• Welcome to the Pipe Organ Forum! This is a part of the open community Magle International Music Forums focused on pipe organs (also known as "church organs"), organists, organ music and related topics.

    This forum is intended to be a friendly place where technically advanced organists and beginners (or even non-organists) can feel comfortable having discussions and asking questions. We learn by reading and asking questions, and it is hoped that the beginners (or non-organists) will feel free to ask even the simplest questions, and that the more advanced organists will patiently answer these questions. On the other hand, we encourage complex, technical discussions of technique, music, organ-building, etc. The opinions and observations of a diverse group of people from around the world should prove to be interesting and stimulating to all of us.

    As pipe organ discussions can sometimes become lively, it should be pointed out that this is an open forum. Statements made here are the opinion of the poster, and not necessarily that of the forum itself, its administrator, or its moderators.

    In order to post a new topic - or reply to existing ones - you may join and become a member by clicking on Register New User. It's completely free and only requires a working email address (in order to confirm your registration - it will never be given away!). We strive to make this a friendly and informative forum for anyone interested in pipe organs and organ music.

    (Note: If you wish to link to and promote your own website please read this thread first.)

    Many kind regards
    smile.gif

    Frederik Magle
    Administrator

    Krummhorn
    Co-Administrator

Problem with small pipe organ

JayVah

New member
Today I was a guest organist on a small pipe organ. I would like to see if anyone knows what the the following problem could be: When I played a D-minor chord, I heard an F-sharp play; and when I played a G-minor chord, I heard a B-natural play with it. I was using only 8' stops (so no harmonics of any sort involved) and when I had rehearsed earlier in the week, it was not doing it. It occurred on both manuals. Any ideas? And, how could I intelligently describe this to a technician?
 

wljmrbill

Member
First..need to isolate the 8"stop pipe that is causing the problem as that will help the technician... Might suggest locating the pipe and carefully make sure no dust/dirt is affecting it. also could be electronic, peaumtic problem too. Good Luck at least not a siphon
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Two possibilities ... dust as Bill mentions above ... could be that the pneumatic valves below those pipes is not re-seating correctly.

The other is that the pouch rail might have some leathers that need replacing ... especially since the offending note is adjacent to the one being played in both instances.
There is a leather pouch on the top and bottom of the pouch rail ... inside is a spring that aids in the closing of the valve. If the leathers are worn out, they will not always re-seat properly and allow adjacent pipes to speak, even though their respective pneumatic valve is not being activated.

Pouch rail repairs involved getting underneath the pipe chest ... the bottom rail has to be removed, and then the pouch rails removed, one by one ... Pouch rails are seldom repaired on site, unless there are only one or two, and the tech has experience doing this in the field.

As to this not occurring during your practice session, that could be related to heating/cooling issues. As the temperature rises or drops, and if there are huge swings in that temperature variance, it can affect the pneumatic systems in some cases.

As for dust ... the pipe organ technicians motto is "Let Sleeping Dust Lie" ... disturbing any of it will cause bigger problems down the road, usually leading to ciphers, which usually start playing all by themselves right in the middle of a quiet prayer during the service. :nut:

Kh ♫
 
Top