MobileRatty: The Beast in the Basement: 1960's sound-effect pipe organ

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The Beast in the Basement: 1960's sound-effect pipe organ

2008-04-16 15:14:56 by John Brownlee in Boing Boing Gadgets

The guys over at MAKE spotted this fantastic clip of a from the 1960s named Leon Berry who designed and built his own personal special-effects pipe organ, which he christened the "Beast in the Basement." Some of the sounds are done pneumatically, while others are made in a remarkably straight-forward fashion: playing the "Chinese Gong" key, for example, results in the actual hitting of a Chinese Gong. Ingenious, Leon!

It's all pretty awesome, but judging from this gentleman's unnerving mannerisms — the paralyzed arching of one eyebrow, the off-kilter grin, the slow and insinuating way in which he speaks and the slight glistening of pure crazy in his eyes — I'm guessing that Leon's family was just glad he had a basement hobby that didn't involve dipping teenage hitchhikers in lye.

Leon Berry - Beast in the Basement (improved version) [YouTube]