Here's my arrangement of As the Deer on my ~1949 Estey Junior Reed Organ! Part of the intent of this video was to demo as many of its tone capabilities as possible. :)
I know it's a bit strange to release two separate arrangements of the same song back to back, but I really love how this one turned out for reed organ and I got to thinking that I'd prefer to keep all my RO content on the same channel. Part of the reason I wanted to record it when I did was because I'm working on a farm down in New Mexico and this organ is still located at my parents' house in Colorado. When I'm missing playing it, I can come back to this video and remind myself of how it sounds (and share that with you all in the process :D ).
- Stats for Reed Organ Nerds -
Serial No: 490789
Year of Manufacture: 1941-1949 +/- (assumed 1949)
Case Style: Portable / Baby Organ
Maker Location: Brattleboro, VT
Model: Junior
Knee Swells: Yes
Wood: Imitation Walnut
Pitch: A444
Keys: 49
Manual: 1
Scale: C-C
Pump Method: Foot
Reeds: 98
Ranks: 2 = one primary 8' and an auxiliary 4'
The right knee lever operates a swell with a damper that covers the 8' reeds and left knee lever engages the 4' rank.
When I picked this little guy up in November of 2020, it wasn't very playable. But after an initial cleaning and removing of a bunch of gunk that was in the reeds, I was able to make it sing again. Since then, I have also patched the bellows (didn't have time for a full recovery, but did use original materials in the process) and replaced the exterior flap valves. It's incredible how much better it plays after some very minor work. In the future, it will eventually need a full bellows rebuild as well as reed tuning and voicing. Some of the reeds aren't prompt to speak (or the same volume) regardless of how much suction is present.
Honestly my only complaint with this little guy is that the keys are made of plastic and so they make incessant clicking sounds regardless of how good your organ playing technique is. I do love the sound the Junior makes though. I have a rather large collection of other instruments (guitars, basses, keyboards, etc), but this one definitely makes the list of my favorites.
Watch my piano arrangement for this song here: • As the Deer - Martin J...
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