After a busy summer working on instruments across the country, we are happy to be back in our shop working on the organ for St. Joseph Roman Catholic church. We made incremental progress between summer projects to have progress to report.
Pipework
We have acquired several vintage ranks of pipes to include in the newly configured organ at St. Joseph. These vintage sets came from a redundant pipe organ formerly in a church in St. Louis and we are so grateful that these particularly beautiful stops will be played again for worship services. As with all the pipework which goes into our instruments, these sets will be carefully put across our voicing machine to ensure consistent voicing and tone throughout the compass of the stop. Each of these pipes is carefully inspected for damage and issues with speech to be corrected before the pipe is installed.
Each of the vintage sets being retained by Fr. Secrist will also be put across the voicing machine and voiced for the room at St. Joseph. Because of the changes in surfaces and the new case enclosure, extra time is spent to get the pipes voiced as well as possible in the voicing studio before final tonal finishing in the church after installation.
Voicing work on the organ begins next week now that samples have been set for volume and tone in our shop. Once the pipes are installed in the organ, two technicians will perform a final tonal regulation of the instrument, adjusting volume on each individual pipe to blend best in the room. All voicing procedures are specialist work performed by organ builder with impeccable ears and years of experience working with organ pipes to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Windchests
One of the conditions of performing this work was to reuse as much vintage mechanics as possible. All these mechanics have been re-wired, checked for problems, lubricated, and tested. Each electro-mechanical valve is checked to ensure a proper seal around the toe hole/valve seat and any broken or damaged valves replaced. Both vintage main windchests were provided with new gaskets, re-squared and glued where joints had opened up during storage, and the exterior was revitalized. A pedal offset chest is next on the order for cleaning and restoration, and a basses chest for the largest 8' pipes from the manual ranks is being proposed to bring the compass of each stop to its lowest pitch.
Interior Structure
With the instrument taking on a new shape, all new interior structure pieces were required to be made in our shop. Designed by our technician Brian Seever, the new floor frame and support structure was fabricated from fine poplar and prepared for assembly. These structural pieces will support the windchests and wind system components. Each of these pieces is stamped in the woodshop for ease of assembly, then the entire structure is erected in our workshop to ensure proper fit, level, and plumb. This week we began erecting the structure of the organ in our shop and look to have the windchests in the air next week to ensure the installation goes according to our designs.
Once the organ has been set up and tested, the entire organ is disassembled and re-packed for installation.
Console & Control System
The organ console is the main control surface the organist uses to play and control the tones of the organ. We have begun re-wired the original manual and pedal keyboards for the new control surface. Other registration aids like thumb pistons and stop tabs with stop action magnets will be ordered, installed, and wired to ensure the smooth operation of the instrument and increase the functionality of the combination action (helping the organist establish presets and recall them while playing.)
New console control components will make the organ even more accessible to musicians coming to the organ from other keyboard instruments. The the console controller will allow for accessing useful features for liturgical organists including a transposer to adjust the key of music to allow for comfortable sinigng and instrumental accompaniment and automatic pedal function to play the pedal registration on the lowest note being played by the organist. The robust new solid-state components will increase the flexibility and functionality of the instrument while also ensuring servicability into the future.
Organ Relay & Switching
Getting information from the console controller to the organ relay which activates each organ valve is accomplished with a simple data cable. A new relay system has been ordered to translate the console data into electrical current to engage each valve. This system will be completely fused and add additional electrical and fire protection to the organ.
Next Steps
In the coming weeks, the organ's structure will continue to take shape in our workshop. Pipework will be voiced and packed into trays for delivery along with the mechanical systems. The organ's console will be wired into the control system and each windchest cable will be soldered onto connectors for use with the new relay. New components needed for the instrument including stop action magnets, pistons, and other items will be sourced and installed. Once all the components are in place, shipping to Salisbury will begin in preparation for installation.
We look forward to keeping you informed and showing you how this project comes together!
