Model Engineering In Thailand and South East Asia

Andrew Built This 20 Note Busker Organ – Designed By John Smith Of England – Over A 3-Month Period.

I received the photos below from, Andrew,  a fellow model engineer living Thailand, with the following commentary:-

This is a 20-note organ designed by John Smith, which I built over a 3-month period in Taiwan in 2006.

It was quite cheap to build as I got most of the wood from the scrap bin in B&Q (Taiwan).

The expensive part was the lamb’s leather for the bellows, which I got from John Smith in England, UK.

You also need an electronic tuner to tune each pipe otherwise the busker organ may sound a bit off!

I still haven’t been able to find a suitable monkey (that comes complete with a little red hat), so my retirement plans to earn my upkeep by playing in Lumphini Park will have to wait a while!!!

Here, are the photos of the busker Organ starting with a view from the side showing the winding handle.

The winding handle had two functions, it turned the perforated roll that controlled the floe of air to the organ pipes and it also operated the bellows to generated the necessary air pressure.

Photo John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Side View

John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Side View

The next photo of the organ is an internal view showing the paper roll.

Photo John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Internal View

John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Internal View

The next photo shows the front of the Busker Organ showing the organ pipes.

Photo John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Front View

John Smith 20 Note Busker Organ Front View

And here is a picture of Andrew with his John Smith’s Busker Organ complete with red-hatted monkey in Bangkok’s Lumphini Park in a vain attempt to top up his pension.

Image of Street Busker Barrel Organ Monkey

Busker Organ Monkey

I hope you enjoyed those photos.

When I started to look into John Smith’s Busker Organ designs I because fascinated by the subject.

Here Are Some Of The Things I Have Learned About Busker Organs.

The John Smiths busker organ is a small portable organ with real wind-operated organ pipes that are blown by a bellows driven from a hand crank. The hand crank also feeds the paper roll which is perforated with holes and the air flows through these holes to the organ pipes to deliver the sound.

This clever design eliminated the complications of valves used on larger organs.

The 20 note busker organ as built by Andrew and shown in the photos on this page can be constructed quite easily by anyone with basic DIY or handicraft ability.

The plans to build the organ are available from the John Smith Busker Organ Website together with plans for making larger organs including a portable, 100 – pipe MIDI organ.

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