Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2004-10-30 - Upper manual tracker (chest from 18th-century German tracker), lower manual EP, pedal EP & TP; portions playable via 3 roll-player mechanisms (plus additional portions not manually playable). Built by Heilbuth over many years, including pipes he made as a youth in Hamburg. (Adjacent room has Heilbuth-built band organ, roll-player only) (Robert is a now-retired piano tuner, with whom I worked for a few years). Given to Timothy Tikker 2003 and placed in storage. -Database Manager
2005-09-09 - On-line update from Timothy Tikker -- Organ's current status: still in storage, in Yucaipa, California; the player rolls are in storage at the original residence on 10th avenue in San Francisco. The current owner of the organ is currently working to find a suiable residence in which to locate the organ in Michigan. Position of organ in room: distributed around complete circumference of 12.5' x 16' dining room with 9' ceiling. Key action: tracker Manual II with tublar upper extension d#'''-f'''; electro-pneumatic Manual I; tubular and electro-pneumatic Pedal. Slider chest for tracker manual; non-slider for rest. mechanical stop action for tracker manual, electr0-pneumatic for rest. Stop controls for tracker stops are drawknobs, moving sideways in a variety of positions and angles. Stop controls for electro-pneumatic stops are a set of rosewood rocking tablets to the right side of the lower manual; Pedal stops are side-ways moving levers -Database Manager
2008-06-03 - Updated through on-line information from Richard Moody. -- I knew Robert Heilbuth from 1970 to 1988. He composed original tunes for his band organs and punched by hand the rolls. I hope these rolls have been preserved. -Database Manager
Typed stoplist from the OHS PC Database. Source: Source not recorded Date not recorded
Timothy J. Tikker, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 28 March 2003
Robert Heilbuth's house organ (the "Pipe Organ", as opposed to the player-only "Band Organ")
originally located at 655 Tenth Avenue, San Francisco, CA, USA, 94118; now [2003] in storage in San
Francisco and Yucaipa, CA
It was built over a period of many years... Robert (born 14 October 1912, Hamburg; died 25 May
2002, San Francisco) began this project as a youth in Germany, then continued it after immigrating
to the USA in the 1930s. Robert was a piano tuner by profession, though also had some training as
an organist, including 2 years of study in his teens with Walter Kraft. In Hamburg he knew the
young Rudolf von Beckerath (who was actually quite disparaging and discouraging about Robert's
efforts to built a home organ!) as well as Hans Henny Jahnn and "Old Man" Kemper; of the latter he
said that he was one of the only people left who still knew how to curve reed tongues by hand.
Manual II's slider chest came from some 18th century German organ; Robert bought it in his youth
from a builder in the Hamburg area who as late as the 1920s was tubular-pneumaticising old trackers.
All other chestwork Robert built himself.
Pipes are mostly used, from a variety of sources. Some are used as is, some revoiced, some used as
components for "new" pipes. Some pipes were made entirely by Robert himself, including some rolled
lead ones from his youth in Hamburg, and all the copper pipes, apparently spanning a number of years
(i.e. range of skill).
There are three roll player mechanisms, none acting on the tracker section. The first he made in
Germany, originally operating one rank of stopped wooden pipes winded by a hairdrier, the pipes
winded through the holes in the paper rolls! In the present organ this player operates just Manual
I, and a double stop action is operated manually. The second player also works on Manual I, plus
the Pedal (low 12 notes?), and operates manual stop automatically. The third player adds a solo
section of 4 stops and 29 notes, only playable through the player, not from the organ's console
(except for a portion of the Trumpet in the Pedal). Stops for the players' bass section (the low 12
notes of the Pedal) were operated manually (i.e. one hand-drew the 16' Subbass and 8' Gedecktbass
and left them on). While the third player obviously has more capability than its predecessors, each
of the previous players were retained so as to allow the performance of his earlier rolls, all of
which Robert hand-punched himself.
The organ occupied the house's dining room, which measures 12' 4" wide, 15' 10" long, 9' high. The
blower and main reservoir were located in the basement directly below. Blower static is 3" wind
(per annotations on Manual I chest). Robert had told me that the organ spoke on about 3" wind, but
judging from pipes blown by mouth I think that must be the static pressure and the actual chest
pressure is between that and say 2".
The keydesk is quite informal and highly eccentric, located "en fenêtre" below the Manual II chest.
The compass is 54 notes C-f''' for the manuals (natural key covers appear to be ivory, sharps
ebony), the pedal 27 notes C-d' (using an oaken straight & flat pedalboard from an old pedal piano).
The Manual II mechanical stop action is a series of sideways-moving drawknob levers, all on the left
except the 1-1/3' (a later addition), which is at the right. They move in various directions.
Manual I's electro-pneumatic stop action is at the right of that keyboard, consisting of a set of
rosewood rocking tablets, perhaps 6" long and 1" wide, roughly flat (i.e. same plane as keyboard).
The pedal stop action is a series of metal rods with small wooden knobs to the left, moving left to
right, except for three afterthought stops: the Trumpet, which is operated by a pair of wooden
on/off buttons below Manual I; the 2' Octave, which is operated by a type of wooden lever to the
right of the manuals; and the Proctophone borrow, which is a wooden sideways lever under Manual I (a
similar device at the side operates a treble shutoff for the Pedal 16' Subbass). Console dimensions
were suited to Robert's rather short stature, and anything but AGO standard. They may well have
been close to some older German standard, however, for when I played the 1871 Ladegast at the
Schwerin Dom in 1998 & 2000, in spite of the much larger size of that organ I found its console to
be very similar to Robert's in overall feel (except of course for the variety of stop controls!).
Stoplist:
MANUAL II (suspended tracker action C-d'''; tubular-pneumatic d#'''-f''')
8' Rohrflöte; 42 pipes; C-B from Quintatön; lower notes Cu, rest Pb; interior chimneys;
home-made & modified used pipes
8' Quintatön; 54 pipes; C-B tubular-pneum. offset at back; Cu bass, spotted (?) treble;
home-made & modified used pipes
4' Principal; 54 pipes; C-E Zn, rest spotted metal; used pipes; C-f' as façade, low 4 offset
at sides
2' Octave; 54 pipes; used pipes (? - took no notes)
1-3/5' Tierce; 40 pipes; B-d'''; B-a# at front (Zusatzlade), Cu; rest on main chest, alloy pipes
1-1/3' Quinte; 51 pipes; C-d'''; Zusatzlade between Tierce bass and façade; spotted metal,
used pipes (rescaled?)
1' Spielföte; 51 pipes; C-d'''; rolled Pb pipes, plus some used; many with long slots
MANUAL I (electro-pneumatic action)
8' Metal Flute; 54 pipes; C-A (?) stopped wood; A#-e open wood; f-g open Cu; g#-f''' Hoyt metal
(ex Diapason, leather lips removed)
8' String; 54 pipes; C-B Zn, rest spotted metal; a used Aeoline, revoiced (slightly raised
cutups and opened toes)
4' Owl Flute; 42 pipes; C-g Cu, stopped, broad scale, narrow mouths; g#-f#' stopped spotted metal
(used, rescaled); g'-f''' from used pipes, two sections of different diameter soldered
together, looking much like Isnard's Dessus de Flûte at St. Maximin-en-Var
2' Octave; 54 pipes; used pipes (took no notes)
16' Proctophone; 54 pipes; C-a quarter-length, each pipe part used Oboe, part brass cylindrical
tubing; a#-c#' cylindrical brass with lead bells, half-length; d'-f''' just cylindrical
brass, though first few have tapered lower sections; low C-F# mitered
8' Oboe; 54 pipes; modified used Oboe; C-A mitred; c'''-f''' harmonic length, though mostly
cylindrical brass, with shaded lead bells
Xylophone; 28 bars; d'-f'''; located above passageway between dining and living rooms; has separate
blower for high-pressure action; rosewood bars and softwood strikers all by RH
PEDAL (tubular- and electro-pneumatic)
16' Subbass; 27 pipes; C-c Zn: low 3 Kimball (marked "Oakland First Presb. Church Swell"), rest
Wurlitzer (marked "10" wind", leather removed); D capped, rest with interior wooden stoppers,
C, C# mitred; c#-d' stopped Cu
8' Gedecktbass; 27 pipes; C-d stopped wood, some used, some RH; d#-d' stopped copper
4' Octave; 27 pipes; C-E Cu, rest used Hoyt metal
4' Quintgedeckt; 27 pipes; C-E Cu bodies, Pb feet & caps; F-d' all Pb (cloth cast); made from used pipes (except Cu portions)
2' Octave; 27 pipes; (took no notes; probably spotted metal, used)
16' Proctophone; borrow from Manual I
8' Trumpet; 42 pipes; ex Wurlitzer (?) Tuba, Zn bass, rest Hoyt metal; harmonic treble; C-c# with Pedal, rest on Solo player section (see below)
4' Esophagophone; 27 pipes; brass cylindrical tubing surmounted with Pb ex-Vox Humana twisting caps
SOLO (electro-pneumatic; playable from third player only; 29 notes, d-f'')
4' Octave; 29 pipes; (took no notes)
4' Quintatön; 29 pipes; (took no notes)
2' Octave; 29 pipes; cut down from old Sn string; large ears
8' Trumpet; from Pedal, though d-f'' on this chest
TOTAL NUMBER OF PIPES: 987
TRAPS (player only; located under treble end of Manual I chest)
Bass Drum & Cymbal
Wood Block
Triangle
Console accesories:
couplers (electric): I to II
I to Pedal 8'
I to Pedal 4'
treble cutoff for Pedal 16' Subbass (d#-d' or so)
current indicator light (not operational)
Summary of physical layout:
south wall: Pedal at left, with (order back to front) Subbass, Trumpet, Gedecktbass on main chest,
Quintgedeckt & Esophagophone on elevated separate chest, basses of 4' & 2' Octaves offset in front
(tubular-pneumatic). At right, console with tracker chest above, low 12 of Quintat�n offset at
rear, trebles of Pedal Gedecktbass & 4' & 2' octaves offset at right of console (tubular action).
west wall (northwest corner): Solo chest, chromatic, roll player III underneath; order back to
front: 4' Octave, 4' Quintatön, 2' Octave, 8' Trumpet.
north wall: Manual I chest, chromatic; order back to front: Metal Flute, Owl Flute, 2' Octave,
Oboe, String, Proctophone. Various offset basses at bass end, including chest set on floor with low
12 of String and low 27 of Proctophone (= Pedal borrow); traps underneath treble end of chest;
roll players under bass of end of chest, player I above, Player II below.
east wall (above passageway to next room): Xylophone. Separate blower for its high-pressure action
set on floor, no fixed placement.
- Timothy J. Tikker, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 28 March 2003
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