1958 ; 58 years ago 1958 05 01 founder rodgers w. jenkins fred tinker headquarters 45 32 02 n 122 57 24 w 45.5339 n 122.9568 w 45.5339 ; 122.9568 coordinates 45 32 02 n 122 57 24 w 45.5339 n 122.9568 w 45.5339 ; 122.9568 hillsboro oregon united states key people john moesbergen president products classical church organs digital and pipes also combined owner 1988 2015 roland 2016 present vandeweerd parent vandeweerd website rodgers instruments corporation 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 oregon and members of a tektronix team developing transistor based oscillator circuits . 1 rodgers was the second manufacturer of solid state oscillator based organs completing their first instrument in 1958 the first was the gulbransen b home organ introduced in july 1957 . both the rodgers and the gulbransen had vacuum tube amplifiers . in 1962 upon introducing solid state amplifiers rodgers became the world s first all transistor organ . 1 other rodgers innovations in the electronic organ industry include solid state organ amplifiers 1962 1 single contact diode keying 1961 2 reed switch pedal keying for pedalboards 1961 2 programmable computer memory pistons 1966 1 and the first midi supported church organs 1986 . 1 rodgers manufacturing facility and world headquarters is located in hillsboro oregon . all rodgers organs are built in the oregon factory . 1 roland classic organs as of 2014 are built in the oregon factory . on january 4 2016 roland corporation agreed to the dutch vandeweerd family s acquisition of the american company rodgers instruments effective january 15 2016 . 3 4 as the owner of johannus makin and copeman hart the vandeweerd family has achieved worldwide success for decades with these three prominent organ brands . 5 6 contents 1 technology 2 pipe organs 3 corporate affiliations 4 touring organs 5 television 6 availability 7 see also 8 references 9 external links technology edit rodgers success was largely due to their early innovations with solid state analog tone generation technology . despite the fact that competitors such as allen switched to digitally synthesized tone generation as early as 1971 rodgers sold exclusively analog tone generation instruments until 1990 . rodgers introduced its first digital organ on november 20 1990 7 using a tone generation system rodgers has dubbed parallel digital imaging pdi . rodgers pdi organs use roland dsps and digitally sampled organ pipes for tone generation . a feature introduced in 1993 which rodgers has termed digital domain expression offers swell box effects such as expression delays high frequency damping and phase shifts of sound across a stereo field as expression shoes are opened or closed similar to the effects produced by the swell shades on a pipe organ s swell box . in 2014 rodgers new infinity ii models introduced bluetooth wireless controls including support for reading music from an ipad . pipe organs edit rodgers organ console for the fratelli ruffatti pipe organ at byu idaho although known primarily for its electronic organs rodgers has built many pipe organs and pipe electronic combination organs . many rodgers organs support the playing of actual pipe ranks in addition to their normal electronic ranks . the first electronic organ to successfully integrate pipes and electronic tone generation was a rodgers gemini with fratelli ruffatti organ pipes installed in the atlanta area home of dr. walter and emily spivey . 1 it included a tuning control so the pipes and electronics could stay in tune with each other . the largest full pipe organ produced by the company was the second baptist church houston texas organ with five manuals and 193 pipe ranks . it was dedicated on august 23 1987 and featured concerts on august 23 and 24th by organist frederick swann . in addition it was the featured organ of the 1988 houston national convention of the american guild of organists where it was played by organist diane bish . in august 1991 another large all pipe rodgers organ installed at glenkirk presbyterian church glendora california was the cover feature of the american organist official journal of the american guild of organists . corporate affiliations edit four manual rodgers organ installed in a church originally controlled by officers of tektronix and the founding engineers in september 1977 rodgers became part of cbs musical instruments along with steinway & sons pianos fender guitars rhodes electric pianos gemeinhardt flutes and a number of other instrument brand names . in 1985 cbs divested itself of rodgers along with steinway and gemeinhardt all of which were purchased by steinway musical properties . since may 1 1988 roland corporation has been parent company of rodgers and rodgers is a subsidiary of it until 2015 . in addition to its own rodgers organs rodgers produces atelier home organs and roland classic c 330 and c 380 organs designed for home studios . and now vandeweerd owner of johannus has been parent company of rodgers since january 4 2016 . touring organs edit organist virgil fox helped bring rodgers organs into the limelight in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he used a rodgers touring organ built in 1966 and known as black beauty for his heavy organ concerts including a 1970 all bach performance that included a light show at the fillmore east auditorium in new york city . on october 1 1974 rodgers five manual carnegie hall organ designed by virgil fox debuted in a sold out fox concert . the organ and fox were praised by time united press international ron eyer in the new york daily news new york post and by noted critic harold schonberg in the new york times . carnegie hall s international organ series for the inaugural 1974 1975 season included fox pierre cochereau claire coci fernando germani herman berlinski george thalben ball and richard morris . this was the world s first five manual and most powerful electronic organ at the time and was listed as such for a number of years in the guinness book of world records . it consisted of eight electrovoice 30 sub woofers in a large enclosures that rodgers called the p 1 a small array of leslie c 70 speakers many m 13 speakers 12 6x9 speakers and a jbl 075 tweeter and other assorted speakers all driven by 120 100 watt rodgers s 100 amplifiers . 8 a sister five manual instrument to the carnegie hall organ named by fox the royal v served as fox s touring organ for the 1975 76 concert season but proved unwieldy to tour with . the royal v was used at fox s funeral in the crystal cathedral after he died on october 25 1980 . a second black rodgers touring organ was active in the 1970s . the american beauty was based on rodgers s then premium three manual model the american classic . concert organists who played on this instrument or black beauty which continued touring under roberta bailey artists international well into the 80s included ted alan worth joyce jones pierre cochereau herman berlinski richard morris keith chapman douglas marshall john grady frederick geoghan and diane bish . the royal v was in 1983 refinished from black to white and permanently installed in the meishusama hall of the shinji shumeikai in minsono japan . in mid 2004 this same organ was updated to newer rodgers technology . dan miller and mcneill robinson consultants on the project revised and updated the organ s tonal specification during the update to trillium level parallel digital imaging technology . the current rodgers touring organ is hector olivera s the king a black four manual organ featuring a custom french specification that olivera plays in various concert venues nationally . television edit in 2006 a rodgers allegiant 657 was installed in the family chapel of the white family on abc television s extreme makeover home edition . previously john ratzenberger s made in america travel channel show featured at segment on rodgers filmed at rodgers hillsboro oregon plant . that episode still appears from time to time on the travel channel . rodgers factory is also featured in karen axelrod and bruce brumberg s popular watch it made in the u.s.a. books profiling interesting factory tours of american manufacturing facilities . a four manual rodgers organ formerly the residence organ of dr. frederick swann is heard and seen weekly on the hour of power broadcast . availability edit the availability of rodgers instruments is ensured by the distribution and the sales of an international dealer network . these include rodgers organs in canada 9 rodgers organs in the uk 10 and rodgers organs in germany . 11 see also edit frederick swann pierre cochereau roland corporation rodgers builds roland atelier organs and digital pianos virgil fox played rodgers black beauty and royal v organs in his heavy organ tours . references edit a b c d e f g a brief timeline of rodgers history . rodgers organ studio of minneapolis . 2008 . a b pugno frank 2007 . rodgers organs . the theatre organ home page . roland corporation news roland corporation and the vandeweerd family enter into an acquisition of rodgers . keyboard . january 2016 . vandeweerd family is owner of johannus makin and copeman hart . makin johannus copeman hart and now rodgers . johannus organ uk . march 2016 . rodgers unveils its first digital organs ; new pdi technology offers excellent tonal quality at a competitive price . the music trades . january 1991 . bill ziegler service technician rodgers organs in canada rodgers organs in the uk rodgers organs in germany rodgers instrument corporation official web site kakehashi ikutaro 2002 i believe in music hal leonard corporation pugno frank rodgers organs the theatre organ home page accessed march 15 2008 . steineger melissa electrifying electronic pipe organs from hillsboro lend resonant notes the oregonian october 16 1986 torrence richard and marshall yeager 2001 virgil fox the dish circles international new york whitney craig r. an organ legend in vivid memory the new york times october 22 2000 . 1983 marks 25th anniversary for rodgers theatre organ magazine march april 1983 . a brief history of rodgers organs 2008 carnegie goes electronic time october 14 1974 cbs steinway sale the new york times september 14 1985 . accessed april 10 2008 heavy organ time january 7 1974 history of roland part 3 1986 1991 sound on sound magazine january 2005 our history rodgers marine electronics official web site accessed march 7 2008 . resurgent growth at rodgers organ the music trades september 1997 rodgers timeline rodgers instruments lcc official website 2008 . accessed january 15 2008 rodgers unveils its first digital organs new pdi technology offers excellent tonal quality at a competitive price the music trades january 1991 . the purchaser s guide rodgers instruments llc 2008 music trades the rodgers legacy t.s. good church organ company website accessed april 7 2008 vistas of history rodgers instruments llc 2000 partnerships in action magazine external links edit roland us website rodgers marine electronics also founded by rodgers jenkins all the right notes hillsboro tribune retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title rodgers instruments & oldid 742918589 categories pipe organ building companieselectronic organ manufacturing companiescompanies based in hillsboro oregonformer cbs corporation subsidiariesamerican companies established in 19581958 establishments in oregonhidden categories coordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 6 october 2016 at 16 59 .