Man.. oh man.. How I miss my Thomas Jester! And I have found it is REALLY rare to find an old organ that fully works and does not have stuck notes or dead notes. This is a treat indeed. The BASS and beats on these are so punchy and classic analog. How I wish my rhythm section on my Thomas worked!
Recently I picked up a Thomas Californian Theatre 287 Model 2001 for my wife. I can fix or build most anything but have no music talent at all. Anyhow- my wife has the music behind her. Over the years I have bought & restored several Baby and Pro Concert Grand pianos for her. She has never owned an organ before but used to play them in church all the time. When I got it home, we plugged it in, she messed around with it for 30 minutes or so, and aside from a slight a/c hum everything is great. Not only that but it has been taken VERY good care of. It looks practically brand new. KEEP READING! :) ME BEING ME, and can't leave anything alone, I pulled the back off and to my dismay the inside was at least as clean as the outside (It's been stored in rental storage unit for the past 10+ years....probably longer in the dry Utah climate). As I was "snooping" around I looked in the matching seat and the original instruction booklet was inside. All's good right? Well- it gets better. Today I looked in the seat again kinda going thru the music that was in there and guess what??? :) :) The factory ORIGINAL SERVICE MANUAL from 1976 was there inside the original plastic ziplok bag! :) The pages are the long foldout sheets that has about 10 pages on each page. It covers the electronics so well that you could actually build any of the circuit boards. The schematics have all of the parts numbers locations, values, pc board layout, and even the pc board tracers are shown! O-scope values are given - and even has the visual plot of the screen. Now I don't know about any of you but I never get this lucky. I like old (relative word I know) music pieces, especially ones that I can get my hands on and keep it going for a few more generations. IF ANY OF YOU have a legitimate need for this info then I will go ahead and scan it as a .pdf to make it available. I have no idea how prevalent this info is, but in all of my looking for specific info on this organ, I could find very little, and nothing technical or recent. Would anyone like to shed some info on this organ for me? I have no idea if it's common, rare, good, bad, middle of the road, etc. I know my wife likes it and that's good enough for me, so it now resides next to her grand piano and looks right at home. The only complaint that *I* have with it is that it is PAINTED antique off-white with green accenting and cloth. IF this little guy happens to be something rare or unusual then I'll just finish cleaning it up and replace the caps on the pc boards (which are all USA made!) The a/c hum I was talking about earlier would most likely be gone with new high quality caps. On the other hand the hum is only noticeable when it is not being played. when the music is being pumped out, the hum isn't there or noticeable. I don't care what the market value is, as I have no intention of selling it, but I would appreciate any historical or background information and anything that applies to this specific model. The factory manual covers the Thomas Californian Theatre 287 Models 287, 1776 & 2001, individually! According to this- manual covers the one I have plus the 2001- Bicentennial and 1776- Bicentennial. Personally I like the looks of the 1776 model. If I was to refinish this one, it will end up being covered in a good quality veneer and finished in a medium brown color with a lacquer finish. Thanks for your time guys and I will be looking forward to your input! P.S.- I will soon be working on my TH-cam Channel and will document this organ on it........whenever I get it done that is! lol
Sorry for the slow response, I have two email accounts, and I just have not checked this one for a while, I'm extremely busy with work. I do repair organs. At the time--- I did a demo on this organ for the newer generation could see what one sounds like and the features of the organ. Most of the older organs I come across have many issues; some the organ do not work, some hum, most or all of them --- the controls do not work the way they should, etc. Good luck with the repairs and servicing. All of the older organs are a thing of the past. They all have their unique sounds. I like them better than staring at a computer screen and programming some sound. These have stops, levers, buttons, etc. They are limited to a certain degree, though it make the person have to learn how to create what is there.
If you ever have any question about Thomas, I can help you in any way. This model also has Color-Glo, as there is a push button switch under the console that allows the florecent lights to light up the keyboard. That feature allowed the letters of each note to emit through the keys.
Very cool that you had found one of these still working. I am not sure, but I think that the Color-Glo is located under the keyboard part of the organ that allows the floorecent lamps to turn on to light up the keyboard, showing letters of each note.
@@timothyrogers3647 Mr. Rogers, greetings from Colombia, I'd like to know if you can help me with my 1300 Series Thomas Organ, it has some dead notes... But here in my country it's quite difficult to find an organ tech... Thanks in advance!
Good morning, I have a Thomas like yours, it is slightly waning on all keyboards, can you help me and tell me where is the oscillator to be adjusted to bring the instrument back to 440Hz? I thank you for your kindness. Can you also tell me if there is the Thomas company in America and which website? Sorry for my English. Thanks for what you can help me. Pasquale D'Ario
Man.. oh man.. How I miss my Thomas Jester! And I have found it is REALLY rare to find an old organ that fully works and does not have stuck notes or dead notes. This is a treat indeed. The BASS and beats on these are so punchy and classic analog. How I wish my rhythm section on my Thomas worked!
Recently I picked up a Thomas Californian Theatre 287 Model 2001 for my wife. I can fix or build most anything but have no music talent at all. Anyhow- my wife has the music behind her. Over the years I have bought & restored several Baby and Pro Concert Grand pianos for her. She has never owned an organ before but used to play them in church all the time. When I got it home, we plugged it in, she messed around with it for 30 minutes or so, and aside from a slight a/c hum everything is great. Not only that but it has been taken VERY good care of. It looks practically brand new. KEEP READING! :)
ME BEING ME, and can't leave anything alone, I pulled the back off and to my dismay the inside was at least as clean as the outside (It's been stored in rental storage unit for the past 10+ years....probably longer in the dry Utah climate). As I was "snooping" around I looked in the matching seat and the original instruction booklet was inside. All's good right? Well- it gets better. Today I looked in the seat again kinda going thru the music that was in there and guess what??? :) :) The factory ORIGINAL SERVICE MANUAL from 1976 was there inside the original plastic ziplok bag! :) The pages are the long foldout sheets that has about 10 pages on each page. It covers the electronics so well that you could actually build any of the circuit boards. The schematics have all of the parts numbers locations, values, pc board layout, and even the pc board tracers are shown! O-scope values are given - and even has the visual plot of the screen.
Now I don't know about any of you but I never get this lucky. I like old (relative word I know) music pieces, especially ones that I can get my hands on and keep it going for a few more generations. IF ANY OF YOU have a legitimate need for this info then I will go ahead and scan it as a .pdf to make it available. I have no idea how prevalent this info is, but in all of my looking for specific info on this organ, I could find very little, and nothing technical or recent.
Would anyone like to shed some info on this organ for me? I have no idea if it's common, rare, good, bad, middle of the road, etc. I know my wife likes it and that's good enough for me, so it now resides next to her grand piano and looks right at home. The only complaint that *I* have with it is that it is PAINTED antique off-white with green accenting and cloth. IF this little guy happens to be something rare or unusual then I'll just finish cleaning it up and replace the caps on the pc boards (which are all USA made!) The a/c hum I was talking about earlier would most likely be gone with new high quality caps. On the other hand the hum is only noticeable when it is not being played. when the music is being pumped out, the hum isn't there or noticeable.
I don't care what the market value is, as I have no intention of selling it, but I would appreciate any historical or background information and anything that applies to this specific model.
The factory manual covers the Thomas Californian Theatre 287 Models 287, 1776 & 2001, individually! According to this- manual covers the one I have plus the 2001- Bicentennial and 1776- Bicentennial. Personally I like the looks of the 1776 model. If I was to refinish this one, it will end up being covered in a good quality veneer and finished in a medium brown color with a lacquer finish.
Thanks for your time guys and I will be looking forward to your input! P.S.- I will soon be working on my TH-cam Channel and will document this organ on it........whenever I get it done that is! lol
Sorry for the slow response, I have two email accounts, and I just have not checked this one for a while, I'm extremely busy with work.
I do repair organs. At the time--- I did a demo on this organ for the newer generation could see what one sounds like and the features of the organ.
Most of the older organs I come across have many issues; some the organ do not work, some hum, most or all of them --- the controls do not work the way they should, etc.
Good luck with the repairs and servicing. All of the older organs are a thing of the past. They all have their unique sounds.
I like them better than staring at a computer screen and programming some sound.
These have stops, levers, buttons, etc. They are limited to a certain degree, though it make the person have to learn how to create what is there.
Oh my god, if you could email or send me a link to that schematic I would love you forever.
Picking up one of these soon.
Your Thomas has a wonderful sound! Thanks for sharing! I just purchased a Thomas Californian 284 Deluxe and I love it.
Lovely organ.....I used to own one in the late 60's
That tune at the end was very nice .
If you ever have any question about Thomas, I can help you in any way. This model also has Color-Glo, as there is a push button switch under the console that allows the florecent lights to light up the keyboard. That feature allowed the letters of each note to emit through the keys.
Me and my boy just scored a Calafornian 281 for free, vaccumed it out gave it a scrub and my kids in heaven!!
Very cool that you had found one of these still working. I am not sure, but I think that the Color-Glo is located under the keyboard part of the organ that allows the floorecent lamps to turn on to light up the keyboard, showing letters of each note.
I'm an organ tech, I took it in on a trade-in, took quite a bit of time to get it work somewhat right again.
@@timothyrogers3647 Mr. Rogers, greetings from Colombia, I'd like to know if you can help me with my 1300 Series Thomas Organ, it has some dead notes... But here in my country it's quite difficult to find an organ tech... Thanks in advance!
I love the sound of all of that from the organ he played🥰
Greetings from DEnmark Gurli...lovely...
Incredible sound!!
the drums on these organs always sound so "loungey", but perfect for organ music, i think
For it's time, the Rhythm/drum machines were OK/good. I use them for a metronome, it can really help people with rhythm issues.
Thanks Timothy , the effectiveness of that electronics is impressive. A peak of analogue audio circuitry design in the '70s?
Did you now that Thomas Organ was owned by Sears in the 60s when they took over Warwick Electronics?
Good morning, I have a Thomas like yours, it is slightly waning on all keyboards, can you help me and tell me where is the oscillator to be adjusted to bring the instrument back to 440Hz? I thank you for your kindness. Can you also tell me if there is the Thomas company in America and which website? Sorry for my English. Thanks for what you can help me. Pasquale D'Ario
It honestly might just be easier to tune your other instruments to it. At least a different frequency would have a different feel.