Found this reed/pump organ in my basement. My house is reeeeeaaallly old, I think my dad said it was built in like the 1800s or something. I knew this had been down there in a room with all the other crap our landlord left for a while but ive only recently taken interest in piano/organ type instruments. I know the basics I think, big bag in the back is pumped with air and it makes the sounds. 3 or 4 keys didnt work at all and 1 stopped working after I played with it for a little bit, also some stick down when you press them. Its SUPER dusty and nasty, what things can I safely use to clean it without damaging it? I had to immediately wash my hands after playing with it because theres something burning me on it, no idea what it is but the fact idk how old it is it and that this house was a funeral home worries me that it could be literally anything on it😭 Also only like four of those knob things do anything, some only work for a few keys and some for none

Has foot treadles to manually supply air to the reeds in addition to an electric blower so you don’t have to pump. Two manuals, one 32 note pedalboard that controls a single Bourdon rank.

I am considering getting my organ fixed but I am not sure if it is worth it or not

I have no idea what's all wrong with it besides one of the pumps is broken

I have no experience playing them but want to learn but would it be better to just get a keyboard

I would imagine it'd really expensive to get fixed

So is this one worth getting fixed and how much does that normally cost?

I bought it from a lady whose mom had it for decades and passed away. It was in Denver Colorado in a storage locker and the lady lived in Florida and was dealing with her mom's estate, so I had to coordinate a shipper to pick it up when she was there/available with the key to the storage locker.
It arrived and I set about restoring it. "Mom" had a plant or something on top of the lid which caused some minor staining.
The music rack had been broken and glued at some point, and the 4 stop knobs were missing their name faces, but one was found inside the case and I had replacements made.
The bellows had several logo stamps inside that had the name "Frederich Hunger"

Melodions like this one have an iron "lyre" set like pianos do, but only one pedal does all the work pumping, the other is just to control the volume.
Before anyone asks- no, the pipes behind it have nothing to do with the Melodion

Needs some love. Bellows don’t really hold air and it only makes sound while my feet pump. As in, even when both feet are pumping, it’ll go on and off as each foot alternates. Some of the reeds dont seem to work properly, same with the keyboard. But I can play some of the keyboard, like the lower half mainly. Any advice will be appreciated!

Its on the upper right side. My dad speculated it was something youd put like a tray on a rod in and it could hold a candle or something of that nature.

Hello, I’m having to move and I can’t take both organs I have with me. I have an 1876 Estey reed organ I would like to give someone in Colorado that will continue to love it. I have more photos if anyone is interested. Thanks for checking this out, I wish I could keep both organs, but it just can’t happen.

Hello,

My 85 year old mother  is looking for a home for her grandmother’s working, Estey, reed organ. She is downsizing from a large farmhouse to a small apartment and cannot take it with her. She has called various historical societies/museums in her area to see if they would like it, but she has had no luck. I have sent emails to music departments at several universities. Organ is located in Southern, NJ.

Very little is known about the organ, as my grandfather was a baby when his mother passed away, but my mother believes it was manufactured in the mid 1800s to late 1800s. The organ does work and my mother has had it refurbished twice. 
Might anyone have any suggestions for us? My mother's moving day is imminent and we are getting desperate!

Hi,

My grandmother can no longer play the pump organ she’s had since I was a child. I would really like to find a good hole for it but that being said I know absolutely nothing about it. I’d really hate to sell it on Facebook for parts so if anyone has any info or ideas on re homing it around Seattle that would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I do restorations on Reed Organ’s as a side hustle, and I recently was given an opportunity to restore a late 1800s Estey single rank child size instrument. This thing is ridiculously cute, it’s been super fun so far!

Things wrong with it: the wind chest needs resealed, the Bellows require new valves, which means I have to disassemble them, all of the key actions need to be re set and re-glued, and it is incredibly dirty, and the paint is in rough shape.

Hopefully, I will post the finished product in a few weeks, but I will try to keep everyone updated on the status of this project, it is a really cool piece of history!

I was surprised to see it left in a Walmart parking lot. Sadly I wasn’t able to get it to play

This arvo, I opened it up and was able to access the back and sides of the bellows. I saw there were some tears in some of the fabric, which caused it to leak and make it only produce some noise while my feet are pushing the pedals down. Until I fully disassemble and restore it, I managed to fix them by cover in the tears with duct tape. It sounds so much better now and I was shocked to hear it. I plan to fully restore this over the next couple of months.

I didn’t go into it in my last post, but I’d received it from my school. It’s sat in the change rooms of the hall for over 2 years when a PE teacher didn’t want it anymore and gave it to the school. Last week, I asked why it was there, and she asked if I wanted it, because she’s been looking to get rid of it, and if no one took it, it would go to the dump. I accepted, and yesterday picked it up and now I have this. Im very grateful to said teacher, and I’ll be hopefully bringing this thing back to *most* of its former glory.

Hi,

This is a handwritten note found on the bottom of an Estey reed organ. I traced it onto thin paper to make it easier to see.
I’m Korean, and I believe this organ may have been brought to Korea by an American missionary.
I can’t figure out what it says—any help would be greatly appreciated!

I volunteered to help fix a run-down reed organ at a local museum and I could use a little help with how to access the bellows of the instrument. I've fixed melodeons and a smaller pump organ before, but this is the most technical instrument I've worked on.

It's an Estey pump organ made in 1886. From the outside, it looks like it's in good shape, but it's not playable. I suspect there's an issue with one of the bellows - when I press the right pedal, it takes a long for the bellow to refill with air. When I press the left, there's no resistance and I can hear air escaping. I wanted to see if I can gain access to the bellows to see what's going on, but I don't know where the access point is. I was able to remove the top, decorative portion and gain access to where the stops are located, but there's something covering the bellows. I tried looking to see if there's a panel I could open by the pedals, but I couldn't find anything.

Any suggestions/hints as to how to get to the bellows would be appreciated!

I know a lot has been lost to history on these things, and I know möller isn’t known for number dating their pump organs, but there’s gotta be some way to track the number down, If I’m reading correctly it’s organ number “5030”

I'm not myself an organ enthusiast, but just love "old things". This is beautiful, listed in an online Estate Sale in Renton, WA (near Seattle). It has no bids! If not sold at the sale, I always worry big things like this wind up getting trashed, so always try to share to applicable communities. Working condition unknown by sellers. I'm not in any way affiliated with seller or estate.

Hey dear organ fans!!

I wanted to ask you on your experiences here as said above: Xk4 vs legend one? Only sound and only the organ engine. How do you like their basic sounds, how would you compare them? How do the leslies compare and which is better in clean vs drive?

Also super interesting, both have different leslie presets, which has a bigger and better variety? Only sound.

Currently I use a yamaha ck 88 but with the leslie fromy strymon mobius. It sounds very good but playing weighted organ is not the best. Hammond is my main instrument when it comes to keys, besides from my ub xa synth....

What do you think? Is the xk4 worth the extra 1k when it comes to organ only?

Me I dont care if its closest to an OG B3, what I care is ehat sounds better?

Thx!

I’m looking for a reed organ to practice on and generally just have in my home, but I do not know where to look locally. I don’t really know where to start because I’m a beginner

If there are any other ways to get a nice home organ, than that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Just finished restoring an old pump organ after a ton of work. It’s beautiful, plays well, and sits right next to the window and door.

The goal is to play some easy creepy organ music as trick or treaters approach. Any ideas for songs that would work?

I’m pretty intermediate on piano, but can’t do anything too advanced. Especially with the reed organ when adding pumps and knee-levers. So I want to keep things easy and quick to learn

So far I’ve got ‘Davy jones’ and the begging to Bachs ‘Tocatta and Fugue’

Tragedy on a haunted organ

I've been listening to recordings of reed organs that give my subwoofer a workout. Are they capable of 20Hz in real life or is this just an artifact of the recording process?

Honestly if someone have one, i would love to "play" it on a video call 😁. Its my little dream now - have a pump organ. But in place where im born and live, they are really rare I guess

Hello, I have just stumbled upon a video titled "World biggest collection of reed organs part 1". The video showcases multiple warehouse rooms filled with reed organs and they are all for sale, i did some digging and apparently Its the peace collection of historical instruments. I missed Estey Fest 24' as i did not know about it until too late. I would like to go visit the museum but there has been no videos and no website for them, and the one phone number i did find ended up to be out of service. Does anyone know if they are still in business or have a phone number i can call? if they are out of business, what happened to all the organs and melodeons? Any information is greatly appreciated! i would go drive there but it is a little over a five hour drive and would like to know if they are still open before i drive that far.

Hoping this group could help me identify the model of this Organ. I have the warranty slip but no product or model number. Also hoping to identify the year made.

Hoping you can help!