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Old 6th Mar 2023, 12:56 pm   #1
blabbersnitch
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Default Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi all.

I was lying in bed the other night, not able to sleep and so I picked up my smart phone (something I didn't have 20 years ago) and googled 'Miller English Organ'. It's a very occasional check I do to see if there is anything interesting out there on a fabulous old instrument that surprisingly doesn't get much internet activity.
And I found a thread on this forum from five years ago talking about them. How cool! How is it I have never stumbled across this forum before?

So I registered. That old thread has closed so I can no longer reply to it, so I post here in case anyone was interested in striking up that discussion again.

I picked up my Miller organ 20 years ago from a piano tuner here in Melbourne that was trying to get rid of it. I thought it would be great fun to try to restore so he gave it to me (instead of giving it away to be gutted and retrofitted with modern insides). A great way to learn about valves.
I got in touch with Norwich Organs, but as has been noted here previously, the Norwich Organs of today has little information on the Miller organs of yesterday. However, Mr David Plummer was able to give me contact details for Joc Goodey, who used to work at Miller Organs as an apprentice way back. I was able to contact Joc and he very kindly provided me with some old yellowed schematics which helped with the restoration. From the schematics, I can date the organ to around 1960, give or take a year or so.
I was able to hunt down a copy of Choir and Organ from May 2000 that had an article on the Miller organs (and Joc Goodey).
And then I was able to find another Miller organ owner here in a country town nearby (Stawell), his organ was ruined, but I was able to salvage parts, and he still had the Miller speaker that was provided with the organs (the speaker known as the 'coffin' due to its shape). So I also now have the speaker (though I have left that at my mum's place as I run the organ through and old Leslie speaker... just the speaker though, I am using the organ's amplifier).

It's a great instrument. I started going to organ recitals and learning piano so I could then move to the organ. Then the babies came and the organ... well... it looks lovely in the front room.
Beautiful timber and great feel on the keys, two 88-key manuals and full sized pedal board. Each note has its own oscillator rather than frequency dividers off one octave of oscillators. Also, each time a key is played, it's oscillator is energised but so are the oscillators of the two octaves above. This gives it a real rich sound.
The whole thing is super heavy though. When we renovated a couple of years ago, I moved everything out of the house except the organ.

If anyone is interested in the Miller Organs, I would love to hear from you.

Eric
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Old 6th Mar 2023, 1:00 pm   #2
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Is this the discussion? https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=143194

If so it can be re-opened and you post(s) moved to the original discussion.

Cheers

Mike T
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Old 6th Mar 2023, 8:17 pm   #3
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi Eric

Thank you for getting in touch. I have three Miller organs - one valve divider, one transistor divider, and the Classic IV with four ranks / 29 octaves of valve oscillators.

Have you seen my (long!) story about the Classic IV here:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=121108

I would be very interested to compare notes as I have not yet really done any detailed research. What I have noticed though is that quite a few Millers seem to have been found in Australia. Looking forward to hearing more about yours...
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Old 7th Mar 2023, 6:00 am   #4
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Eric, I'm happy for the original 2018 thread to be re-opened, especially if you have a Norwich T model. That organ is in ACT, and the owner is looking to move it on if anyone in Oz is interested.

I don't have a Miller organ, but do have the main audio amp module made by Miller, as per used with the Classic IV that Lucien resurrected. So I am also interested to know what you have, especially the original schematics.

Ciao, Tim (also from Melbourne !)
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Old 14th Mar 2023, 1:47 pm   #5
blabbersnitch
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi Tim, Lucien and Mike,

I have some schematics of the Miller Organ. These are from Joss Goodey who sent them to me years ago. They are large so I had to scan them in parts and try to piece them together. If they seem to be disjointed in a few places, that's why (though, I think I did a pretty good job overall).

I had wondered Tim, if the T model is just a transistorised version of this model. But given that the valves are more like FETs than the BJTs that are likely to have been used in the Model T, it wouldn't be that simple (and different power supplies, etc).
If it helps, the organ I have uses Hartley oscillators for the tone generators.

I saw your (long) story Lucien. I loved it. Great photos! I am impressed with how many helpers you had too. When I had to move my organ I had only one friend help me. It was a long time before he talked to me again!.

I will attach the schematics, some photos of my organ (with a picture of Miller's 'coffin' speaker), and an article I scanned about Miller Organs from a magazine

Ahhhh......
It seems like every single file I have exceeds the file size limit.
Stay tuned, I will get the files uploaded here in the next few days.

Of the two schematics, I had redrawn the amplifier circuit. I will post that here for now.

Eric
Attached Files
File Type: pdf H3625 Miller organ amplifier circuit.pdf (133.7 KB, 59 views)
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Old 19th Mar 2023, 11:38 am   #6
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Thank you Eric. My valve model has a peculiar amplifier implementation with ELL80s (which seem underpowered for the job) while the Classic IV has a much beefier 807-based chassis as per Tim's.

I'd be delighted if you could send the full-res scans... I'll PM you.
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Old 21st Mar 2023, 1:46 pm   #7
blabbersnitch
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi all,
I will try again with the attachments here.
I will attach the H3626 schematic of the tone generators and voicing circuits.
I will also attach two versions of the H3625 schematic of the amplifier and power supply. V2 of this I received from Joss Goodey, scanned and pieced together. V1 came from a kind man in Sydney who would service an organ in a suburb called Ermington and at the time shared his schematic and notes, and gave me some advice. I wish I could remember his name. It can be seen in the V2 version that the power amplifier valves changed from EL84s (like those in my Miller Organ, in the V1 schematic) to 6L6s.
Eric
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	coffin speaker box small.JPG
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ID:	275477  
Attached Files
File Type: pdf Ermington H3625v1 small.pdf (185.8 KB, 48 views)
File Type: pdf H3625v2 smaller.pdf (3.75 MB, 52 views)
File Type: pdf H3626v2 smaller.pdf (3.73 MB, 50 views)
File Type: pdf ChoirAndOrganJune2000 Miller Organ.pdf (3.69 MB, 47 views)
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Old 21st Mar 2023, 1:48 pm   #8
blabbersnitch
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

A few more photos of my Miller Organ
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	manuals small.JPG
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ID:	275478   Click image for larger version

Name:	miller english organ small.JPG
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Name:	oscillators small.jpg
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ID:	275480   Click image for larger version

Name:	tone generator chassis small.JPG
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Size:	64.3 KB
ID:	275481   Click image for larger version

Name:	Voicing circuits small.JPG
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Size:	50.9 KB
ID:	275482  

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Old 26th Apr 2023, 10:55 am   #9
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

I teach in a school in Sittingbourne Kent and have discovered a Norwich Organ covered up with coffin speaker on the stage. It is taking up room, no-one knows anything about it, even those who have been here over 20 years so I suspect it hasn't seen the light of day for probably 30 years!
Where do I begin with trying to pass it on to someone interested in it?
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Old 27th Apr 2023, 4:50 pm   #10
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Miller Organs from Norwich.. again

Hi there, thanks for posting about this. Depending on model, it might be of interest for our museum collection that includes a couple of Norwich examples so far. Perhaps you could post some pics?
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