piston action
  • johnbrombaugh
    Posts: 2
    If one doesn't really need many levels, when an electric piston action system is failing, should one always go to sold state and how much more does that cost?
  • deo27
    Posts: 24
    Solid state is more reliable long term. The cost depends on who you ask. Where are you located?
  • johnbrombaugh
    Posts: 2
    Durham, NC
  • Noctcaelador
    Posts: 24
    Presumably you're not adding a solid state system to the Brombaugh organ in Durham???

    Honestly, solid state or bust because when it inevitably breaks (which will be way before the organ falls apart), there's less to throw away. Self contained is a big plus. I love what Fritts is doing with that technology coupled with mechanical stop knobs.

    (Giant fan of your work!)
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 666
    @Deo27 I am not certain we have the stats for that just yet. Here in Canada, I just had the combination action in a 3m 45ish stop Casavant console releathered. It had been running most of the day every day on occasionally-patched 1959 leather until last year. The job cost less than 5k USD and the mechanism can be serviced and repaired until cows go extinct.

    Meanwhile, a friend in TX is trying to raise hundreds of thousands to replace a 20yo solid-state (but not SSOS) system that is already unreliable and for which replacement parts are unavailable.

    If you have a reliable electro-mechanical combination action like the old Austin “cash register” consoles, that’s even tougher than electro-pneumatic and I would leave well enough alone, replacing like parts with like if they’re available.

    Multiple memory levels are handy, but if the console is laid out logically and one is a good organist, it’s completely possible to play colourfully with one. There are too many organists nowadays who have no concept of prudent console management, who set everything – even hymns and anthems – on the stepper/sequencer and are paralyzed by last-minute changes and caught in awkward situations rerunning on the same registration sequence when improvising, because they never bothered to set up the divisionals…
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