Rehousing a redundant organ
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    Does anybody on here spend their time rehousing redundant organs?
    I hope to make this my project for the next ten years as the church reforms to traditional church music.
    Currently I'm looking for a chamber organ and a smaller two manual organ to be relocated to a very hot country town.
    Parish have low funds but it looks like other (Protestant) churches are chucking organs out and we can get the organs reasonably cheap.
    How do we warrant the expense in an area prone to flooding etc when we also have to reinstall communion rails, high altars etc.?
    Anybody doing this?
    Should I be joining my local historic organs society or should I remain a Lone Ranger?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Anybody doing this?
    Should I be joining my local historic organs society or should I remain a Lone Ranger?


    The Organ Historical Society - proud member here - does most excellent work in refurbishing and relocating used instruments. If you have such a group near you, get in touch with them.
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    i think you will need an airplane hanger because the Christian denominations are selling out to the New World Order on a wholesale basis.

    you should also consider taking in the high altars, communion rails, statuary, stations, stain glass windows, pre VII vestments, and all things high (authentic) church.

    i also suggest you begin praying your rosary daily... fifteen decades if possible if you are not already doing this.
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    Like the field full of redundant aircraft after World War II in "The Best Years of Our Lives"?

    https://sightonearth.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/trio-over-airfield.png
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Not really redundant organs, but redundant organ simulacra (of which locution the modifier 'redundant' is redundant). I was once told by a friend who worked for Wicks and who had been in the navy in WWII that at war's end the military in the Pacific were left with thousands of hammond 'organs' that had been used for services in the field. Having no more use for them, they were loaded onto ships and dumped at sea. May all organ simulacra have such a fitting destiny. Perhaps they could redeem their existence by becoming the breeding ground for coral (not choral) reefs and the kaleidoscope of oceanic wild life.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    Thought experiment: Roko's basilisk is a church organ with artificial intelligence.....
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Hmmm, Liam -
    the key word is 'artificial' -

    which, of course, means

    (in a word)

    s-i-m-u-l-a-c-r-u-m.

    All simulacra, whether they be of intelligence, musical instruments, or some other deception, are, as are all falsehoods and frauds, to be feared - lest we become their bedazzled dupes - - or, as the great Stephen Hawking fears, their victims.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    Are Hammond organs actually simulacra? Are they intended to simulate or imitate a real organ? Or are they intended to be something else entirely?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I understand they were not originally marketed as organs, but as new instruments.

    Having no more use for them, they were loaded onto ships and dumped at sea.


    No, I never thought they sounded very good, either. But would you really want to put sensitive pipe instruments in combat areas? I wouldn't even put a good instrument in a school where kids could mess with it.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Actually, the B3 is mainly a rock and jazz organ... it was originally intended to be a church organ by its inventor but reality took over.
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,021
    From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_Clock_Company

    "Hammond did finally manage to save his company with his invention of the Hammond organ, and from 1937 his company was called The Hammond Instrument Company to reflect the new emphasis. The production of clocks was discontinued entirely in 1941."

    The story goes that Mr. Hammond noticed that his office clock motor emitted a fairly tuned pitch, so he figured out a way to have one motor create all the pitches and hooked it up to a keyboard. You have to first "start" the motor, then turn the organ "on". The motor shaft has one disk with a certain number of facets on it for every key.

    There was a famous law suit about whether or not a Hammond was an "organ" by a group of prominent pipe organ builders:

    https://prezi.com/wfrlqil85mit/the-hammond-organ/
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Jes: How do we warrant the expense in an area prone to flooding etc when we also have to reinstall communion rails, high altars etc.?

    Because the organ (and blower) is in a loft above the flood high water mark.
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    Well, boy am I glad I asked now... thanks for the help to those that actually intended to help.
    I would think preserving organs that on websites claim to be redundant would be of interest to people preserving traditional music in the church...

    I am having trouble warranting the cost when there is so much else to replace in the church. We are getting lots of free things from shut down churches etc.

    Thanks to those who actually were helpful.

  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    You got some very good spot on advice from those whose comments were not (like mine!) redundant. I hope that you are able to find the organ that you need. Godspeed!
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    Found a redundant organ - a likely giveaway situation.
    Anybody had any experience with the "renovators dream" style of organ?
    quote from the website the mechanical action was "quite the heaviest imaginable"
    2 manuals, 17 speaking stops, 4 couplers, mechanical action (pneumatic action on pedals)
    anyone know the approximate cash flow you'd need to change the action to electrics and split the gothic twins up?
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