Spinet Organs were designed for casual home users with a limited budget. To cut costs, spinets have a reduced manual range. The upper and lower manual have 3 1/2 octaves which are offset by one octave to allow the melody lines to be played primarily on the Swell and accompaniment on the Great. The pedal keyboard has only 12 or 13 short, straight pedals. Spinet organs have a single set of nine drawbars for the Swell or Upper manual, seven or eight drawbars for the Great or Lower manual and a single drawbar for the pedal volume.
Typical early models are the M (1948-1951) M-2 (1951-1955) and M-3 (1955-1964). The M series had a single console style, Early American, and a built-in 12" speaker and 11W amplifier. The M-2 added selective vibrato and the M-3 added touch response percussion. Of interest to those with B3 dreams and beer budgets, the M-3 was heavily produced and sells for thousands less than a [B-3], [C-3] or [A-100]. The tone generator is nearly the same as a B3 except tonewheels 13 through 17 are blank because the lower manual stops at F instead of continuing down to C. The scanner vibrato is the same but wired differently and they have WaterfallKeys and the same run and start motors. The M series pedal keyboard was monophonic, only one pedal note could play at a time. The pedal tonewheels were ComplexToneWheels shaped to provide a fixed harmonic sound. The M series organs also featured a "legato" feature that slowly decayed the last pedal played even after the player removed his foot from it.
