Organ matters - Organs matter!

I hope it is ok to post this link to another board.

http://www.mander-organs.com/discussion/index.php?showtopic=3239&pid=59503&start=0&#entry59503

Nigel

Some time ago, I played a Heyligers analogue organ.  It was a really well built quality instrument with separate amplification channels and speakers for each stop.  The keyboards were wooden (Laukoff) and it had a superb adjustable bench.  The case was designed to resemble a pipe organ with genuine metal diapason pipes hiding the speaker array.  The organ was for sale at a very reasonable price, but there was no way I could have got it into my flat without some major demolition works.

Just wondering, has anyone else ever seen a Heyligers - apparently they also made some much smaller (physically) instruments?  I would still quite like to get hold of one.

Nigel

BBC Radio 4 did a documentary about the Wanamaker organ a few years ago.  It would be interesting to see if it's available for downloading.

Nigel

Yes, it's good to have found someone in the South West who is able and willing to work on older instruments.  As always, the cost of travel can be prohibiltive - I had quotes from several very experienced technicians in other parts of the country, but they commented themselves that the cost of fuel made it uneconomic for them to travel so far west. John told me that he works on many quite elderly organs in local churches.  I can thoroughly recommend him to anyone in this area.

Nigel

Many thanks.  I have emailed them for availability and cost of the manual.

Nigel

Some good news.  the engineer, John Roberts, came yesterday and spent several hours on the organ.  He sorted the tuning, cleaned all of the key contacts, repaired the swell pedal (a wire had come unsoldered) and generally checked it over.  It's all working much better now.  There is still some crackling and hissing - John is trying to get hold of the service manual to help him to locate the source of this.

So,  I can now play the organ and it will last me until I can find something better.  Many thanks to John, a thououghly nice and helpful man who charged me very little for a great deal of work.

Nigel

I've just been looking at a couple of secondhand organs on the Eminent site.  Has anybody got any experience of them?  One is a 3-manual analogue/digital and the other a 2-manual digital - both for £3000.

Nigel

The top one in Coventry would be perfect for me but it's too tall  :(

Nigel

Many thanks, Barry,

If I can get an economic repair, then I'll go with that for now, mainly because of the difficulty in moving one organ out and another in.  I look forward to hearing from the engineer next week and will post the results here.

I'm now driving down to Truro with my friend, Lilita Ozola, who is giving a lunchtime concert in the Cathedral tomorrow.

Regards,

Nigel

Thank you again, gentlemen.  I certainly don't want to cause controversy.  My main aim is for a cheapish practice organ which sounds acceptable.  If I face up to it, the Johannus will never sound great, but it would serve for a while if I can get it working properly.  I also have to consider that getting the Johannus out and another organ in will be a major undertaking because of acess problems - it took five men to manhandle the Johannus up the outside stairs.

As far as repairs go, my main problem seems to be actually getting someone who can economically come down to the depths of Somerset to look at it.  I've contacted someone who has agreed to come (but I've been told by someone who has used him before that he's unlikely ever to show up).  Two other engineers from the Midlands have declined to look at it.  I must confess to having had a go myself.  I've made some slight improvements, but wasn't able to identify the correct oscillators to adjust the tuning.  The lamp on the swell pedal is working, so I assume that the sensor has packed up.

Plan A must now be to wait and see if the engineer shows up next week and, if so, what he can repair.  Plan B (if Plan A is negative)  , is to put it on Ebay for spares/repair and look for something else.  A local dealer has told me that he's got a Gem and a Viscount, both early digital, in stock at the moment.  I may have a look at them sometime.


Thank you again for all your helpful advice.

Nigel

The wretched Johannus is now playing up having been moved.  The swell pedal now doesn't work, leaving the organ too loud to play in the flat.  I've had it apart and it seems to work using a small light (torch bulb) which responds to a photo-electric sensor.  I've no way of testing it.  Also, the swell and great are not in tune with each other - this has always been a problem but it's more noticable now that the organ is louder.  I'll wait for the engineer to come next week, but it seems to be getting potentially more and more expensive (and not worth it).  O for a pipe organ - at least you can see what's wrong and usually fix it  :-\

Thanks for all your advice - I may end up using the Cantorum + a MIDI pedalboard unless someone comes up with something secondhand.

Nigel

Many thanks for your advice.  I've spent the evening re-arranging furniture to fit the Johannus into my lounge (it was in a lobby off the hallway).  That at least makes it sound better and means I can practice in daylight rather than semi-gloom.  In the short-term, I'm hoping that John Roberts can fix the worst faults on the Johannus to give me a bit more time.  I also have a Viscount Cantorum keyboard which I use if I'm asked to play somewhere without an organ.  I've loaned it out at the moment, but it might be useful if the toaster is toast so to speak), especially if  Ron Coates could fit a pedalboard working through MIDI (not sure how that works.  Long-term, I hope to move next year and will be looking for enough space for a very small pipe organ.  A small unit organ like the Chester or the Osmond Priory (a lot of them around this area) would be ideal.  I've already asked a few local builders to keep an eye out for me, and I'm still very keen on the small Hill I mentioned earlier if that become available.

With grateful thanks for your help - especially for the heads-up on engineers who may be able to fix the old toaster.

Nigel

Well, a result!  John Roberts  from Weston is coming down next week to have a look at it. If I can get it fixed, even if it only lasts for another year or so, it'll be worth it.  Perhaps by then I'll have moved somewhere with more height and easier access.

Nigel

Many thanks for the info.  I live in West Somerset - 12 miles from Taunton.  I've spoken to WM Organs in Highbridge as they used to sell Johannus before changing to Viscount (it was from them that I saved the organ en route to the skip).  I've also spoken to Ormatronix and am waiting for them to get back to me with more information.  But, both have told me that parts are obsolete and that it's not economic even to pay them to come down to look at it. By coincidence, a friend has a similar (but older) Johannus with the same problems.  I see from the link you sent me, Tony, that there's another engineer in Weston-s-Mare.  I recall his name  from when I used to live there and will give him a ring.  Hauptwerk sounds good, but I don't have the technical ability to convert the console.  In an ideal world, I'd find a small one manual pipe organ, but it's probably unlikely (although I'm keeping tabs on a gorgeous Hill in a tin tabernacle which isn't likely to stay open for many more years).

Many thanks for the advice - 'll let you know how I get on with another engineer.

Nigel

Thanks for flagging this up.  This is Lilita's programme:-

Toccata in C (BWV 564) – J.S. Bach

Variations on the name of BACH – Margeris Zarinš

Preludio e Fuga No 2, opus 29  – Eugenio Maria Fagiani

Latvian Folk Tune for Organ: – Romualds Jermaks
Put, vejini - Blow wind, drive my boat,  drive me to Kurzeme. A woman there promised me her daughter as a bride, but didn't honour her promise.

Carillon-Sortie – Henri Mulet


Nigel

This is probably an impossibility, but I'm looking for that elusive animal, a cheap practice organ.  At the moment, I've got an old analogue Johannus Opus 230.  I rescued it as it was about to be thrown into a skip a couple of years ago, but it's now beginning to  crack up.  The amps are hissing and spitting and several notes only work intermittently.  I've been told that it can't be repaired as parts for the amps are obsolete.

So, I'd like to replace it with something which works and sounds reasonable as I don't have regular access to another organ.  A pipe dream is something like the Walker practice organ, but realistically it'll probably have to be another toaster.  Space is limited as I'm in a first floor flat with difficult and narrow access - the Johannus was a real struggle to move.    It also needs to be cheap as I'm medically retired.

If anyone knows of an organ going, I'd be pleased to hear about it ................ chamber organ less that 86" high?

Nigel

My friend Lilita Ozola, who studied at St Petersburg Conservatoire and Riga Academy of Music but who now lives and works in west Somerset, is going back to Riga next week to give a recital on this organ.  She played it regularly when she was teaching at Riga Academy.  She says it's a magnificent instrument  but it needs at least one assistant to change registrations for a concert.  Also, the pedalboard is short compass which means much rearrangement of the music.  Lilita's programme includes the Durufle Suite for Organ and Mulet's Carillon-Sortie as well as music by the Latvian composer Romaulds Jermaks who celebrates his 80th birthday this year.

If you can't get to Riga, Lilita is playing a lunchtime recital in Truro Cathedral next Friday, 17th June.

Nigel