Gulbransen Company was a musical instrument manufacturer of

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern i ...

s and

home 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 sinc ...

s in the United States. It also made

reed organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

s. 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 The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

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 harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

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 The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

stop * '' Automatic rhythm'' (built-in drum machine) * ''Automatic

walking bass Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...

'' (bass accompaniment) In 1957, Gulbransen released the first

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

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 developed ...

"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 Rodgers Instruments Corporation is an American manufacturer of classical and church organs. Rodgers was incorporated May 1, 1958 in Beaverton, Oregon by founders, Rodgers W. Jenkins and Fred Tinker, employees of Tektronix, Inc., of Portland, Or ...

.) 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 Flip-flops are a type of light sandal, typically worn as a form of casual footwear. They consist of a flat sole held loosely on the foot by a Y-shaped strap known as a toe thong that passes between the first and second toes and around both side ...

. collaborating with

Seeburg Corporation Seeburg was an American design and manufacturing company of automated musical equipment, such as orchestrions, jukeboxes, and vending equipment. Prior to manufacturing their signature jukebox suite of products, Seeburg was considered to be one o ...

. 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 . On the other hand, the owner of Gulbransen has changed several times since the 1950s. Around 1950, it was sold to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

, 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 ELKA, Elka, or Elkas may refer to: * Aspioti-ELKA, Greek publishing and printing firm, active 1873–1997 * An Italian synthesizer manufacturer, now defunct; brand now owned by Generalmusic, used for their amplifier products ** Elka Synthex, a synt ...

organs under the Gulbransen name. In 2002 or 2003, QRS Music Technologies acquired the brand and pianos were made by

Samick Samick Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. (Hangul: 삼익악기, also known as Samick) is a South Korean musical instrument manufacturer. Founded in 1958 as Samick Pianos, it is now one of the world's largest musical instrument manufacturers and an ow ...

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