1960s Briscoe Harmony Chord Organ

You can read about how I discovered this organ on the Introduction & About page.

History

Briscoe Harmony chord organs were essentially a 1960s Italian-made accordion reconfigured into a "chord organ" format, powered by a quiet fan supplying pressurized air to the reeds instead of bellows. It's fun to play and easier to learn than an accordion. 

Based on my research so far it appears there were two models of Briscoe Harmony reed organs offered for sale between at least 1965 to 1970, based on my findings from newspaper ads in Western Canada.  A third model in a heftier-looking case is first advertised in 1969, which may be a tube or transistor based organ rather than reeds, but it's difficult to tell from the ads. Here is a summary of the three models I have discovered so far:

F-E compass, 29 keys (~2.4 octaves), 40 chord buttons

• C-E compass, 41 keys (~3.4 octaves), 72 chord buttons

C-C compass, 37 keys (3 octave), 40 chord buttons [tube? transitor?]

 

The ads consistently appear in November and December each year in anticipation of the Christmas shopping season. The ads direct shoppers to some of the big Canadian department stores popular in that era: Eaton's, The Hudson's Bay Company and Woodwards.

There was also a Briscoe Music of Canada Ltd. "combo" style organ, made to look similar to the Vox Continental. I have not yet collected history on this model, I will ad to this page as I find more info.

My Briscoe Chord Organ

The organ I had was the larger reed model. A 1966 ad lists the larger 72-button model at $299 at Eaton's, which is equivalent to $2,400 when adjusted for inflation. It weighs 63 pounds, much lighter than most organs, but not quite portable for moving easily with just one person. The organ case has a very nice veneer glued to a solid particle board foundation.

The 72 chord buttons are in a 72-Bass stradella accordion button layout. There is an expression pedal that opens and closes a valve to adjust the air flow/volume. There are three sets of reeds that can be selected in various combinations, including the classic shimmmering/wavering/ "tremolo"/"chorus effect" sound from one of the reed sets that is tuned slightly sharp.

Here are some specifications of the organ:

• Serial No. 70-6572 [the "70-" is inked in ahead of the printed "6572"]
• Model: B-4172 [presumably stands for 41 keys, 72 button]
• 3 rows of reeds: 8’, 4’, 4’ Celeste/tremolo 
• 72-Bass stradella accordion button layout
• A445 Pitch/tuning
• 4' tremolo is tuned sharp
• Clarinet (4’ + 4’ Celeste): lowest note F: 25 beats per 10 seconds, 18 beats per 8 seconds. 
• 0.4 Amps motor rating x 120 Volts = 48W

Reed Rank	Oboe	Bassoon	Accordion (Musette imitation)	Clarinet	Piccolo
4’	X		X	X	X
8’ (clarino)	X	X	X
4’ Tremolo (sharp)			X	X

Compare with typical accordion reed ranks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion_reed_ranks_and_switches#Register_stop_classifications

Here is a raw recording on an old iphone of my Briscoe organ:

Audio Recording

Reed sets used in the recording:

• Verse 1, 1st line: 4' solo (Piccolo)
• Verse 1, 2nd line: 8' + 4' (Basson)
• Verse 2, 1st line: 4' + 4' tremolo (Clarinet)
• Verse 2, 2nd line: 8' + 4' + 4' tremolo (Accordion)

The reeds could be cleaned to slightly improve the tuning, which overall are about +/-5 to 10 cents variance.

Limitations of the Organ

I found the white keys are more difficult to press between the black keys compared to a typical reed organ or piano because the key pivot is closer to the player in the Briscoe compared to a larger keyboard instrument. The keys do not have dampening when returning upward, making for noisy mechanical sounds when playing.

The expression pedal opens a valve that allows more air flow for louder volume. This works reasonably well, though takes some getting used to as the increase in volume is not directly proportional to the position of the pedal. And the volume actually becomes slightly less when the pedal is fully depressed. This could likely be adjusted to eliminate this minor issue. 

I modified an old singer sewing machine pedal to vary the speed of the fan to see if this could improve my ability to play with expression. This kind-of-worked, though I found if the fan speed was less than 80% maximum the reeds were very slow to speak and some notes would not speak consistently. This could perhaps be addressed by voicing the reeds for slower air speed. I did not attempt this.

I experimented with using the Briscoe fan to tune reeds in a c.1904 Farrand chapel organ, however it was not strong enough to sound any notes.