The Organ Forum

Apologies if someone has already started this post, but how many of you have encoutered accidents whilst playing an organ or near one, or inside one or whatever...?

i.e. tripping and getting pipes stuck in your chest.

 

Jezza

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"If you can't get the orchestra any louder, add the organ"

About two months ago I fixed a rattling wooden pipe foot, right before church services started.  As I exited the organ I hit my head on a metal bracket supporting the façade.  I had quite a bump above my temple and had dizzy spells throughout the morning.

I should have known better, as I've been in the organ hundreds of times.  It is a rather hazardous location: you have to look down in order to avoid stepping on wires & tubing for the offset chests; however the brackets are at the perfect height to hit one's head, and are very hard to see.

Organ techs have a knack for hitting their heads on these brackets, and I am considering wrapping them (although I hesitate as it would be unsightly to the congregation).  I blame the original builders for not putting these brackets just a few inches higher! 

I should have gone to the doctor, but did not.    I don't advise going into an organ unless you know what you are doing, and can afford to take your time.  If you ever bump your head as hard as I did, you should go to the doctor.  (do as I say, not as I do!)

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Soubasse32

On the night of April 1, 2007, I had just finished some touchup tuning when the ladder (which I must confess, I had placed at an odd angle) slipped out from under me.  I fell only about 7 feet and landed on my left foot.  I must have been blessed with a momentary blackout, because I did not feel a thing, but I apparently twisted when I landed and broke my femur into three separate pieces just below the hip joint.  I actually thought I had dislocated my hip.

I had orthopaedic surgery to place a full-length titanium rod inside my femur.  I am only now almost completely back to normal.

Please take my advice and do not take risks when you are tired and/or in a hurry, etc.  An ounce of prevention and all that . . .

Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves that large pipe organs will not always be 100% in tune 100% of the time.  It might be prudent to decide when slightly imperfect tuning on a few pipes here and there may be acceptable.  One should weigh the risks versus the rewards.

Oh well . . .

 

Of course there are always case of being electrocuted by electric organs. You'd think people would remember to unplug their organs before working on them!

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First they came for the ABC consoles, then they came for the older consoles. When they finally got to the spinets, they were all gone.

diaphone32:

Apologies if someone has already started this post, but how many of you have encoutered accidents whilst playing an organ or near one, or inside one or whatever...?

So odd you should mention this conversation.  Just last Sunday I had the top up to my organ (an Allen), and had asked my wife to screw the card reader back into place.  Of course, I warned my wife (more than once) to watch the non-latching, lucite music rack as she got up.  Need I say what happened next?!!!

The cover came down so hard, the flourescent light inside came out, the quarter-round holding the lucite rack on cracked almost half way across, and stripped one of the 3 screws.  So--back to school to see if our shop class can make a replacement for the quarter-round, and get the right stain for it.

Michael 

 

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Allen Organs (505-B & ADC-6000), Frazee Pipe Organ (2/13 w/chimes),
Pump Organs (Estey, Sears & Roebuck, Mason & Hamlin, Chicago Cottage, Williams & Sons, Angelius, Cornish)
Pianos (Ivers sq. grand ca.1865, Ivers & Pond Upright-1929, Technics SX-PR600)

Michael,

I suppose the lucite in the rack on your Allen is rounded off at the corners, no sharp points, right?  A little later in the digital era, around the mid to late 80's Allen stopped rounding the lucite, making the racks square across the top with corners like the tips of diamond drill bits!

Needless to say, I have punctured parts of my body -- mostly forehead and temple areas -- on several occasions when working behind such a console with the lid raised and the rack poised there at lethal height and angle. All I have to do is forget for a moment what is looming overhead and stand up and take an abrupt step in the wrong direction.

Once I injured myself so badly that I bled for half a day and considered going in for stitches.

John

 

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Rodgers 890 at church.
Baldwin D422 at home.
Scads of old organs in the shop! H E L P !!!

jbird604:

Needless to say, I have punctured parts of my body -- mostly forehead and temple areas -- on several occasions . . . .

John,

<>I would seriously wonder how you were put together if you were injured below the neck--or elsewhere!    My wife was quite amused with your story.  Said she felt the organ was more damaged than she was.  She didn't say it, but it does run in the family.

<>Michael
 

<>

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Allen Organs (505-B & ADC-6000), Frazee Pipe Organ (2/13 w/chimes),
Pump Organs (Estey, Sears & Roebuck, Mason & Hamlin, Chicago Cottage, Williams & Sons, Angelius, Cornish)
Pianos (Ivers sq. grand ca.1865, Ivers & Pond Upright-1929, Technics SX-PR600)

YES! The lucite music rack can be a real menace!  I've bumped mine, very hard, at least twice while working 'round back.  Luckily just the straight edge, not one of the corners.

 

 

The church I play at has a ten-year-old Allen with a Lucite music rack.  A few months ago, I noticed that the Lucite was cracked from top to bottom.  It turns out that our pastor had opened the instrument and then scored a direct hit on the music rack with his head.  I contacted the local Allen rep about getting a replacement; he quoted me a price that "put water in my eyes"!

 

PS: The pastor sustained no permanent damage. 

DR 

Dana,

If you haven't already bought a new rack from Allen, you can repair it with a piece of lucite from a local glass shop. If your music desk is permanently fixed to the top (rather than being the fold-back style), raise the top lid and remove 3 screws holding it in place from the bottom. If it's a hinged rack, the removal will be different but similar.

Watch the electrical wire that feeds the lamp. It if enters the assembly through a "tunnel" in the organ lid, you may have to disconnect it at the back of the console wall, or untwist the wire ties and give it some slack. If it goes into the music desk through a hole in the lucite, you may have to remove the lamp cover and unhook the wire, then pull it out of the assembly. BE SURE TO UNPLUG THE ORGAN BEFORE DOING THIS as on many consoles the rack light is not turned off by the console switch. Tape off the raw ends of each wire so they won't touch each other or anything else while the rack is off the organ.

Once you have the assembly off the console, remove the 3 or 4 screws that secure the lucite portion to the wood, then take it to a glass shop and have them cut one and drill holes for the screws and power cord. That will cost a small fraction of the Allen price.

While you're at it, you can have the  edges and all corners rounded off until they are smooth and harmless. The glass shop should have a machine to do this and won't charge much extra for it.

John

P.S.  If you aren't careful with those AC wires, we could have a real reported case of "Death by Organ" here on the forum!

 

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Rodgers 890 at church.
Baldwin D422 at home.
Scads of old organs in the shop! H E L P !!!

myorgan:

diaphone32:

Apologies if someone has already started this post, but how many of you have encoutered accidents whilst playing an organ or near one, or inside one or whatever...?

So odd you should mention this conversation.  Just last Sunday I had the top up to my organ (an Allen), and had asked my wife to screw the card reader back into place.  Of course, I warned my wife (more than once) to watch the non-latching, lucite music rack as she got up.  Need I say what happened next?!!!

The cover came down so hard, the flourescent light inside came out, the quarter-round holding the lucite rack on cracked almost half way across, and stripped one of the 3 screws.  So--back to school to see if our shop class can make a replacement for the quarter-round, and get the right stain for it.

Michaell

 As long as the rest of your organ wasn't too badly injured.

I work in and around pipe organs every week and it's rare that I don't at least bump my head on something.  The worse thing for me is working under a chest and standing up and banging my head on bottom board screws.  I've bleed many a time doing that.  We have a bad joke around organ builders that when installing a new organ until someone bleeds on the wood the organ is not sanctified.  Yeah I know....that's sorta gross but I've heard it for years.  I don't think I've ever been on an organ install that I didn't either scratch my head or cut a finger.  Just goes with the work.

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"The Organ is in truth the grandest, the most daring,
the most magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius."

Don,

It's probably inescapable that those of us who most dearly love to PLAY the organ also find ourselves having to WORK on them, either occasionally or as our full time job.

What we must do, though, is never forget that our hands and fingers and feet, as well as our eyes, ears, and gray matter, are the tools with which we make the music -- the goal of all our toil and endeavour after all. I have to constantly remind myself that I must guard my irreplaceable body parts if I am to keep on making music the way I want to!

John

 

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Rodgers 890 at church.
Baldwin D422 at home.
Scads of old organs in the shop! H E L P !!!

Don Furr:

I work in and around pipe organs every week and it's rare that I don't at least bump my head on something.  The worse thing for me is working under a chest and standing up and banging my head on bottom board screws.  I've bleed many a time doing that.  We have a bad joke around organ builders that when installing a new organ until someone bleeds on the wood the organ is not sanctified.  Yeah I know....that's sorta gross but I've heard it for years.  I don't think I've ever been on an organ install that I didn't either scratch my head or cut a finger.  Just goes with the work.

I am more of a solder-burn man myself.

A few weeks ago I was working in a church when the organist came by the console to visit. He wasn't watching and accidentally burned his hand on the hot soldering iron that was propped up on the railing by the organ. I thought he was going to freak out. In fact, I briefly wondered if I should call a lawyer. He went on and on about how important his hands were and how could he play if they were damaged. You'd have thought he'd never had a burn or a cut or a bee sting or anything else in his life!

I told him immediately when the burn occurred to get in the kitchen and run very cold water over it. He did, and within an hour he had almost forgotten the incident.

But those hot irons are certainly a danger to be avoided.

John

 

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Rodgers 890 at church.
Baldwin D422 at home.
Scads of old organs in the shop! H E L P !!!