Understanding the four types of pipe organs
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    If you have control over where the electronic components originate, companies like Peterson have a great track record for quality. You didn't say who is doing the rebuild. If Schantz is doing it, you don't need to worry about quality since they use good materials. They gave us a five year warranty, labor and materials, on all their work.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,417
    Interesting that you experienced time lag: the standard jest about EP action is that you play a piece on it and then go down into the nave to hear it. Though not a universal problem, I have played a few EP actions which would almost fit this jest. And then there are the famous consoles which emit a chronic hiss from the leaking air passages.

    There is nothing quite so satisfying as discovering the very intimate control one has with a tracker. Still many are they who don't like trackers. They will, to be sure, show up the strengths and weaknesses of one's technique.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    If you are rebuilding an EP organ, you probably are not considering converting it to tracker action - wouldn't that cost a pretty penny? My Schantz has very fast action with no time lag since they re-worked the key contacts. I have seen some older ones that were slow. We used to say you could press a key on the Schantz at the Episcopal cathedral and go to lunch before the pipe sounded. When they rebuilt that organ, all the slowness disappeared. Most of the Austins I have played had fast response, but I have heard that is characteristic of that brand. EP organs don't have to be slow, but it is a fact that many of them were.
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,394
    Gosh, and to think that I have misread several of the more recent comments and thought that "EP" was referring to "extraordinary pform."

    A Happy Octave of Christmas to everyone!
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • BJJ1978
    Posts: 22
    Charles: ugh....that's what I'm afraid of for when we send ours back to Schantz, except we're gonna have to make due w/ the piano. It's becoming more and more evident just how much this overhaul is needed....this morning the combination action was acting up. I look forward to multiple levels of memory, and for the mechanisms to be much quieter.

    Hartley: absolutely, the tracker I played on for 13 years never needed anything except tunings. And it had functioned w/out much maintenance for over 100 years even before I began playing it. The only thing ever done to it was a releathering of the chests, and a rank of pipes was added, but otherwise no other major work was needed.

    Although it is a tremendous expense to overhaul a EP action, the good thing is that it will basically be like a brand new organ (if it's done properly) and with the Peterson controls and other technological advancements...it should last another 50+ years (I hope). But....there certainly are benefits to EP action. In my new situation, the console is situated within the room and I can hear the choir, congregation and organ as everyone else hears it. Before.....well, there's nothing quite like mixtures in your face. :)
  • BJJ1978
    Posts: 22
    oops....I meant to say that it was a releathering of the bellows (not the chest) in the tracker.
  • BJJ1978
    Posts: 22
    Oh no no no no, Charles....we're not thinking of converting the action to tracker. I was just making a comparison to the one I played before.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,982
    I understood that, I was just responding to the tracker propaganda. LOL. That's the thing I disliked about trackers, the organ is right in your face and you don't hear what the congregation is hearing. I knew an organist with a hearing loss from being too close to those mixtures. I wouldn't consider the responsiveness of tracker action to be worth losing hearing over. I am also choir director and conduct from the console. I need that choir right in front of me where I can look over the top of the console at them.

    Glad Schantz is doing your rebuild. They do good work. I have mentioned in other posts that I put filters on the blower room door and turned the room into a clean room. That and keeping the building temperature a minimum of 50 degrees in winter will prolong the life of the leathers.
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