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OrganNet Report

March 18, 2003
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One of the leading events to make news on the OrganNet--technical name, PIPORG-L--was the 1995 convention of the American Institute of Organbuilders in San Jose, California. Dave Schutt, a founding member of Piporg-L, lives in San Jose and, with several members of the list, gave play-by-play descriptions of events as they occurred. High points included presentations on San Francisco Bay area organbuilding, including a visit to the Schoenstein Organ Shop, hosted by Jack Bethards. Robert Bates' presentation of the three fabulous organs (Fritts, Murray Harris and Fisk) at Stanford University was unforgettable. E.M. Skinner organs played a prominent role in the presentations with Nelson Barden's humorous  presentation of a serious subject--"Secrets of Successful Restoration." A riveting lecture, followed with a video presentation of the "demystification" of pitman chests by Joseph Dzeda and Nicholas Thompson-Allen, curators of the organ at Yale.

This was high powered stuff.

As various secrets and suggestions were let out of Pandora's box, they soon hit the net, often the same day they were presented. Once on the wire, they mushroomed into "threads" or lines of discussion. One of the most interesting topics was that of tuning, always good for many points of view.

For example:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:49:47 -0500

From: Eugene Blackstone

@uabcvsr.cvsr.uab.edu>

Subject: AIO Convention (Day Three)

Dave Schutt reports:

Bill Visscher talked about the tuning of mixtures. He had some little felt cones that had been fabricated to keep some pipes in the mixture from playing. They seemed to be very effective, and you don't end up with cotton all over the place. Bill had a 7-rank note that he tuned and a big scale Cornet that he tuned (one note).

Dave: while we have been using felt cones for tuning mixtures at home, when it has come to tuning the V Cornet, felt cones stuck in the top of the pipes have  been ineffective in preventing the pipes from speaking (off pitch, of course). So we have used cotton wads on sticks. I gather there must be something special about  Bill V.'s felt cones that silenced the large scale Cornet? If so, I'd like to try it. (And I presume that others of you use felt cones, too, and could tell me in what way they are constructed to silence a wide scale Cornet).

A quick reply came in:

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:58:19 -0700

From: Peter Schmuckal
@schmuckal.com>

Subject: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three)

I was also at that talk. Bill was using bushing cloth, not felt to construct his cones.  They were a lot heavier than felt.

And another.

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:04:21 -0700

From: Jim Tyler @crl.com>

Subject: Tuning Mixtures (Was: Re: AIO Convention (Day Three))

Another approach is a handful of tuning "mops." These amount to a bundle of short pieces of string or yarn taped to the end of a long thin rod. They can be gently lowered into the pipe, where the mop effectively interferes with the pipe's speech. The ones I've used have been thin metal rods, but I should think thin acrylic (perspex) rods would be lighter and perhaps less likely to damage the languid if accidently dropped into the pipe, rather than gently inserted. You have to have quite a collection of these mops, in a variety of sizes, but they last quite a while if  carefully made. They don't "shed" the way cotton does. Cones are, however, better for the *really* tiny pipes near the top of the compass.

Hope this helps!

Another reader was concerned for the health of languids:

I am personally fearful of placing anything that has any weight on the languids.  I use bushing cloth cones. They can be placed on the top of the pipe or inverted. The largest one that I use will fit over a 2¢ pipe (the lowest pitch mixture I presently tune is a 2-2/3¢). The smallest ones are about 3/8≤ dia by 1≤. There is something strange about the conical shape that stops the pipe from speaking. They are also very light weight and only rarely move the tuning slide. During tuning seasons I carry them nested in my shirt pocket (try that with your paint brushes and rods!).

Lanny Hochhalter

@teleport.com>

And another:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:06:26 -0400

From: Cullie Mowers @aol.com>

Subject: Mixture-tuning caps

The "felt" (actually heavy bushing cloth) caps for Tuning mixtures are *great,* and I've used them for years. I've also presented sets of them to organ maintenance colleagues after seeing bits of cotton, slivers of paper, etc. scattered on the walk- and rack-boards of organs they service!  The last set I bought (1989, under the name "K-D Kaps") cost $15.00; they were made by Kathy Foley. The address at that time was: K-D Kaps, PO Box 9223, Bolton, CT  06043. These are cones very professionally sewn out of heavy red bushing cloth. Each set contains several sizes; I forget just how many, and how many caps of each size, but they do the job on virtually every mixture I've encountered. Only exceptions have been the lowest-pitch rank of one Pedal mixture, and one bizarre mixture we ran onto which had slotted pipes in the lower pitch ranges. I hope that Ms. Foley or her heirs and assigns are still in business; *everyone* oughta have these gadgets in the tool box.

I could not resist sticking in my two cents:

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 23:26:03 EDT

From: Herbert Huestis <[email protected]>

Subject: Tuning Mixtures

For what its worth, I have found that the most effective "mop" for tuning high mixture pipes is a very small artist's paint brush--or two for bigger pipes and mops for the biggest. They completely silence the pipe as well as clean the dust from the languid. Artist's brushes are invaluable when tuning coned pipes, since the removal of the dust is often all that is necessary to "tune" the pipe.

This "cleaning" of the languid tends to return the pipe to its original tuning. And if the brush is carefully inserted, the tuning mechanism will not be altered.

These tuning procedures are the mark of the most careful and sensitive technicians--for example, Robert and Richard Lahaise, who take care of the famous Hook organs in the Boston area. Of their work, Thomas Murray wrote:

The First Church of Jamaica Plain (where the Hook brothers are said to have been members) is a superb Hook instrument of 3 manuals and 31 speaking stops, built in 1854 and surviving in virtually unaltered condition. The smaller pipes, most of which are still cone tuned, are well preserved thanks to careful tuning procedures employed over the years.  The writer recalls watching with great interest as the Mixture and Sesquialtra stops were "tuned" prior to our recording sessions by the removal of dirt from the pipes with a tiny camel's hair brush, a practice which significantly reduces the risk of damage to the pipes by the use of tuning cones. (Liner notes from Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, Sheffield label.)

Could there be any better recommendation for this technique?

Well, there you have it. That's how a "thread" works on the OrganNet. To follow threads, you log on and read all the messages on a particular subject. Often it will start with some inoccuous comment and balloon into a full-fledged discussion that may take you well into uncharted territory.

Let's hope you don't have to navigate through any storms, or get "burned" by a "flame."  And who knows what you will find?  There is so much to learn!

Many thanks to these volunteers who have typed specifications or made other contributions to the Osiris Archive! Thanks to these efforts, there are more than 1100 organ specifications and other data housed at this World Wide Web site.

Martin Chalton                  England

Walter Davis     United States

Albert Falop      United States

Glen Frank         United States

Richard Greene                United States

Kernin Ilkka      Finland

Carl Kishline     United States

Kenneth Matthews        United States

Ian McClelland                 Ireland

David Lowry    United States

Peter Rodwell  Spain

Richard Sedcole               New Zealand

Jonathan Tan    Singapore

Timothy Tikker                United States

Herb Huestis, Editor

The Osiris Archive, housed at the Vienna University of Economics, Austria

http://osiris.wu-wien.ac.at/pub/earlym-l/organs

Sidebar

Subject: Some Tuning Humah....

Date: 14-Oct-95 at 05:58  

From: Edward Peterson

INTERNET: [email protected]

TO: 70771,1047

----------------------------

REEDTUNE.EXE

----------------------------

Ed's Practice-Makes-Perfect Tuning Program   (c)1995

This program is not guaranteed in any way and works only for reed organs. For tuning pipe organs get Ed's Practical ComputerChromoTune Your Pipe Organ v2.7b.

Please check your Autoexec.Dingbat file before running this program;

It must contain the line "SET Tongue-in-cheek"!

Start:

Tune_Organ:

                  if "out-of-tune badly" run subroutine1;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Tune_Reed;

                  if In_Tune leavewellenoughalone;

                  if "flat" GoSub2Flat;

                                    Sub2Flat:

                                                      withdraw - scrape, scrape;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      play - assess;

                                                      if "nowsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "stillflat" GoSub2Flat;

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      else goto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                  if "sharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                    Sub2Sharp:

                                                      withdraw - file, file;

                                                      cool - insert;

                                                      listen;

                                                      if "stillsharp" GoSub2Sharp;

                                                      if "nowflat" GoSub2Flat; 

                                                      expect "InTune"

                                                      when InTune goto Next_Reed;

                                                      if "error" returnto Tune_Reed;

                                                      next;

                 

                  expect "InTune"

                  ifandwhen In_Tune goto Next_Reed;

Next_Reed:

                  goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

                  if Not_In_Tune loopback else;

                  when "temperamentbad" gosub4 Find_Wolf;

                  if "temperamentgood" find Distrust_Ears_Anyway;

                   expect "In_Tune"

                  quitif In_Tune;

                  else goto Tune_Reed;

                  next;

Find_Wolf:

                  gosub1 Set_Temperament;

                  endif "In_Tune";

                  next;

[Subroutine1]:

                  Set_Temperament:

                                    if "bad" goto Start_Over;

                                    else goto Call_Tuner;

                                    ifgood Thank_God;

                                    if "UknowwhatURdoing" proceed;

                                    then goto Tune_Organ;

                                    endif "notknowwhatURdoing";                                                   endsubroutine1;

                                    next;

                                    quit;

Call_Tuner:

                  goto Call_Number;                          wait;

                  wait months;

                  wait manymonths;

                  iftuned pay handsomely;

                  else goto Start_Over;

                  quit;

                  next;

 

Pull_Hair_Out:

                  then goto Start_Over; 

                  ifnot hairy gosub1;

                  quit;

 

Start_Over:

                  call Subroutine1;

                  ifgood loopback Tune_Organ;

                  else goto Pull_Hair_Out;

                  if "understandthis" goto ITT Tech;

                  if "notunderstandthis" goto music school;

                  failquit;

                  quit;

                  endif "last resort":

                  call Call_Tuner;

                  end

                  end

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