If you have been to Porter Park in Rexburg Idaho, chances are you have seen the carousel. The historical Idaho Centennial Carousel Band Organ is a Stinson 30M-1 model, was acquired by Rexburg in 1952. The 46-note band organ features ornate hand-painted filigree and weighs approximately 425 pounds! Around 3000 wooden carousels were produced during the Golden Ages, but less than 175 are still in operation today, and Rexburg has one of these beautiful functioning band organ carousels!
The band organ works as a paper roll turns on a driver, the paper roll has holes in it, when there is a hole in the paper it lets the vacuum pull the lever of the pneumatic actuators down which opens a valve allowing for air to pass from the blower to the fipple, this actuates the frequency of each individual note, just like a whistle, which will cause the music to play. The process is the same for the bass drum, snare, and cymbal without the use of the fipple.
Before the Idaho Centennial Carousel opened for the season on June 1st, 2020. MusiCare Musical Instrument Service Center had the opportunity to clean, restore, and repair the band organ. We were able to help with the alignment of the pneumatic valves and we serviced the deteriorated bumper strip. We disassembled and cleaned blower ports, pulled, and lubricated cooling fan motor. We realigned the hinge plates on paper role door so that it can close properly, and cleaned and lubricated the entirety of the instrument.
The work we were able to do on this band organ was possible through Dave’s experience of repairing similar instruments. We were happy to have the opportunity to work on it and enjoy seeing the community enjoying the band organ and carousel.
