jazzboy

I doubt the Beeb or the orchestra will want to take it with them. I know however there's an organisation interested in it, for restoration and preservation.

The point is no one expected or asked the council to restore it, so the restoration figure they quote is pointless!! In any case it was pretty well fully working when the power was switched off in 2015

Let's get a few things straight on this: 1. The theatre pipework additions were only a few ranks as far as i know. The very large and original classical concert organ was all there. 2. The utter nonsense the council quotes that it would have cost £250 per pipe to test all of them for asbestos contamination, is complete XXXXXX - of course they would NOT have needed to test each pipe!! If asbestos dust was suspected they could simply have had the lot cleaned as a precautionary measure!! (Duh!!). It's been done before (relative recently in Holland I understand) and probably over here (cleaning an organ from asbestos dust I mean). I'd have thought an organ professional working with an asbestos company could clean the whole organ (or at least all the pipework) for a damn site less than £1.5m!!! 3. A quote of £2m to fully restore the organ - yes I expect if they'd have gone to H&H that's the sort of quote the'd have got - BUT the point is that no one asked the council to restore it! All they needed to do was hand it over to the people who have looked after it for years who would have gladly taken it away and found a new home for it. My loathing of this council over this willful vandalism is in the extreme. They should be sacked and prosecuted.

No it isn't. It's a 3-rank Miniatura of 1934. It has not been on Ebay. Currently unrestored but in complete condition. Could be supplied restored (main restoration requirements being it needing releathering I believe). More details and photos available.

Contact me privately for info. Thanks

Just a note to all as a reminder that the wonderfully talented Richard Hills is appearing in his own solo prom concert tomorrow at 4.30pm at the Royal Albert Hall on the wonderful Willis/Harrison/Mander organ. This will be a superb event from one of the world's finest and most versatile performers, on one of the world's finest instruments. Richard will be exploring the lighter side of music arranged for the organ, and really giving a flavour of the versatility that can be achieved on the King of Instruments. Equally at home on theatre organ, church or concert instrument, Richard is one of the country's shining lights in the organ world and an amazingly gifted musician. His pivotal and Internationally acclaimed CD, Grand Variety, recorded on the huge and outstanding Compton at Southampton Guildhall, is still available to purchase via Silver Street Music website - www.silverst.co.uk I hope the turnout on Monday at RAH is very good - it certainly should be! Peter

Just a last minute plug for tomorrow's concert at Southampton Guildhall, featuring visiting American virtuoso Jelani Eddington playing the dual purpose, unique and awesome Compton. This is a 'not to be missed' event. One of the most fantastic, orchestrally rich organs in the world, with huge resources of tone colours and dynamics, being played by one of the world's most wonderfully gifted, inventive and acclaimed performers. The organ is Compton's masterpiece - an ingenious and stunningly executed amalgamation of a large concert organ and a huge theatre organ, with full choruses, many mixtures, numerous fine reeds, luscious strings, tonal & non-tonal percussion and not one but two distinctive 4-manual consoles. It is 99% original, including original relays and all pipework and was built into the Guildhall, with its cavernous auditorium space and superb acoustics, for the opening in 1937. The sheer quality of pipework and vast dynamic range has to be experienced - one can stand some 100ft from the chambers and with just the 8ft Salicional and shutters closed it is hard to hear anything, but then full organ (including the tuba and harmonic trumpet on 25in wind) will pin you against the back wall! Jelani Eddington starts a UK tour with this event, and what a way to start! If ever the saying "one man orchestra" was applicable to a particular person, that is Jelani. He has never played the Guildhall Compton before so this will be a momentous day. Please change your plans for tomorrow and get down to the Guildhall - 2.30pm start. Details: www.guildhall-compton.org.uk Jelani website: www.rjeproductions.com

Does anyone have a smallish electric action drawstop console for sale? Peter

Sorry, tab units please, with or without tabs.

Does anyone have any used SAMs (stop action magnets, or stop units or stop mechs) that are in reasonable condition? I need about 75 for a project and ideally they would be the sort that screw onto the rear of the stop rails, like Syndynes etc. Would consider other makes, such as Kimber Allen, Compton etc

On the subject of Compton strings, I saw Duncan Booth the other day, whilst at Booths collecting the renovated Battersea Tuba, and I asked him again about Compton outsourcing strings to Duncan's Father in the 30s. He confirmed that all Compton string ranks made with black roller beards (as opposed to wood finish) were made by Mr Booth Snr.

Compton did indeed make some Haskelled basses - Southampton Guildhall has a Haskelled 16ft Contra Viola extension to the Swell 8ft Viola da Gamba. If I remember correctly, so does Wormwood Scrubs organ (ex-Forum Ealing) Peter

As I have said before on here, Duncan Booth (Booths of Leeds pipemakers) told me personally a few years back that his Father used to make some string ranks for Compton. I think there could be no doubt that some pipework, and maybe some other items, were outsourced in the height of Compton's production. i too have that video and am well aware that they were able to make everything in house, but the sheer quantity in the early 30s, coupled with info from people like Duncan, surely means they didn't make everything for every one of their organs. Peter

My understanding is that there were cubes, AND there were polyphonic pipes (in more of a normal pipe shape). Southampton has a 32ft Bourdon polyphonic PIPE - it is a single large wooden pipe of some 8ft tall (from memory) that has compartments up its front that are opened successively by pneumatics, in order to incrementally increase its internal volume. It is NOT a cube. It plays the 32ft octave from B down to E, then repeats E for the remaining 4 notes.

The Battersea Hope-Jones organ has the following buttons situated at the back of the keys to which they apply: Swell to Gt - brings on all 3 pitches of Sw to Gt tabs Tubas to Gt - not sure yet if this brings just one pitch of Tuba on or more pitches, will find out Swell to Orchestral - not currently working but presumably does whatever the Sw to Gt does, but for the Orch. Suitable bass - if latched, recalls a 'suitable' pedal registration with the combination pistons for that manual (applies to Orchestral, Great & Swell manuals) I can also confirm that the Southampton Guildhall Compton has Gt, Sw & Solo to Choir couplers, as well as the usual others. P