I just picked up a Lowrey Magic Genie 44 at an estate sale for $25. This gives me half a clue how to start looking at it. Thank you.

Amazing video @beeble9285-thank you so much for sharing. It gave me the courage to open it up and fix a bass note that was forever droning. Quick question: could you point me in the direction of the vibrato resistor? I would love to give that a try!

@Beeble. I know it has been a couple years. I’m curious if you every took on whitening the white keys and how you did it?

Another question for you... how hard would it be to modify it to have individual outputs for the different sections?

Hi @Beeble9285 ! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Awesome work. I just picked up a Wandering Genie off of Craigslist that is entirely disassembled save for the circuit boards (thank goodness). Everything is pretty easy to get together but I am scratching my head on how to assemble the keyboard. Where does the spring/wire mount into the bracket?? Any instruction would be soooo appreciated, been looking for a diagram or manual online with no luck. Happy Holidays!

@beeble9285

7 ай бұрын

Yo! I don't remember the exact process, and I don't have access to mine at the moment. @9:15 has a decent closeup tho, I think the springs for the black keys mount on the upper row of the bracket, and springs for white keys mount to the bottom row. There might be holes for them to slide into, I don't remember exactly though. Also I recall having to put on the white and black keys in a specific order too, you might have to experiment to figure that out. Either way, I remember it being the most frustrating part of reassembling this thing lol

man, the drums being played on the rhythm section sounded kinda fire

how did you replace the bulbs?

Did you sell it? I have one I just bought that seems to have the same issues as yours did.

I have a Lowrey wandering genie organ also but my main volume control is not working. I need new one or maybe I can fix it. Not sure. Please help if you can.

@beeble9285

4 жыл бұрын

Do you get any sound output at all? My guess is either it needs a new slide potentiometer, or there's a broken solder joint on the existing one. When in doubt, open it up and push all the pin-connectors in firmly on the back of the front panel, all of my issues would have been solved if I just did that first!

I have a wandering genie and have a question for you. In your other video, when you press the keys the sound slightly fades up... like there’s pressure sensitivity in your keys. Mine doesn’t do that. My notes instantly play. Is mine broken or how did you do that... is it the reverb pedal? Also, which bulbs exactly did you purchase from Jackson Electric Supply?

@beeble9285

3 жыл бұрын

Yo! I went back through my emails for that Jackson Electric order and the bulbs are: (#161 Miniature Bulb Glass Wedge Base) and (#74 Miniature Bulb Glass Wedge Base). I think 161 was the bigger bulb, but they're so cheap I'd order a few extra of each. As for the other video, the volume swells are because I had the L2 running through a volume pedal, it may have been off camera. Lastly, I have no idea how to modify it for individual outputs, but if you happen to figure it out, I'd love to hear how!

great work! I'm trying to fix same Lowrey debut but an L-70 (with double keyboard) lower keyboard and foot doesn't sound, also rythm and bass section no sound, and in upper was working good, but now G / F# / F in all octaves doesn't sound either... do you have clue for starting with??? congrats for the video is very helpeful! cheers from argentina!

@beeble9285

3 жыл бұрын

Hey! Just by checking out pictures of the L-70, it looks like the circuitry is probably very similar to the L2. Most, if not all of my issues could have been solved by pushing in the socketed pins on the inside of the panel. If you open the organ, find the circuit boards directly behind the tab switches. At the bottom of these circuit boards, you should find many series of pins with wires wrapped around them. These pins were not soldered on the L2, but they were friction-fit into their sockets. Over the years, the pins can wiggle loose and cause bad connections. On two of the pins on mine, they still weren't making good connections after pushing them in, so I had to solder a jumper wire to permanently attach them. Since the upper keyboard was working good, and now it's not, I think it's just a bad connection somewhere. Since the G/F#/F keys are not working in ALL octaves, the keys themselves are probably fine, but the problem is somewhere further up in the circuitry. I'm not exactly sure how the oscillators work in these Lowrey organs, but most similar synths start with 12 separate oscillators for one of each note. I suspect there is an issue with the oscillators for G/F#/F notes. I wish I could help with that, but I don't know anything about it! If the rhythm and bass still don't work and all pin connections are good, I start testing individual components. I start with every slider, especially the "speed" slider. If those are all good, I'll remove socketed ICs one by one to see how the organ reacts. If those don't do anything, I'll start testing every single resistor, capacitor, and transistor until I find the problem. It's a long and boring process, but I usually find the problem this way. Good luck!

@alesiniestro

3 жыл бұрын

@@beeble9285 many thanks for the reply! i'll work on the organ! I'll let you know ; )

@gabrielparmigiano4502

2 жыл бұрын

@@alesiniestro hola tambien desde argentina con la misma falla pero en un L2

Where are you located? I have a Genie/1980 that doesn't work.

My only question is WHERE ARE YOU and how can I hire you to fix my Lowrey/organ and Hammond organs????.

That vibrato depth mod makes it sound Leslie-ish lol

Hey, how's it going? I just acquired one of these, how do you take the hood off to get to the guts? Thanks! enjoyed the video.

@beeble9285

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm going to try my best to explain this, but I'm usually pretty bad at it lol. On the bottom, there are six bolts you need to loosen in order to lift the top off. I set the keyboard on the ground, then I tilt it back so that it rests on it's backside, giving me access to the bottom (you could also just put it on a keyboard stand and lie underneath like you're working on a car). You should see a ton of screws, but I'm pretty sure the six you need are three on the far left and three on the far right, running along the edge. The other bolts toward the back are used to secure the power supply circuit board in place, so you should leave these alone. Mine has a hinge toward the front, but I unscrewed this as well so that I could just lift the whole top off. When the bolts are loose, you can set the keyboard back down properly and start wiggling the lid off. Keep an eye on the keys, you have to move the lid in a certain way so that they don't snag the keys. The speakers are attached to the lid, but when it's off you can just pull the wires loose, not desoldering required.

@guitarchris100

4 жыл бұрын

@@beeble9285 Thanks! I figured it was the bolts on the bottom but wasn't sure. I've fiddled with guitar amps and pedals and I'm going to attempt to service this gem. Bass notes don't seem to work and there is a lot of static, echo, and noise.

@beeble9285

4 жыл бұрын

@@guitarchris100 Good luck! On mine, the rhythm section didnt work just because the pins were falling out of their sockets, poor design choice when you're designing a "portable" organ, lol. I also had to solder two jumper cables because some traces on the circuit board were faulty. I'm no expert, so I wish I could give you any pointers on the extra noise, but I don't know what causes that. I can tell you that mine is almost silent when no keys are pressed, so there's certainly some component failing

@rickhannon5629

3 жыл бұрын

@@beeble9285 I am the happy owner of a used L2 I picked up locally the other day. A previous owner must have dropped a quarter into the keyboard and now 3 notes don't go down as they should. I can see the quarter. I'm about to take your advice to get under the hood so to speak. The question, even with the top off, can you access the keybed?

@beeble9285

3 жыл бұрын

@@rickhannon5629 Hello! Removing the top is the first step toward accessing the keybed. Once you have the lid off, you should be able to remove the two faux-wood plastic end blocks directly on either side of the keys (i believe thr right-hand one has a volume slider). At this point, you may be able to tilt the organ and get the quarter to slide out, hopefully that works. If not, the next step is to loosen bolts holding the front panel in place (with all the plastic colored tabs) and tilting it back so that you can remove the problem keys and fish out the quarter. I do this briefly at some point in this video, ill find it and timestamp it for you. Good luck!

I won’t lie, this is me when I play the piano

Hacking around in there man is a bad idea unless you don't care about the organ that is. Never ever short anything out with power turned on particularly if you don't even have a drawing and an understanding of how electronics work and what the drawings mean