89 Keyless VB Scale Pipework Proposal
So here is my proposal for the pipework on my 89 keyless VB organ based on various sources of information including "The Fairground Organ" and the diagram located at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/Scales/gaviolig.jpg Bottom Melody Clarinet Mixture - 19 notes - F4-B5 consisting of : Clarinet (1/2 length resonators) Stopped Flutes Harmonic Flutes Wide-Scale Violins or Principals Open Flute Rank (1 octave above) Wooden Trumpets Register - Baritone (Saxophone & Open Flute) 19 notes - F4-B5 Top Melody Piccolo 17 notes C6-F7 Register - Glock 17 notes C6-F7 Counter Melody Register - Violins - 4 Ranks 20 notes C6-F7 Register - Saxophone 20 notes C6-F7 ?? Flue 20 notes C6-F7 Accompaniment Flue 8 notes G3-E4 Bass Stopped Flue 8 notes - F2-E3 Brass Trombones 8 notes - F2-E3 Snare 2 Keys Bass Drum/Cymbal 1 Key Band Master tied to Bass Drum Key I'd appreciate any input on this layout and whether I screwed up on guessing some of the pipework - one of the 'puzzlements' which doesn't seem to be right is that the counter-melody is all on register - I added the flue pipes for the counter-melody based one of the descriptions for similiar scale described in "The Fairground Organ" I think. I am sure that those of you out there who are more familiar with the VB scale will be able to correct me where I've gone wrong ...:D Stephen.

Re: 89 Keyless VB Scale Pipework Proposal
Not bad, Stephen, but please allow me to comment, based on VB Marenghis I know. Of course, the VB scale was never used by Gavioli. My comments are shown in blue on your spec. Bottom Melody Clarinet Mixture - 19 notes - F4-B5 consisting of : Clarinet (1/2 length resonators) usually mounted in front of the violins with the other ranks in the back of the organ Stopped Flutes Harmonic Flutes Wide-Scale Violins or Principals Open Flute Rank (1 octave above) Wooden Trumpets Register - Baritone (Saxophone & Open Flute) 19 notes - F4-B5 The baritones play 2 octaves lower than the other ranks Top Melody Piccolo 17 notes C6-F7 Register - Glock 17 notes C6-F7 Counter Melody Register - Violins - 4 Ranks 20 notes C6-F7 The Irvin Marenghi also has a cello playing an octave lower Register - Saxophone 20 notes C6-F7 ?? Flue 20 notes C6-F7 The saxophone register should consist of a box reed (half-length), a trumpet, and an open flute playing an octave higher. Accompaniment Flue 8 notes G3-E4 This should have 2 ranks of cellos, one rank stopped flutes and a box reed. Bass Stopped Flue 8 notes - F2-E3 The bass should have a stopped 16' rank and an open 8' cello mounted below the floor, plus a 2' cello, a 2' stopped flute, and a 2' box-reed mounted either side of the accompaniments in the back. Brass Trombones 8 notes - F2-E3 A VB organ should have large-scale wooden trombones. I know of only (very few) G4 organs with brass pipes. Snare 2 Keys Bass Drum/Cymbal 1 Key Band Master tied to Bass Drum Key You are right in that the counter-melody consists of just 2 registers - with them both off, nothing plays. The other oddity is that the violins play on counter-menody (2 octaves higher than the saxophones) and the baritones (roughly the same pitch as the saxophones) play on melody. That's why it's called the "VB" scale. Of course, I'd be surprised if all VB Marenghis have exactly the same spec, but you need to be close or the sound won't be right. Regards, John

There are a couple of other things I'd like to mention in regard to the VB specification. There are usually 4 ranks of piccolos: the usual brass pan flutes, harmonic length, with the nodal holes about one-third from the bottom; a stopped flute, harmonic length, overblowing without a nodal hole; a harmonic open pipe with a nodal hole; and a natural-length open pipe. All play at the same pitch, and tuning must be precise or the whole effect is ear-splitting (and head-splitting!). As there is an odd number of notes on upper melody, there is usually a dummy set of piccolos to balance the facade, and for the glockenspiel, the Irvin Marenghi had only 16 instead of 17, the lower 'C' being omitted. Conversely, Keith Emmett's Black Forest G4 Gavioli, playing on the same notes, has a dummy glock bar instead. Stephen Brickles wrote: here is my proposal for the pipework on my 89 keyless VB organ To my knowledge, no original VB organs were made keyless. Gavioli made keyless G4 organs in their Walkirch factory, but Marenghi was based in Paris, where all organs were made "keyed". You might find difficulty in obtaining music for a keyless VB scale. All the holes would have to be about 2mm shorter than those for the equivalent keyed music. Regards, John

To my knowledge, no original VB organs were made keyless. Gavioli made keyless G4 organs in their Walkirch factory, but Marenghi was based in Paris, where all organs were made "keyed". You might find difficulty in obtaining music for a keyless VB scale. All the holes would have to be about 2mm shorter than those for the equivalent keyed music. Interesting... My keyframe design is based on an 89 Keyless VB Tuning book which I got from Nick Dean - this book is definitely the VB scale and the holes in it are 2mm round holes at the standard 3.49mm spacing. I picked the 89 VB scale because it seemed to be the easiest one to obtain music for and it seemed to be a standard - Nick Dean seems to stock music, keyed & keyless for any scale - it seemed like a good scale at the time I made the discussion - if someone thinks that the G4 scale might be a better choice... we should have a discussion on the subject of the relative merits of different 89-key scales !! I picked a keyless design because a keyless keyframe seemed a lot easier to build from scratch than its corresponding keyed counterpart. Many Thanks for your insights, John - appreciated as always. Stephen.