Changing the heaviness of a tracker action?

[wjoefox]

Hello all,

I'm having a house organ moved into my home by an organ builder in the next few weeks.  :) The tracker action of the instrument is very firm, and is not suitable for Widor's Vth for example, or other fast passages.
What are your opinions on having the action lightened when the organ is moved? Is this possible? Would it be beneficial?

Many thanks,
wjoefox.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

It would certainly be beneficial - although it depends on the action design as to how feasible it would be - although that said, I've yet to find a well-maintained tracker action that's too heavy (after some practice).  It may be that the centres just need attention or re-bushing.  Other than that, talk to the organ builder concerned!  He should be able to advise what is practical and how it can be achieved.

Every Blessing

Tony

[Pipevoicer]

If it is a Victorian organ chances are that the heaviness is due to large pallets due to the design of the soundboard and doing anything with the action will achieve nothing. Your organ builder should be able to advise you.

[David Drinkell]

I remember Philip Prosser, a very skilful organ builder in Belfast, working on an old Forster & Andrews and Castleknock in Dublin and remarking that he was lightening the action.  He said that it was quite often easy to do this on Victorian tracker jobs and that some, F&A in particular, were often unnecessarily heavy.

[matt h]

Hi

I would say it depends on the size of the organ; if as you say it is a house organ, and assuming it only has a few ranks then the pallets shouldn't be all that big.  In which case it should be possible to make some improvements to the action. 

Regards,
Matt

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

This issue has been raised with regard to a church at Mickleham in Surrey and whilst mentioning the issue on another thread on this forum have not progressed it on account of clear conflicts of interests between friends. I posted a transcript of Peter Collin's technical analysis of tracker touch on
http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,1184.0.html
which may possibly be of help and a friendly organ builder tells me that it's quite possible to change the shape of the slots (from what I recall him telling me) and indeed is a standard proceedure by insertion of thick leather or thick cardboard (was it called Oxford Board?) occluding the excess area of slot. Expensive alterations to the soundboard can then be avoided.

Best wishes

David P

[pcnd5584]

Hi

I would say it depends on the size of the organ; if as you say it is a house organ, and assuming it only has a few ranks then the pallets shouldn't be all that big.  In which case it should be possible to make some improvements to the action. 

Regards,
Matt

To an extent, yes - and also the design and layout of the action.

However, the Hill organ of Saint Martin's Church, Salisbury (1868) is a reasonably sized two-clavier instrument of twenty-four stops, including a Pedal Trombone and a G.O. Trumpet. (For the sake of accuracy, three Pedal stops, including the wooden Trombone, were added by Nicholsons, in 2002.)

However, when I first played this instrument, I hated it - despite having some quite pleasant stops and a reasonable G.O. chorus - due to that fact that the tracker action was one of the heaviest I have ever played.*  A few months later, after a colleague (who has worked with various organ builders) had regulated and adjusted the action, I played it again. Well - what a difference! It was as if it were a completely different instrument. He had performed a miraculous transformation.

Therefore, I would say that it is certainly worth investigating. If you wish for details of the person who regulated the organ in Salisbury, I am happy to supply them by PM.



* The prize for this category goes to the instrument in Holsworthy Parisl Church, North Devon - of S.S. Wesley and '...bells' fame.