really the whole dang organ! The amp looks to be a p-p 6L6 to a mono speaker. Too bad it wasn't a stereo version.

I counted 30 sylvania 6SN7's where all had the code 344 on them, which I think means the 44th week of 1953. One Tung Sol and 6-8 GE 6SN7's. One Raytheon (japan) 5U4GB, and a couple other tubes not worth anything. It's missing the 6L6's so I have no idea how it sounds. I'll take some pics tonight so ya'll can see.

I'd like to throw mains to the amp just to see what the voltage after the rectifier is. It's either got another filament tranny on the amp or it's a big choke. I won't know till I get time to take the amp out.

Pics [message #9981 is a reply to message #9979] Mon, 23 July 2007 13:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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Goto my yahoo photos here:



Re: It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9982 is a reply to message #9980] Tue, 24 July 2007 09:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
SteveBrown is currently offline  SteveBrown
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Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
I'll bet there is a seperate heater transformer, since 40 some 6SN7's are going to take 24 AMPS of heater current! Looks like a fun project, however. If you take out the electronics, what will you do with the organ? Or will you try to restore the organ?

Heaters [message #9983 is a reply to message #9982] Tue, 24 July 2007 12:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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Don't plan on restoring it. These things are only going for $100 or less in good shape.

There is a HUGE transformer on the left side of the tone stack (check the pics). I bet there's two or three on the backside as well.

I may try to scavenge the wood out it as it's all solid hardwood. I personally don't think that this particular organ is worth mush to anybody. Now if it was a Hammond B3, that'd be different.

Re: It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9984 is a reply to message #9980] Sat, 28 July 2007 10:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
colinhester is currently offline  colinhester
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Location: NE Arkansas
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I see tube organs at auctions every once in a while. I was at an auction a few weeks ago, and there waa a large Hammond organ. Lots of people were looking at it, so I did not stay around to see how much it sold for. However, there was a LARGE (roughly 4'x3'x2') Leslie speaker sitting next to it that no one was even looking at, and it must have weighed #200. Again, I do not know what it went for.

Re: It's a Baldwin Model 40 "orgasonic" [message #9986 is a reply to message #9980] Sun, 12 August 2007 22:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
granch is currently offline  granch
Messages: 118
Registered: May 2009
Viscount
I sure wish you had posted some pix of the front of the organ. The design of that vintage of Baldwin was spectacular in engineering terms. Very simple yet produced great sound. Check the keys. They may have been the rolling variable resistor type that made the whole organ "Touch-sensitive" - the harder you pushed the key the louder it sounded. The 6SN7's were used in divider chains to generate all the pitches from 11 master oscillators. Are there pedals in your model? I cry to think of cannibalizing such historic goodies. Were there two manuals or just one (sets of keys)? Where was it that you saw so many old electronic organs so cheap?
-Dick (organ guru for over 60 years)

description [message #9987 is a reply to message #9986] Tue, 14 August 2007 12:34 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
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Registered: May 2009
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I did fire it up once. There are two sets of keys. They were not touch sensitive. There is one pedal (volume) and a set of bass pedals. After it was on for about 3-4 minutes you could hear all sorts of hissing and such behind the tone panels in the back, probably caps and such going south. I saw this exact same organ on ebay the day after I got this one and it didn't get one bid with no reserve. It had all the tubes and looked way nicer than this one does. Ebay is full of them. As is Craiglist. This one sat at the Goodwill for 4 months they said. Not one offer till me.

To all you people who think I should save this thing. Not to be a stick in the mud, but I have no desire to learn to play it. I played piano as a kid and hate it still. I don't even like listening to piano music if I can help it. Not only that, it would take way more money to bring it up to spec to make it payable and safe than I think it's worth. On the other hand the trafo's alone will go a long way in helping me make a nice audio amp that will get used.

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