The Cabinet
Sick Puppy! - Here is the cabinet with the keyboard and generator removed. That is not a Novachord bench. Hope to find one one day.
A peek at the speakers - Pictured in this photo are the 2 Jensen field coil speakers, wiring harness and the 72 spring connectors. This photo was taken early on before disassembly. The boxes in the lower area of this photo are the lids of the generator as it stands upright in the service position.
The underside of the lower cabinet - You can see the sustain pedals and the expression pedal. The expression pedal has a connecting rod that travels to the large variable capacitor that sits underneath the power amplifier shelf. Large shielded cables connect this capacitor to the preamplifier in the generator.
Aye, she looks like she's been at sea! - Extensive restoration was required in the lower sections due to moisture damage.
The expression pedal connecting rod - has a ingenious self adjusting mechanism.
Specialized parts - ball bearings and gears drive the variable capacitor inside the shielded housing.
The generator cover - before and after! - Amazingly, Most of the cigarette burns, Cocktail rings and scars sanded right out. Nearly all of the veneer was intact.
After sanding - I discovered that the legs and the braces are made of a softer and lighter hardwood. These sections required staining so as to match the mahogany veneer on the other sections of the Novachord.
Sanding past the stain - The veneer was quite thick, so it was possible to sand off the stain without burning through the veneer. This took a incredible amount of hand sanding.
The speaker grilles - These sections were a notable pain in the neck. Sanding off the stain in between the nooks and cranny's was quite labor intensive and time consuming.
Multiple coats of finish on all surfaces - 7 to be exact. This made me grateful that I am an electronic tech and not a woodworker by trade - to put it nicely.
The generator cover during finishing - It turned out much better than I ever expected considering it once looked like it went through a war. |
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©2005 Phil Cirocco
Other Resources: The Novachord Sightings page is here Movie and TV listings The History of Electronic Music - a 1936 Perspective! - by Benjamin Miessner This is a beta site I am transcribing - excuse the gaffs.
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