Yesterday I found myself sweating and tugging at a small teeny genie lowrey organ moments after seeing it on the curbside and slamming on the brakes to purloin it for my own. I made my way home with giddy anticipation for what sounds I could coax from it and how inspiring it will be to perform and record with an instrument of no cost found by serendipity. much to my chagrin, on plugging it in I was greeted by a blast of white noise that only subsided when I yanked the plug loose from the wall again. I peeked into the little downtown city of circuit boards and wiring and transistors and resistors only to find that someone had run amok with a knife or scissors or what-have-you and randomly and without remorse for the poor little organ.....cut whatever wire came across the wrath of the blades.
There must have been fifty little capillary wires severed in all, and no reason in the choosing of which to snip. Either a vicious little grandson, or an vindictive owner who had held by the credo... if I'm not going to have it, no one else will. Needless to say, on seeing the devastation, I was a bit daunted and figured, if the old boy is to be set out with the garbage, at least he'd had a stroll round town before he went. And off I went to bed.
The next day I had off work. I woke late, had a pot of tea, and made my way into the front room where I'd forgotten the little organ still sat. I gave a sigh, and decided to have one more look in back for giggles sake. Here, I noticed that, although there was much destruction as far as cut wires, there was no wires pulled directly from the board or missing for that matter. They were simply cut. So, I went about seeing if I could match ends. Fifteen minutes later I had them all matched and stripped and found myself searching out my soldering iron from the back rooms with energy and motivation from where I knew not. I was grim with determination. Once prepared, I set on the wires like a mad scientist surgeon. One by one the little nerve endings of my new orphan friend were met, and I could sense life coming into the being of this forgotten little organ. Halfway through, I plugged it in, and was energized to see that several lights that were inoperative on the last test had winked on and were switching on and off when commanded to. Encouraging to say the least. Now ever more driven I soldered and cursed and wiped sweat from my brow determined to be playing melodies before lunch.
The job done, I collapsed backwards and finally let my muscles relax, but only for a moment. You see, I have no tolerance for tedium, and no patience for work that requires steady hands on micro components. But here I was at the precipice of satisfaction. Will this have paid off, or did I waste precious time that could have been spent catching up on Jools Holland reruns? My hand wavered as I inserted the plug into the wall outlet. The familiar pop of audio equipment being turned on sounded, but the horrible white noise had been replaced by blissful ..... silence.
I stood, and ever so calmly pressed my index finger onto middle C.
Nothing happened.
Then of course I realized no instrument was selected. I pressed down the "vibrophone" key and tried again, and the most beautiful, musical, "PING" came through the speaker, validating my tedious two hour arthritis giving ordeal.
The lesson for myself here is that I shouldn't simply give up as much as I find myself doing. The fact of the matter is, that you can find these on ebay and craigslist for less than a hundred bucks, and for that matter, if you were so inclined you could drive around the blocks surrounding your house the night before trash day and find that they've popped out of the tree-lawns like mushrooms. But I love this thing a million-fold more than if I'd simply bought it or found it as I did, but working perfectly. I brought this ailing instrument back form the dark side. I performed analog CPR and breathed new life into this victim of jack the ripper style mutilation. And because of that, it means more to me than if it had been delivered new, free of charge and with a complimentary keg of guinness.
