Organ Bench

[mwl1]

The bench of the main organ I play is far too high. I can barely reach the pedals, and other people have commented on its excessive height. Thus, I feel I need another one.

 

Does anyone by any chance have an organ bench that is surplus to requirements, that they are giving away or selling? Is there anywhere I could get a bench for a reasonable price? I would be very grateful if you could PM me or add here any help you may be able to offer!!

 

Thanks

Matthew

[MusingMuso]

The bench of the main organ I play is far too high. I can barely reach the pedals, and other people have commented on its excessive height. Thus, I feel I need another one.

 

Does anyone by any chance have an organ bench that is surplus to requirements, that they are giving away or selling? Is there anywhere I could get a bench for a reasonable price? I would be very grateful if you could PM me or add here any help you may be able to offer!!

 

Thanks

Matthew

 

 

===========================

 

 

The organ bench on the organ I play is lower than normal, due to the fact that one of the organists back in the 1970's was Irish and probably related to a Lepracorn.

 

The bench now sits in two small but perfectly formed (a bit like the Irish lepracorn) wooden "lifters" which are quite a tight-fit and very secure.

 

The Lepracornian height was achieved by means of.............a saw.

 

Have you not thought of this?

 

 

MM

[Guest Barry Oakley]

The bench of the main organ I play is far too high. I can barely reach the pedals, and other people have commented on its excessive height. Thus, I feel I need another one.

 

Does anyone by any chance have an organ bench that is surplus to requirements, that they are giving away or selling? Is there anywhere I could get a bench for a reasonable price? I would be very grateful if you could PM me or add here any help you may be able to offer!!

 

Thanks

Matthew

 

Peter Goodman had this problem when he arrived to take up the post of Organist & Master of Choristers at Holy Trinity, Hull in the early 1950's. But as MM has said in his latest posting, the problem was solved by careful use of a tenon saw on each of the bench's four feet. After being carefully sawn off, the feet were then re-attached by brass? hinges so that an organist of average stature was not sitting too near the floor. Hope this helps.

[mwl1]

Well, it had occurred to me to shorten the existing bench, but it's a very old thing that belonged to the family that built the church in the 1850s, so I don't really want to start chopping it up!! It might actually be worth something...

[Dulciana]

Try ebay; I think there's one on there this now.

[sbarber49]

Can anyone suggest where I could get blocks for my organ bench? Mine is a little low and the books I'm currently using are not very stable.

[MikeK]

Any decent DIY shop should be able to supply suitable blocks to your measurements. 

[Damian Beasley-Suffolk]

Here's a very nice way of making bench-raising blocks - admittedly not a problem I have ever encountered! The rest of this chap's website describing his design and construction of his own pipe organ is well worth a read.

 

Homemade Pipe Organ (rwgiangiulio.com)

[sbarber49]

1 hour ago, MikeK said:

Any decent DIY shop should be able to supply suitable blocks to your measurements. 

That's what I thought but I haven't yet found a shop that can do it. Any specific shops?

[Sesquialtera]

Search online for balsa wood, which should be available in 38mm x 38mm.

Work out the measurements you need (you may need to cut/saw to size) then glue pieces together with wood glue.

You will also need a tough non-slip material on both top and bottom to stop the bench sliding off!

Hope this is helpful.

 

[Colin Pykett]

When I've needed custom items made in wood which were beyond my capabilities I've found that funeral directors' workshops (where they actually make the coffins) were quite helpful.  The last time I went to that source they made me some long thin wedges in oak to allow me to slope keyboards towards each other.  Amazing how quickly they did it on the machinery while I watched.  However this was some while back now, and perhaps they buy coffins to order from China or wherever these days.  Or on other occasions ships chandlers on the quay at Weymouth (where I lived at the time) were equally helpful, both in making said bits and pieces and in supplying hard-to-get things like oak-faced blockboard panels.  Or organ builders of course.  I've usually found them very patient and helpful whenever I've turned up over the years with a scruffy bit of paper showing what I needed.  Piano technicians also used to be good in the past, but are a vanishing breed nowadays, mirroring the lack of interest in acoustic pianos.

[john carter]

Companies who make props and sets for TV and Film, or freelance carpenters who work in the entertainment business, would be able to help.  Google "TV Set Builders" to find one in your area.

[Dafydd y Garreg Wen]

18 hours ago, Damian Beasley-Suffolk said:

Here's a very nice way of making bench-raising blocks - admittedly not a problem I have ever encountered! The rest of this chap's website describing his design and construction of his own pipe organ is well worth a read.

Homemade Pipe Organ (rwgiangiulio.com)

Because most of the village church organs round here have low benches (sometimes low to the point of making the pedals unplayable - and I’m not especially tall) I travel with a set of blocks I made, loosely based on this design. I find them invaluable - very stable and allowing different additions to bench height depending on where I am and how low the bench is.

[handsoff]

I've recently had to decline to play one of the organs in our benefice which I have played on and off since being a teenager when I was in charge of it for several years. The issue as age gallops on is that the organ bench is fixed to the unused choir stalls, is too high, too close to the manuals and without sufficient space for comfortable access and egress. It's a huge shame for me as it's a very decent Hewins/Nicholsons 2M + P with 9 stops capable of some lovely sounds. The only option would be to remove the central portion of the stalls and buy a proper adjustable bench. That will never happen.

The bench on one of the other 2 organs I play regularly was too low but 8 words-only copies of Mission Praise do the job nicely. I knew that there was a use for them in a church which has always used The New English Hymnal and no, I have no idea why Mission Praise is there.

[Dafydd y Garreg Wen]

One local organ has the opposite problem, a bench fixed a long way from the keys. It has clearly been like that since the instrument was installed, and some serious carpentry would be needed to alter the situation. The original organist must have had arms like a gorilla.