Adjustable Organ Stools

[vox aetheria]

I need one and have found several suppliers but cost varies hugely. Recommendations please from other users on design, build quality and value. Thanks.

Vox aetheria

[Robert Bowles]

I need one and have found several suppliers but cost varies hugely. Recommendations please from other users on design, build quality and value. Thanks.

Vox aetheria

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I will not recommend anything, and I don't know where in the world you are (your pseudonymn suggests that you float in the clouds above us all). I am in UK.

About 5 years ago I procured an adjustable bench for my church from a UK builder, who produces them in batches.

It has worked very well for us. It is adjusted by rotating a wheel on the end of the bench, though it is not possible to adjust it single handed if one is also sitting on the bench.

My colleague and I (we have rather different leg-lengths) have made simple pencil markings on the end to show where it needs to be for each of us.

The cost, in 2001, was about GBP 750.00. (including VAT)

[Frank Fowler]

I once did a lot of research on the `ideal’ stool height above middle `D’ and found that the distance between the ankle and the knee joint was remarkably similar in most people. The height differential factor being caused by the length of the bone between the knee and hip.

 

Because an organist is tall he or she immediately feels the need to lower an adjustable stool but this is not always necessarily so.

 

At St Stephen Walbrook, with a weekly recital and an adjustable stool, which was set at 21”, a visiting organist, strange to the console, would sit down and start playing only to find it perfectly comfortable and completely forget of having any thoughts of re-adjusting it. There was the very occasional organist who felt that it was necessary to alter the height, but these were so few and far between that I felt we had almost established an ideal height.

 

The height between the top of the organ stool and keyboards can vary immensely which can indeed cause problems and on occasions make one feel very uncomfortable inducing a change in stool height which might well be unnecessary. The organ in Washington Cathedral (U.S.A.) has the pedalboard and adjustable stool on a lift that effectively deals with this situation.

 

Comments and experiences would be welcome.

 

Frank Fowler

[pcnd5584]

...At St Stephen Walbrook, with a weekly recital and an adjustable stool, which was set at 21”, a visiting organist, strange to the console, would sit down and start playing only to find it perfectly comfortable and completely forget of having any thoughts of re-adjusting it. There was the very occasional organist who felt that it was necessary to alter the height, but these were so few and far between that I felt we had almost established an ideal height.

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Goodness - this is odd. I have given a couple of recitals on this instrument (and I am due to give another this year) and each time, I have done just that - got on to the organ bench and started practising.... and totally forgotten about adjustable stools. It is also an exceedingly comfortable console.

 

The height between the top of the organ stool and keyboards can vary immensely which can indeed cause problems and on occasions make one feel very uncomfortable inducing a change in stool height which might well be unnecessary. The organ in Washington Cathedral (U.S.A.) has the pedalboard and adjustable stool on a lift that effectively deals with this situation.

 

Comments and experiences would be welcome.

 

Frank Fowler

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I amy be wrong (I quite often am!), but I think that at Washington Cathedral it is the pedal-board and piston-sweeps which are on a lift. I do not think that the stool is affected by it.

 

However, a church at which I was formerly organist purchased an adjustable stool from the organ builder a few years ago. This, too, cost in the region of £750.00. I cannot recall whether or not this included VAT.