kropf Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Hello! Since I took over the organ here in 2007, there are still some pipes I've never heard properly or at all yet. Some 32' flues are deformed because of weight and bad mounting, and regarding the Posaune 32', some reeds are out of voicing, and bottom C is completely mute. The latter might suffer from some dirt, others would need re-curving. But to work on them, the resonators (wooden full length) have to be removed, as usual. In this case, this would need at least three men working under somewhat complicated and risky circumstances. As the need for removing dust, insects etc. might not be so seldom elsewhere, too, I was wondering, if my desire of having having little doors in the boots to access the shallot without lifting the resonator has been realized anywhere. I'm sure the UK has the highest ratio of 32'-reeds per square mile or inhabitants, so this forum should be the right place to ask! (or at least to share the burden of maintaining such pipes...) Karl-Bernhardin Kropf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Geoff McMahon Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Lieber Herr Kropf! The little doors you refer too would have to be the whole length of the boot in order to be able to get at the wedge holding the reed in place and to remove the shallot as well. In fact, though, the wooden resonators don't really have to be removed completely. They only need to be raised a short distance in order to remove the block. If they are too heavy to lift safely, and assuming there is some sort of suitable point from which it can be suspended, a block and tackle (Flaschenzug oder ähnliches) can be used to raise the resonators. Once the resonators have been raised about 30cm, the block can be removed and the resonator lowered again onto a block of wood sitting on the boot of about the same thickness as the block. I have often had to do this during the voicing process and managed it quite safely with three people. I have only done it with zinc resonators which might not be quite as heavy as wooden ones, but we didn't even have to resort to the use of a block and tackle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Willis Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 We make the boot with the whole of one side made removable by taking out screws. Try looking at http://www.willis-organs.com/picts/auckland/Auckland106.jpg Mr. Willis used to go a step further of course and make the removable side from Perspex or framed glass (as at Hereford). DW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kropf Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 We make the boot with the whole of one side made removable by taking out screws. Try looking at http://www.willis-or...Auckland106.jpg Mr. Willis used to go a step further of course and make the removable side from Perspex or framed glass (as at Hereford). DW Thanks! That was what I was thinking of. Proper sealing might be an issue. I was just thinking of removing really small particles, where the holding wedge does need not be removed. Of course, any revoicing work would need the removal of the whole block. Framed glass? Having a window to watch large reeds vibrating surely is big fun... Would be a good idea for the coming organ of Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall (if it ever will be finished, costs are exploded up to 600 %), which shall be built by Klais and shall provide the possibility of walking through or at least pass behind the instrument and to have views through windows...(If it is intended to use these walks during concerts, I do not know...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Robinson Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Thanks! That was what I was thinking of. Proper sealing might be an issue. I was just thinking of removing really small particles, where the holding wedge does need not be removed. Of course, any revoicing work would need the removal of the whole block. Framed glass? Having a window to watch large reeds vibrating surely is big fun... Would be a good idea for the coming organ of Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall (if it ever will be finished, costs are exploded up to 600 %), which shall be built by Klais and shall provide the possibility of walking through or at least pass behind the instrument and to have views through windows...(If it is intended to use these walks during concerts, I do not know...) This looks like an interesting project. It sounds as if Klais have already planned and designed the organ (though it is yet to be built), yet I cannot find a specification or stop-list on the web site. Do you know whether one is available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kropf Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 This looks like an interesting project. It sounds as if Klais have already planned and designed the organ (though it is yet to be built), yet I cannot find a specification or stop-list on the web site. Do you know whether one is available? Yes, that is what it looks like. Philipp Klais seems to know much about the organ, but I do not know any sources for the specification, too. This seems to be the latest news, from 2008, though.... A video can be found via the following link (could not get it pasted in here...?). But it is in German, and the building site does not show to much. PhKlais talks about the named possibiliy of seeing the instrument from behind by walking through te galleries. He talks about the "rough" side of pipe metal to be used for the facade (o correspond better with the hall design), and shows a piece of tracker, as the organ shall be a tracker one. (Except the aethereal division, which will be built into the reflector sail, hanging from the ceiling!). As a talented businessman, he praises the aims of the building (well, for that reason those videos are beeing made for). He wishes that during guided tours through the building, a student ("oragn scholar") should let the organ sound for some minutes, as an appetizer for a visiting a regular concert. Nice idea - it just needs completion of the whole thing. Its opening is already delayed for years (form 2010 to 2017) , the costs have multiplied form 114.000.000 to 575.000.000 EUR. Edit - I found a subtitled version of the video! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Robinson Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Thanks Kropf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Jordan Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Hi Charly Ours are also wooden and pretty big scaled. We screwed wooden blocks to the sides of the resonators and made a simple but strong lever which fits under them. I can in fact lift the resonators alone, but it is better to have a second person to guide the pipe when you have raised it. One of the problems is that the fit in the block tends to get very tight because of the weight of the resonators, and loosening the block with a hammer in one hand and holding the pipe in the airwith the other is pretty strenuous. Dirt in the pipes does tend to collect in the shallots rather than in the boots, so getting into the boot without being able to remove the tongue is not mostly much use. If the shallots are leathered, the dirt also tends to get hammered into the leather and pipe can go dumb. Cheers and best wishes Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kropf Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 Alas! Here and there I check the Ruffatti website. Little to read about new installations, but the "backstage" section has been extended. And in the "pipework" area, there is now a description of exactly what I was thinking about - scroll to the end of that page! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Farr Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Hi all, The boot of the lowest note of the Contra Trombone 64' of the Sydney Town Hall Organ contains a viewing panel, undoubtedly inserted because of the uniqueness of the stop (below). It is clearly screwed on, giving (some) access to the tongue and shallot. However, no other notes of the Contra Trombone (or of the 32' Contra Posaune) have a viewing panel, and it makes me wonder if they had a panel of the boot accessible at all. Possibly not something which was given much thought in 1889... Rgds, MJF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Farr Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 ...it makes me wonder if they had a panel of the boot accessible at all. Possibly not something which was given much thought in 1889... Rgds, MJF Re-reading Henry Willis' comment above, he says that "Mr Willis used to go a step further ... and make the removable side from perspex or framed glass (as at Hereford)". I assumed that the reference to "Mr Willis" was to Willis III because it was he, as I understand it, who added the 32' reed to the Hereford organ; and perspex was introduced in the '20s, I think. So was I correct in taking the reference to "Mr Willis" as one to Willis III, rather than to Father Willis (which would have taken us back to the period I was musing about)? Rgds, MJF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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