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So far musical instruments have been few and
far between in dustygizmos. This is not due to any particular prejudice,
it’s just that interesting vintage instruments – relevant to these pages -- tend
to be quite rare, expensive, or both. Even the less diverting ones are not that
common but every so often something weird and wonderful (and cheap...) turns up and this
Hohner Organetta, spotted at a car boot sale, was definitely hard to miss.
It’s clear from the shape and compact keyboard
that it’s an organ of some kind but the styling and lack of controls suggests
something either very basic, or from a time before digital electronics and LCD
displays. Both are true in this case; it dates from the late 1950s and it’s a
small portable or ‘table’ electric organ. It’s not quite a toy but it might
well have been the kind of thing a youngster would have been given to learn or
practice on. Note the word ‘electric’, no electronic circuitry is involved in
the note making process. It’s basically a wind instrument, and if you are
familiar with Hohner, you will know they’re a world-renowned manufacturer of
mouth organs. That’s basically what the Organetta is, a giant mouth organ or
Harmonica, to give it its proper name, but instead of human puff it has a mains
powered motor driving a fan blowing air into a compartmented wooden box, fitted
with vibrating metal reeds. This contrasts with conventional wind-driven
organs, which blow air into individual tuned ‘pipes’. By the way an ‘Organetto’
is a fourteenth century Italian word for a portable pipe organ – thanks to
Wikipedia for that little nugget…
The keyboard covers two and a half octaves,
which is more than enough to bash out a few recognisable tunes and of course it
is polyphonic, which means you can play two or more notes simultaneously. There
is only one control, and it’s not an on/off switch. In fact it doesn’t have one
– you may be able to spot the control running along the front edge, below the
keyboard. It’s a sliding lever that restricts the airflow to the fan. It’s
basically a crude, but effective, volume adjustment. The case is beautifully
made from hardwood, and like a fine piano, it is heavily lacquered to a mirror
like finish, though why it was given that lurid green paint job is anyone’s
guess.
At the damp and dismal boot sale where I found
it my first impression was that it was a large plastic toy, but the styling was
unusual and the Hohner badge caught my eye. Closer inspection revealed a hard
wood base, metal fittings, mains cable and a quality case and keyboard; this
was no cheap plastic toy. I still wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but it looked
unusual enough to make me want to find out more. The stallholder apparently has
no idea about what it was either and the opening pitch of £10 was quickly
whittled down to a more acceptable £5.00. Apart from the missing feet it
appeared to be in excellent condition. The case was clean with no scratches or
dinks and the few light marks on the keys cleaned off easily. Judging by the
state of the innards it had never been opened and the accumulated household
dust and debris was removed with a soft paintbrush. The wiring checked
out and the motor turned freely so there was nothing for it but to plug it in.
At first there was nothing, then after a few seconds the motor got up to speed
and pressing the keys produced a full range of notes. One or two keys were not
seating properly but this was fixed by gently bending the
actuator rods and it is now playing and sounding as good as the day it was
made.