How do you unstick an organ key?

July 8, 2009 9:12 PM

My roommate and I recently picked up a Kimball console organ for the price of carrying it down three flights of stairs. Unfortunately, we banged one of the keys on the lower row on the way down, and now it's stuck. While B is a solid note as far as notes go, does anybody have any tips on how to unstick it?

So far the only thing that we've tried has been a lot of jiggling...

posted by HotPants to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

Is the key stuck up or down? If it's down, can you pull it up and the note stops? Usually in that kind of organ the key return is driven by a little steel spring for each key, connecting the key (past the fulcrum) and a metal frame. It's possible that it got unhooked at (hopefully) one end during transportation, so the key is permanently down. On the other hand, something could be stuck under it.

If it's a normal 1960s/1970s home spinet electric organ, getting in it and repositioning the spring, or removing whatever is stuck in there should not be a really huge problem, you wouldn't probably need to make your way through too much of the wiring either, just open (there might be an accessible panel below the keyboards), access the space under the keyboard and put the spring back in its place.

Screwdrivers, tweezers, a flashlight, a notepad to remember which screw goes where, knowing when to stop, and lots of patience required.

IANAOR (I Am Not An Organ Repairman), BITIAF (But I Tinkered Inside A Few).
posted by _dario at 11:02 PM on July 8, 2009

We got it fixed, thanks!
posted by HotPants at 12:07 PM on July 15, 2009

Good! What was it?
posted by _dario at 4:27 PM on July 16, 2009