ATG

I can't remember whether it was here or in "the other place", but in one thread there was a general agreement that it is easy to make 4' flutes sound beautiful. I wonder, firstly, whether this is true, and secondly, why? Speaking as an educated layman, could it be that the specific physical qualities of air/wood/metal are such that, at these pitches, there is the perfect combination of materials to allow this? Or is it that they are flutes and therefore sound beautiful by default? I can certainly say that the 4' flutes on both of my digital organs are the most realistic stops. I would be interested to hear from the professionals or from anyone with some insight. Regards, ATG

Thank you for the various advice and comments, and apologies for not replying sooner. The blower is fully enclosed in the base, and has a small reservoir with concussion panel above it. The dimensions are (rounded up): 2220mm high, 1480mm wide (over cornice mouldings), 1350mm deep to rear edge of pedalboard. Regards, Jeremy

Hi, with much sadness I have decided to sell my Saxon Aldred 842 practice organ. Built in 1990, with classical mouldings designed by Frank Bradbeer and pipeshades in carved limewood. Disposition 8/4/2, 8' stopped flute permanently on both manuals, 4' gemshorn available on lower manual, 4' gemshorn and 2' tin principal on upper manual. Pedals permanently coupled to lower manual. Casework mainly solid oak, keyboards by P&S in cocobolo and maple. Laukhuff blower at about 70mm pressure. The casework breaks down into manageable portions but a small van would be required to transport the base section. This got me through many years of grade exams and service preparation but we are now preparing to downsize and will not be able to take it with us. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions as to the best way to market this, and the approximate price to ask. Or any offers! We are in North Hertfordshire. Thanks in advance, Jeremy

I hope other forum members do not mind me raising this matter again, as I am likely to be getting hearing aids within the next month or two and would like some opinions on a couple of matters. The type I will probably get are by Phonak (Paradise model) and apparently have bluetooth capability, both for receiving sounds from a suitable MP3 player or smartphone, and for tweaking the settings via an app. Have any other members used Phonak aids in this way? If so, may I ask your experience with them, and also what their bass response is like? I thank you in advance for any comments. ATG

As I've stated in another thread, Frank Bradbeer used to tell me many stories about the days of GDB, and why Maurice Grant followed the path he did. I avidly consumed all this information, and I still prefer the tingle and fizz of an organ from that era. One of Maurice's justifications for low wind pressures was that, although air is a compressible gas, at low pressures it acts more like a liquid. Therefore the movement of air through the pallet hole, through the (open) toe of the pipe to the flue would be almost instantaneous, or at least much faster than high pressure wind having to work its way through a pin hole in the pipe foot. This, together with super light aluminium action parts, resulted in a more responsive action for which there was quite a vogue at the time. This information may have come from Josef von Glatter Gotz of Rieger from whom Maurice got many of his ideas. I've never seen this mentioned in Nuts and Bolts or in any other fora. Perhaps someone from inside the trade or with a scientific expertise could comment. ATG

I thought it would be good to liven up the forum with a tale of self administered misery. In the early '90s I was good friends with Frank Bradbeer and received much of my early organ tuition from him, in return for a session in the local hostelry. During our long chats he would regale me with many stories of his time with Grant, Degens and Bradbeer and on the theory and practice of neo classical instruments with which that firm were mainly involved. Frank was organist at St Mary's, Essendon, and a couple of weeks before Christmas one of the notes on the Cornopean stop went off speech, only emitting a squawk. No problem, said Frank, we just need to run a £5 note up between the tongue and the shallot to dislodge the dirt. This seemed a fairly simple proposition, so we borrowed the bellringers' ladder and I hopped up to the passageboard between the Great and Swell. Having ascertained which was the miscreant pipe I lifted it carefully out by stretching my arm through the opened swell shutters, and passed it down to Frank who administered the remedial work and gave it a short toot to check all was well. From memory the boot was about 8 inches long and the resonator was a wide cone of about 2 inches in height. I passed the pipe back through the swell shutters on its side but as I was returning it to the vertical to put it back in the rack, the boot fell off the block and landed on the 3 rank mixture below. I was able to retrieve the boot and replace the complete assembly (which was now out of tune), but worse than this, several notes of the mixture were now VERY out of tune with a few pipes visibly bent. Frank was surprisingly polite about it although I'm sure he was seething inside. The organ was then in the care of Saxon Aldred who, due to the pressure of Christmas tunings, was only able to remove the damaged pipes for repair in the New Year. Suffice it to say that Hark the Herald sounded "interesting" on Christmas morning! Perhaps other members could relate stories from their days in service or "on the tools" (no clergy bashing please). ATG ps: If you look at the right hand end of the swell box at St Mary's (Willis 1883 with later alterations, particularly during Frank's tenure) you will see two carved oak pipe shades from the Rushworth and Dreaper organ at New College, Oxford which GDB replaced in 1969. I wonder how they got there....