Carnival of sound
SUMMIT TWP — For Joseph Kemph III, what began as a penchant for collecting mechanical musical instruments has turned into a passion for construction.
After collecting and refurbishing record players and jukeboxes for as long as he can remember, two years ago Kemph decided to build a band organ, or loud pipe organ designed to accompany carnival rides. The most prominent maker of band organs was Wurlitzer, which shipped its last organ in 1936.
"I stumbled across some music disks and began to do some research on them. I met some fellas online who were redoing Wurlitzer band organs. They were restoring and selling them," said Kemph, 57, who cited the carousel at the Kennywood amusement park in Allegheny County as one local example of a working original band organ.
"It is hard to believe that all that loud music is generated from forced air, but that is what powers a band organ," he explained.
"Calliopes are similar but they don't have the percussion that is associated with a band organ."
To avoid the prohibitive cost of shipping, Kemph decided to order plans and build a band organ from scratch.
Kemph connected with a vendor from England who sold a kit with just the insides of the organ, which included the blowers, pipes, bellows and roll frames.
"I built the cabinet and modified his package with a bass drum, snare and symbols to make my own creation," explained Kemph of his one-of-a-kind Mary Lou, named after his first girlfriend.
Mary Lou is classified as a 30T organ but is designed so Kemph can add more pipes if he chooses later."The process took me about two years. It would have been longer but I when I became unemployed a buddy of mine told me that since I already had all the parts, I should spend my time on building it," he said.Scotty Green, a band organ mechanic and executive director of the DeBence Antique Music World Museum in Franklin, said although the band organ falls into the mechanical musical instrument category with items like the calliope and nickelodeon, the band organ is based on organ pipes, whereas a piano is the basis for the nickelodeon. Steam whistles were the foundation for calliopes, but have since been replaced by compressed air, he added.Although there are some clubs devoted to mechanical musical instruments, Green said few people undertake the project of making a band organ because of the skills required to complete the job."You're gotta know what you're doing musically, and you've got to have some pretty good mechanical skills," he said."It requires a considerable amount of time, and multiple skills, so it's not particularly common."Kemph said this was his first endeavor creating something from scratch with this level of sophistication. Having built much of the project in a backyard shed, Kemph said the neighbors who had formerly witnessed jukeboxes coming in and out of his house were a bit curious."I think some of them think I am a little nuts already, but when I finished it and fired it up, they did come out to listen," he said.After complimenting his achievement, Kemph said his neighbors asked what he planned to do with it."Initially, I thought I would take it to shows and rallies around the area for mechanical music machines," he explained."I also plan to rent it to fairs and festivals, grand openings and events where it would be appreciated."Altogether, Kemph estimates he has invested about $5,200 into his masterpiece, although he said one original band organ was posted online recently for more than $24,000.The organ, which measures 5 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 40 inches tall, is built on rollers for ease of mobility."I also built some of it with removable parts to make it easier to transport," he said.The band organ runs on 110 volts with either a 125 paper spool of music like those used with player pianos or with a musical instrument digital interface, or MIDI, music file."The original spools are hard to come by, but there are reproductions being made of the classics and new contemporary music as well," he said.So far, Kemph's band organ has played music from the Beatles and Abba and a variety of Christmas music.Although he hasn't yet explored potential uses for Mary Lou, Kemph said he hasn't ruled out the possibility of creating another band organ."I'd like to have a go at another if I had the time and the space," he said.More information on mechanical musical instruments can be found at the DeBence Web site, http://www.debencemusicworld.com, or from the Musical Box Society, http://www.mbsi.org/.
