jt1stcav

After all this work, we better like it![] Just kiddin', natch.[]

Like Close Encounters of the Third Kind...pure logic and a universal (or galactic) language!

Thanks.

I've tried Linux Ubuntu, but I'm not enough of a geek to figure it out, nor would it accept Photoshop, so back to Windows I went. I'd love to buy an Apple, but I can't afford it now (or anytime in the forseeable future).

Music is art, science, mathmatics, and psychology all rolled up in an aural palate that no other living creature on this planet can create like man does. Sure, whales sing, as do birds, but they don't compose intricate notes with timing, rhythm and pace, and then write it so it can be repeated over and over throughout the ages performed on instruments. Nor do animals attach themselves emotionally to music (that I know of)...

That's how it usually ends up...there's always great hoopla about restoring the grand ol' organ and their intentions are good, but the funds never materialize so the organ sits in storage, being ravaged by rodents and termites! Seen it happen all too many times, and it is a dang shame too!

Dang, I couldn't log on with the above address (on IE7/Windows XP Home), so I changed it to http://www.ftp.mallette.org thinking that might help, and I got Dave's resume and IST job description instead! Very impressive, Dave, but not what I wanted to hear. BTW, how did that Robert Morton restoration video come out?

You better reassure your wife that you are indeed worth it each and every waking moment you're together. Sorta makes you feel insignificant when all you got her for Christmas was a new blender![:$] Seriously, congrats.

Wow, you know how to put up a convincing arguement, Dave. Our church could've used your presentation 10 years ago when our new church was being built! But I'm afraid with our present music director, a pipe organ is strictly out of the question. I'm still surprised our parish has that new Rodgers after the old organ bought the farm. I suppose our only organist had something to do with that. Hell, I would've settled on the eBay auction of the ol' Rodgers theatre organ with the La Scalas...even that with traditional hymns would be far better than the synthesizer/guitar/drums ensemble playing Christian pop tunes that's heard in all the Sunday Masses!

Our parish has no interest in obtaining a pipe organ. When the new church building was still under construction, the architect had made provisions for pipe organ chambers to be installed for any future instrument. When the music committee was asked by a few concerned congregation members whether they'd be interested in purchasing a pipe organ, the music director flatly refused such a proposal (since he's not an organist and only a fairly marginal pianist at best IMO)! Since the majority of the congregation could also care less about traditional church music and any sort of organ (they're perfectly content with the rock band instruments), the few who were interested in a pipe organ were quickly squelched, and the so-called chambers now house the Rodgers' tone cabinets! I'm surprised there's a brand new Rodgers Trillium organ sitting in place of the old Rodgers that literally just died on us a few weeks ago (it was an early '80s model that had been repaired several times in the past, and it was just too much trouble to repair this time, I guess). This latest Rodgers is worlds apart sonically from the old model, and even our organist enjoys playing this instrument much more then the other organ...you can hear it in her playing style. Her technique is much better than I've ever encountered before! Imagine how well she'd play if she had a III/85 rank Aeolian Skinner at her fingertips!

Those are pretty...look like new! Enjoy.

Well then, Dave, I do hope the "tracker-backers" in TX keep the faith and continue to prosper! And you're absolutely right about contemporary band music being only for special outreach services and not for all services; I believe that's the way it should be too. Our parish uses our new Rodgers Trillium Series organ only on Saturday evening Mass...all other services on Sunday are with a Yamaha keyboard, Roland V-Drums, and electric and bass guitars! You can guess what service I attend...

Gregg said "fiddling with the wood"...tee hee...[] I know from what Eric has written that he prefers premium grade MDF, and not the cheap particleboard slabs from Home Depot either. Not being a woodworker, I know not if the really dense MDF can be found at lumber yards, but he does believe cabinet construction with high quality MDF is better than plywood or other hard woods as far as resonance is concerned (although he will custom build any size cabinet out of any wood a customer asks for as an option). Just thought I'd throw that bit of information out there...

Ah, budding young audiophiles with a taste for good music on wax! If your li'l prodigy is ripping off bits of Beethoven at 5, you'll be pleasantly surprised when he's performing Rachmaninoff piano recitals at 10 (keep your fingers crossed)!

Ah, Dave and Mike's posts remind me the Christmas spirit of giving is among the Klipschophiles...all year 'round![A]

Well, Dave, you would've loved my dad's place of employment back in the early '80s when he built his own American Classic home instrument...his employer was Klug & Schumaker, Inc. of Lakeland, builders of fine tracker action instruments throughout Florida and the southeast, with instruments as far as Long Island, and even one in the Bahamas! Unfortunantly, the sales of tracker organs in this part of the country dried up rather quickly. Klug & Schumaker continued on basically doing only additions and servicing jobs throughout the area until even that gave way due to churches going the way of folk/contemporary music services and neglecting their aging electropneumatic organs entirely because of increased maintenance costs. What few contracts they had left were for holiday tunings and small patchup jobs, thus Klug & Schumaker went out of business by '86 and my dad was out of a job! In the '90s up until his retirement last year, my dad worked as a CAD design engineer for Foley-Baker, Inc. in Bolton, CT, but they maintained only a small number of tracker instruments throught New England and the entire northeast; the majority of their contracts were servicing electropneumatic and direct-electric designs while the manufacturers of most tracker action instruments maintained their own organs IIRC. But even up there were there are literally thousands of historic pipe organs well over a hundred years old, many churches and concert halls can no longer afford to maintain their instruments (only the few wealthy congregations could and still do, but that number's dwindling as well). Since my dad was forced to retire last October due to lack of CAD design work, he's afraid it'll be only a matter of time when the majority of pipe organs in this country are left unattended to decay because it's just not cost effective to maintain them. Electronic organ manufacturers are still going strong while more and more pipe organ firms are closing their doors (like Moller and Austin and other century-old companies have these past few years). Seems those that still mainatin a traditional music litergy but cannot afford to keep their pipe organs in service will ultimately resort to Rodgers, Allen, Marshall & Ogletree, Johanness and other electronic organ manufacturers, or even with MIDI keyboard controllers and Hauptwerk or Vienna Symphonic Library organ samples and their computers! 21st Century progress? I'm not so sure...

Bet Jesse James of West Coast Choppers could've done one helluva job on the Klipsch bike! He can't be all that bad if Sandra Bullock married him...sweet!

That quote from the late Dr. Fox still cracks me up to this day! I have to give Rodgers some credit, though, for actually building combination electronic organs with added pipe ranks (from Ruffatti of Italy, and I think Tellers as well). They also build new consoles for existing pipe organs, but I guess other electronic organ firms would do custom orders as well. Back in the early '80s before my dad built his residence pipe organ (now being installed in a Victorian home in Asheville, NC), he owned a Rodgers Jamestown 2 manual organ, powered by his Technics SU-8099 integrated amplifier driving his '79 Cornwalls with excellent results! It didn't sound anything like the Hauptwerke organ sampler Dave mentioned (the closest to actually sounding like a real pipe organ IMO), but it was impressive nonetheless (and the pedal bass notes would rattle the familyroom windows)!

I couldn't have said it better! Amen.

He's certainly blessed, and has a wonderful attitude about his new-found fame. Good for him...hope he goes far!

Wonder if anyone in the Klipsch clan ride motorcycles...if they don't keep it themselves or display it in their museum, I would venture to guess they would auction it off to a lucky Klipsch owner at the '08 Pilgrimage (imagine that)!

I could be wrong, but I think even my made-in-Hope Reference RB-75s have Chinese made woofers! They may very well be designed by Klipsch engineers in the Hope facility, but they are outsourced and manufactured abroad (unlike the drivers and woofers in the '79 Cornwalls I had which as far as I know were 100% American made)!

It is precisely because of the global economy and how corporations from all over the world do business today that I can't always purchase items that are strictly manufactured in the US, no matter how much I try to. And due to my extremely limited budget from my low-paying job with a small family-run American manufacturer (that cannot afford health insurance for its employees due to rising costs of outsourced parts used in the local manufacturing of our American-made products), I can only afford so much or do completely without if I only want American made goods. If I was wealthy and money wasn't an issue, I would certainly make every effort to buy American manufactured products (even if some of the contents that make up said products come from other countries). Unfortunantly, I am not wealthy, so I try to make smart decisions when it comes to the products I can afford. Although the ProMedia 2.1s I'm enjoying as I write this are indeed assembled in China, I feel certain Klipsch does not condone slave labor and sweat shops, therefor I feel good about the decision I made to purchase them and would recommend them to even the most astute and consummate consumer!

I'm content with my current setup for the moment...I can't afford anymore upgrades since I bought Ben Clarke's (formerly Mark Deneen's) cherry RB-75s![]

It was bound to happen someday...it should've happened a long time ago IMHO!