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Mander Organ Builders Forum

This "winter" of discontent


MusingMuso

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I've known the organ I play in excess of 30 years, and NEVER have I known it to go out of tune as it has this winter.

 

It was tuned last when the church was heated, and since then, the temperatures have been very mild for the most part, with the occasional dip of the thermometer.

 

However, the entire tuning-slides seem to have taken a steady march south, and everything but everything is way out of tune; yet it is not a winding problem or anything.

 

In desparation, I took my computer to church, hooked up my radio headphones and used a tuning programme (free), which I got over the internet. Now it isn't the easiest thing in the world to adjust the pitching to the cone-tuned pitch pipe, but in the event, it all worked out at A-440. Working alone, I layed the bearings, which isn;'t the easiest thing when all you have is a pair of ladders and a pencil to hold down the notes, but apart from the Mixture (4 rks) and the Sesquialtera (2 rks), it is now in good tune and my feet and legs are aching.

 

Tomorrow the Mixture, which at the moment sounds about as attractive as a French organ uncared for since the 18th century.

 

All this is the stuff of anecdote, but WHY has the organ gone so out of tune, in view of the mild winter?

 

Does anyone have any idea?

 

MM

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