The Organ Forum

I've seen lots of things, but never a pipe organ so in tune that it sounded like an Allen, I've met a couple of small Schantzes and they are pretty good little instruments, nothing really to write home about, but they were good little organs.

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Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

I dunno...my dad and I used to keep our small pipe organ in "perfect" tune, mostly for mini recitals and any recording we did. Nothing worse than an out-of-tune pipe organ, especially in the reeds (ugh)! And our instrument never sounded like an electronic organ because of its excellent tuning (listen to the MP3s of our former pipe organ on my site below and judge for yourself).

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~ Jim Tidwell ~



The former owner of the 1983 G. Tidwell & Sons 19 rank American Classic residence pipe organ...

jt1stcav:

I dunno...my dad and I used to keep our small pipe organ in "perfect" tune, mostly for mini recitals and any recording we did. Nothing worse than an out-of-tune pipe organ, especially in the reeds (ugh)! And our instrument never sounded like an electronic organ because of its excellent tuning (listen to the MP3s of our former pipe organ on my site below and judge for yourself).

I listened to one of the recordings of your former organ, and I must say that it sounds really good for a home organ, better than a lot of church organs, and far better than the Schantz I referred to. That organ was in an acoustically dead auditorium. and the voicing was undistinguished. The console looked like an Allen ADC 3100, and at first I thought that that was what the organ was. Finally, I saw the nameplate Schantz on it. But it literally was perfect in tune, and I guess the church kept the auditorium at a constant temperature.

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Mike

owner of an Allen MDS317 and working
on a custom digital using a Rodgers 220
console. I play a forty rank pipe organ on Sunday mornings.

I suppose it could be worse, the church not maintaining the organ at all, and not keeping a consistent temperature (I'm guessing 70 degrees). Was this a knob console or a tab console?

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Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

I keep my house between 71 and 75 all the time and I have not tuned the organ for years.  Random pipes need a touch-up on rare occasions.

MenchenStimme:

I keep my house between 71 and 75 all the time

I assume that's because you live in a warm area?    If I kept my house at those temperatures I would have pretty bad 'carbon karma'. 

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Soubasse32

soubasse32:

MenchenStimme:

I keep my house between 71 and 75 all the time

I assume that's because you live in a warm area?    If I kept my house at those temperatures I would have pretty bad 'carbon karma'. 

Actually, the situation is worse in a warm area.  It is a lot more expensive to cool with air conditioning than it is to heat with electricity or gas.  I keep my house at 72 year-round, and my bills in the summer (outside temperatures in the 100s) are a lot more than in the winter (temperatures in the 30s).

David

Southern California.  The house is just under 2000 square feet.  My worst heating bills might reach $300 per month, which is about one-third for electricity and two-thirds for gas.  My worst cooling bill was August of 2006 and was almost $600.  The average summer cooling bill is about $300 per month.  Lots of money; but it keeps both me and the pipe organ very happy.

[off-topic] I feel very fortunate that my utility bills are about half of yours - no doubt your climate is a big factor.

I replaced my ancient refrigerator with a very efficient one and I also replaced most of my light bulbs with CFCs.  I noticed an immediate impact on my electric bill!    It seems my electric bill has dropped about 25%.  I'm sure I could do better though!  I think I need to plug some of my 'phantom power' leaks.

I also got a new furnace with a programmable thermostat last summer.  I haven't seen too much of a difference with the gas bill, but I tend to run the furnace more than I should.    My house is somewhat shaded from the sun and it is typically very damp and chilly year round.  Hmm, maybe the house is haunted? 

I have 23 recessed ceiling spotlights... they provide fantastic illumination but use so much electricity at 100 watts each.  I suppose I will replace those too, but am dubious about dimmable flourescent spotlights.  I'm still getting used to the color temperature of flourescent bulbs.  Everyone looks like they have jaundice. 

I would dearly love to install solar panels, but even with all the hefty rebates it would still cost me around $40k...

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Soubasse32

Hello? I wouldn't dream of getting such an utilities bill! Mine is half of that year round and I'm still not over it that it doubled after I replaced a 15 year old furnace with a brand new "high efficiency" one. Mind you, my appartment is only half of your surface but still.

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Expert in non-working solutions

m&m's:

jt1stcav:

I dunno...my dad and I used to keep our small pipe organ in "perfect" tune, mostly for mini recitals and any recording we did. Nothing worse than an out-of-tune pipe organ, especially in the reeds (ugh)! And our instrument never sounded like an electronic organ because of its excellent tuning (listen to the MP3s of our former pipe organ on my site below and judge for yourself).

I listened to one of the recordings of your former organ, and I must say that it sounds really good for a home organ, better than a lot of church organs, and far better than the Schantz I referred to. That organ was in an acoustically dead auditorium. and the voicing was undistinguished. The console looked like an Allen ADC 3100, and at first I thought that that was what the organ was. Finally, I saw the nameplate Schantz on it. But it literally was perfect in tune, and I guess the church kept the auditorium at a constant temperature.

Thanks for the compliment, m&m's. The thermostat was usually at a constant 72 degrees if we were gonna record the instrument or have friends over to play it...the remainder of the time the AC was used sparingly to keep the electric bill low, and naturally the organ would slip out of tune a bit (nothing severe that couldn't be touched up quickly enough).

And the acoustics in the living room were awful, as expected in a typical home environment. Even after the carpet was removed and tile flooring laid down, it was acoustically dead...so a digital reverberation unit set at less than a second was used to add some ambience.

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~ Jim Tidwell ~



The former owner of the 1983 G. Tidwell & Sons 19 rank American Classic residence pipe organ...

I"ve played no pipe organs since the late sevenites and I'll probably never get to own one. I like an organ just a smidgen out of tune.  I alwasy played my Conn Rhapsody with the chorus turned on.  However in it's last years my Conn did become annoying becuase of it's seperate oscilators drifted badly out of tune.  Since I'm also a trombone player, tuning is always a little off so I'm used to it.  I don't even enjoy electronic music becuase the tuning is so perfect. My present organ, a Gulbransen President dosn't have chorus but I always play it with the Leslie chorus turned on.

 

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Mark Pratt

Hammond 820 at church
Gulbransen President at home
Conn 628 Rhapsody gone

Hmm. I worked for a piano maintenance man for a while, helping to tune, replace strings, fix random things, etc. I was surprised to learn that that humidity is a considerably larger factor than temperature is. Which explains why many (more expensive) pianos have humidity control sticks (I can't remember exactly what they're called) attached to the bottom of the instrument.

...I would imagine the same is true for organ? 

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The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. - Johann Sebastian Bach
Baylor University School of Music

soundboarddude:

Which explains why many (more expensive) pianos have humidity control sticks (I can't remember exactly what they're called) attached to the bottom of the instrument.

...I would imagine the same is true for organ?

Those used to be called "Dampp-Chasers" but the manufacturer now prefers the term "Piano Life Savers".  I guess that is marketing psychology at work. 

Humidity is a factor for organs (wood components can crack or swell/split), but is much less of a factor for tuning than for pianos.

One of my favorite sayings: 'you can tune an organ with a thermostat' might apply to the piano as 'you can tune a piano with a humidifier/dehumidifier'!

It does get complicated though, as humidity and temperature are so inter-related.

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Soubasse32

just remember, people will tend to give you funny looks when you say that you have to water the piano

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Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control