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Organ Coupler mechanism

Regal

New member
Please excuse my ignorance. Could anyone enlighten me as to how an organ coupler system works. I understand how shove couplers work in harpsichords and organs by pushing and pulling keyboards in and out and also electro pneumatic coupling, but what is the mechanism in a large contingent of tracker instruments using drawstops with various couplers eg great to pedal, swell to pedal etc. AND how is it possible to pull coupler stops out whilst playing without damaging any mechanisms? A link with a drawing would be appreciated but if you would be kind enough to explain this to me it would save me further headache.
 

dll927

New member
Giving specific answers to this question may be a bit tough - you may have to do some Googling. There are surely websites around that will have diagrams of how couplers work, but you may have to search around for them.

I came across a rather lenghthy article on how pipe organs work: "Organized Mapping: Documenting a Complex Musical System" by James David Mason. It goes into quite a bit of detail, some of which is probably rather esoteric for the layman, but it doesn't specifically have diagrams of couplers. So if a picture is worth a thousand words, in this case we have to find the picture. But it helps to have some explanation, too.

Googling "mechanical action pipe organs" gets you mostly ad sites of organ builders, but that might be a start. Good luck in your search.
 
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