Fan organs?

[GaryG]

Anyone know anything about old fan organs, cheap Bontempis etc?

Just found my sisters in the loft, easily forty years old. Fan whirrs up with new batteries but no sound from the keys at all. I looked in the back and there's a piece of... shiny fabric which covers the back of the reeds which was loose but even holding that back in place doesn't help. Though when it was loose, blowing over the reeds made a sound.

Wondering if something further in has perished (seals around the keys..?), not sure really worth spending any time restoring it bu curious...

Thanks.

[vurt]

wouldn't know where to start fixing one, but i loved mine as a kid, would love one now tbh.
the sound was a bit nasty, but special
big red thing on steel tubular legs

[GaryG]

That's how I remembered this, raspy and droney with the fan going all the time, fed up emulating that, want the real thing dammit.

They're probably getting collectible but used to see them all the time at boot fairs etc for next to nothing.

[vurt]

yup, i mentioned it recently in the your first hardware synth, i was mostly guitar at the time, but my bass drone, was the bontempi, with blu tac jamming a few keys in
through some cheap ass delay pedal, yamaha kb drums, through distortion
sounded f**king awful
but was great fun!

[GaryG]

Yeah, overloading your 4 tracks preamps for distortion and all that. Good times.