Thank you CharlesW for taking your time to respond. That is a start. Thanks!

contact Noel Jones... he is on this forum.

Also, I will contact Noel.

Yes, definitely.

We made it 50 years on a set of Schantz 1953 leathers before they gave out. Good quality leather will last. Providing clean, filtered air goes a long way toward preserving organs. Unfortunately, the inner workings of organs is a great mystery to many organists. They turn them on, play them, then turn them off. Out of sight, out of mind. It has amazed my how filthy some organ blower rooms and pipe chambers are.

Good advice. Don't think you can avoid all costs by getting a tracker. True, you don't have the releathering costs. However, when they eventually get worn enough they can also be expensive to rebuild. I don't know about the electric actions. Anyone with experience on those?

"syphons" ... as in grasping at straws? I guess the days of using syphons to steal gasoline from a car are gone.

Oh! I think I can now decipher what was meant!

In 100 years, or likely far less, the demi-gods of AGO will decide the aging tracker no longer has the correct sounds to interpret Bach, or some other composer. Funds will have to be raised to junk it and replace it with the "correct" organ of the day. In the U.S. that tracker will be thrown out long before it could ever be rebuilt.

In all seriousness, don't forget the effects of regional climate, humidity or lack of it in your building, and other factors that can affect the life of any organ, tracker or not. Does it get bitterly cold, then the custodian fires up the heating system and the temperature jumps 50 degrees in short order? Not good for organs. Placement matters and regional weather patterns do make a difference in organ longevity.

An addition: I know of a tracker in a very humid place that routinely sticks and jams and is nearly unplayable at certain times of the year. A nationally acclaimed brand but not suitable for that climate.

Can you elaborate? This, in my experience, takes like 100 years to happens. Seems a good investment. Releathering reservoirs, etc., isn't a bad job at all.

I've played many a tracker that hasn't aged well. Stiff roller boards, eventually uneven keys, certain notes that stick because the physical chain to effectuate a valve is so long and has so many failure points... etc. etc. They aren't "more reliable" just because they are mechanical. Many instruments would make a poor witness in that case. (and "mechanical" is a misnomer in this case anyway; all organs are mechanical... some just use different mechanics to achieve the same goal.)

It's just that the nature of the problems manifest differently between styles of instruments. For example, I'm currently playing an organ that has electric contacts under the keys; they are 50 years old and still feel great. There's a tracker I know that was installed at almost the exact same time, and recently underwent a 200k restoration, and the action is ... ahem... "crappy" to say the least, even post restoration.

I taught lessons on a tracker at a college last year and on more than one occasion I had to crawl inside the instrument (literally crawl) during a lesson because it was acting up something fierce. I've also had to go up into chambers to dislodge a pipe on a EP instrument. In both case there was a siphon, but their causes were very different. Same problem in the end though.

No question the trackers are using better materials. I have seen and played many older ones that are stiff and unresponsive, negating the advantages they were supposed to have. I have played those old and not so old EP instruments where you could depress a key and go shopping at Walmart before the pipe sounded. SLOW. As I noted earlier in this post, I know little about electric action so can't make any judgments as to whether they are an improvement.

However, I do like not being buried in the organ case. When the console is distant from the organ I always thought I had a better idea of what the congregation was actually hearing. Consoles that can be moved are also a good feature. I also directed the choir from the console so putting the console directly in front of them helped greatly - aside from actually seeing some of their bad behaviors. Rieger supposedly has some instruments that can play from both a tracker console and a remote console. Then again, Rieger builds some fine instruments so I am not surprised they are in the forefront of design.

I agree with SS that mechanical might be a bit of a misleading term. Are some still being plagued by organists who play half-open sliders? I hope not and that went the way of the flesh. I remember it too well.

The long and short of it is that you have to evaluate each organ individually. Some are good, some not so good and that is not always dependent on type of action. Buy what works best for you, your building configuration, and how you plan to actually use the instrument on a service level. I have seen too many organists get an instrument for the recitals they plan to play over the course of a year, but they prove to be terrible service instruments.

Looking forward to eventually hearing the Birmingham instrument.

The long and short of it is that you have to evaluate each organ individually. Some are good, some not so good and that is not always dependent on type of action.

Agreed.

This is quite common and not necessarily a knock on the builders. Running a lead foundry is no small/inconsequential operation. To be clear, Fisk is undisputedly a top-tier builder. But it is normal for a few specialty suppliers to make more difficult reed pipes to the exact specifications of a builder. They are still bespoke pipe work; it’s a bit akin to having a plumber come do specialty fittings whilst building a house rather than having the general contractor do it. It’s really not because the others aren’t good organ builders. I should also mention that there are still many firms that make their own pipes who don't have their own foundries; they just get pre-made lead sheeting and cut it up. I do think it's fair to say, however, that you do need a certain critical mass to be able to make your own pipes. There are many smaller operations now that really specialize in maintenance and renovation more than building as such.

Yes, the question of whether or not to make pipework, etc., in-house is huge. It certainly adds a tremendous amount of overhead. T&B, Fisk (although they will occasionally send things out), Richards Fowkes, and Juget-Sinclair (among others) all do their own pipework. Other excellent builders, like Noack, do not. It's really a business model question, since the pipemaker (whether in the shop or in another shop) is making the pipes to the spec of the builder (at least if it's a decent builder!)

Also, Brad at St. Mary...go check out the Fisk in Nashville at Covenant sometime. I think it might be my favorite of their instruments even though it's unfinished. Great setting, beautiful work, expressive (and heroic!) instrument without the loudness that can mar their work.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll reiterate that the Fisk at St. James Episcopal in Richmond, Virginia is a splendid instrument.