Gulbransen Company was a musical instrument manufacturer of player pianos and home organs in the United States. It also made reed organs. It was originally established in 1904 by Axel Gulbransen as Gulbransen Piano Company. In the history of musical instruments, Gulbransen is notable for several innovations. In its early years, Gulbransen made the first upright piano with a player piano mechanism in the same case. In the 1920s, thousands of player pianos were manufactured by the firm under the Gulbransen and Dickinson name. In the

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the pump organ, harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has si ...

era, Gulbransen pioneered several innovations in the production of home electronic organs that became industry standards: * Use of transistor circuitry * Built-in

Leslie speaker The Leslie speaker is a combined amplifier and loudspeaker that projects the signal from an electric or electronic instrument and modifies the sound by rotating a baffle chamber ("drum") in front of the loudspeakers. A similar effect is provided ...

system * Chime stop and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

stop * " Automatic Rhythm" (built-in drum machine) * "Automatic Walking Bass" (bass accompaniment) In 1957, Gulbransen released the first

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

ized

electric organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since develop ...

"Gulbransen ''Model B''" (Model 1100), Includes 1957 brochures of "Gulbransen Model B organ". although its use of transistors was limited to the tone generators, and vacuum tubes were still used for the power amplifier. (The first fully transistorized organ for churches was later built by Rodgers Instruments.) Also in the 1960s, Gulbransen released one of the earliest transistorized rhythm machines "Seeburg/Gulbransen ''Select-A-Rhythm''", Rhythm patterns were electronically generated by a 48-step binary counter using 6-stage flip-flops. collaborating with Seeburg Corporation. Note that Seeburg invented a fully transistorized rhythm machine in 1964, which was patented in 1967.
— related patents filed at the same time were: , , and sound circuits of and . The owner of Gulbransen changed several times since the 1950s. Around 1950, it was sold to CBS, then in 1964, merged with Seeburg Corporation, and production was once ceased in 1969. In 1985, Mission Bay Investments acquired the brand and produced Elka organs under the Gulbransen name. In 2002 or 2003, QRS Music Technologies acquired the brand and pianos were made by Samick.

References

External links

www.qrsmusic.com
nbsp;— Gulbransen history at QRS Music Technologies, Inc. Piano manufacturing companies of the United States Electronic organ manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States {{Musical-instrument-company-stub

See also

References

External links