“An original film and music score commissioned for a person close to my heart about a place close to her heart” – Alban Low
Drawbars…
Whilst I’m now well into repairing the corroded resistance wires in the manual (will post pics soon), I almost forgot to put up pics of the drawbar work… so here it is. I took apart & cleaned the drawbar assembly, checked all the resistance wires on the blades (none to repair). Tinned the blades ready for re-soldering. Cleaned the rails with alcohol & re-greased with servisol silicone grease. The whole process took 5 hours and the nice thing about doing this restoration is that I’m getting to listen to loads of music. I’m also beginning to truly understand that well known saying, “patience is a virtue”.
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- contact rails before cleaning
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- cleaned contact rails
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- finished and re-assembled drawbar assembly
quartet video from SE Collective gig…
The SE Collective posted a few videos from our recent Quartet gig. Here is one of them- untitled as yet. more stuff here on the SEC youtube channel
Hammond A100 open heart surgery – Day 1
Equipped with a swiss army penknife, a roll of sellotape and some string, surgery commences on my Hammond A100. Led by chief surgeon Peter Whittaker we set about Operation De-Foam in an attempt to remove the nasty gooey black stuff that lurks within.
A labourius and time consuming project that will either make or break me and/or the organ, and at the very least serve to educate me further on the inner workings of the mighty beast. This is ‘de-foam no. 3′ for Pete, who is guiding me through it all- and I’m really glad he is. It’s a pretty daunting task.
Before starting to take it apart we played every note on each drawbar and both manuals finding a few weak and several dead notes. Could it be corroded wires caused by nasty black foam? The foam strips are inside the upper and lower manuals on this 1966 A100. These strips of foam are known to decompose over time and can oxidise the tiny resistor wires in the manual compartment. (further reading here)
By the end of the day we had the manuals out of the cabinet and up on the bench, removed all the keys, labelled and desoldered each wire. Next stage is to separate the manuals and open up the casing to expose the foam and check for damage.
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- manuals out & keys being removed.
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- detritus… 45 years of broken fingernails, hair & dandruff were here
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- Back of the manuals
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- 1, 2, 3… 51, 52….
Live Music at the Amersham Arms brought to you by the SECollective
‘A new community of creative musicians in South East London hosting innovative, improvised live music’
Every Tuesday at The Amersham Arms, New Cross (opposite station).
For full listings check out the SE Collective website
First night is this Tuesday 6th September. Special double bill with Shabaka and the sons of Kemet feat. Oren Marshall and Seb Rochford + MAP trio feat. Alam Nathoo, Marcus Penrose and Pete Ibbetson.
Quintet gig…
Looking forward to Thursday 15th September when the Quintet plays the Bull’s Head. Performing music from the album ‘Skylight’ as well as new compositions. It’s £8 entry (£5 concession for musicians / students) The line up is : Kevin Glasgow (bass), Chris Nickolls (drums), Piers Green (saxes), Paul Jordanous (trumpet). It would be really great to see you if you can make it down!
KEY
KEY UPDATE: Due to unforseen circumstances the KEY gigs are having to be re-scheduled for January 2012. My quintet (Glasgow/Nickolls/Jordanous/Green) will now play Bull’s Head on 15th September, and the quartet (Glasgow/Nickolls/Green) Charlie Wright’s 21st September.
KEY - A new collaboration with New York multi-keyboardist Brian Charette, (Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, and Lou Donaldson) myself and ace drummer Chris Nickolls who provides the foundation for our organ grooves and exotic keyboard electronics. We will be featuring original compositions from my new album ‘Skylight’ and from Brian’s latest release ‘Learning to Count’.
KEY play @ Charlie Wright's 21st September...
