It has been mentioned below by a couple of kind folk the keyboard manufacturer s w Browne operated between 1850 and 1890. So the actual keyboard may very well be Atleast 140 or so years old.
Did you replace the felts at the front of keys? They are bushings, the pins at the front are called bat pins they can be turned to stop sideways movement the felt that was in keys would have stopped rattling.
When this thing is all done, it would be really cool to do a colaboration with Anna Lapwood (have her visit the museum, talk about organs and what she thinks about the project, and maybe play something together). Considering she played the Royal Albert Hall organ together in a concert with Bonobo I think this would be up her alley.
Love how you always refer to this as "Joan's organ", and how you are so respectful towards the previous owner as well as the organ itself. Too bad she won't ever be able to see (or hear) how you've lovingly been bringing the organ back to a second life while incorporating modern technology.
8:39 Whoa! I love the wax lacing of the wiring harness. Something that's becoming a lost art and something I should learn. So much prettier than cable ties and seems less wasteful.
Yeah it's awesome. Not difficult, just take a turn around the wires every few inches and loop it through the parallel part of the thread, finish however you like!
Oh yeah it sure looks pretty and much less wasteful and more eco friendly, I learned how to do them from soviet electronics, it is very common practice there.
Man, the narration segments with the repeating organ lines in the background are giving off real slam-poetry vibes! 😄 Loving the journey of this restoration project.
@@slughead I don't know if Anna knows if he has that organ or not but if she doesn't, it would be interesting to just invite her over for a tour of the museum and see if she recognizes it.
Great job. I love the way the air box just rises up slowly, it looks like it's coming to life. It still amazes me how you just acquired a church organ ( A very old specialised unique instrument ) and redesigned the whole bloody thing, piece by piece! Like who does something like that, wow.
12:37 this is an AMAZING view. I love how you can see how long the keys are, and with how they're stained and the lighting it's very striking when they're played. Needs some plexiglass on top, and somehow keep the top manual hinged easily, so visitors can see it all too. as the top side is shorter. (edit: oh maybe the top side is the same depth, nvm)
I pulled an old organ out of a church years ago. Those electro-pneumatic style consoles are a nightmare with the wiring, but at the same time, it is all very logical. Each key is wired separately for each coupling . ie 16, 8, 4, 2, then duplexing with other manuals and pedals. Thats why they have so many wires. The couplers are mechanical/pneumatic. The pedals often have more since they are also typically hardwired to the pedal ranks. They do make expensive systems to modernize, but your approach using just arduinos and a laptop has been amazing. I have rewatched a few times thinking I might do the same.
This reminds me of how the Hammond B3 organ manuals are setup, each key activates 9 wires that connect to the drawbars, which in turn are connected to the tone wheels. Laurens created the Hammond organ to simulate the Pipe organ and I'm very impressed on how similar they are even "under the hood".
The amount of work and care you put into this...... wow. Tip to clean the other part and save some time: use a dish brush. A brush works great to get out any dirt in corners, holes or other difficult to reach areas. You can also cut the tail of the dish brush, drill a hole in the center of the brush and use a bolt to clamp the brush into the claw of a handheld drilling machine. Works really well! Don't be afraid to try it 😉👍
My lord your are a clever chap, this is a sincere compliment. Your skill set seems to equip you with the ability to repair, design, manufacture any musical instrument, be it mechanical, analog or digital.
So freaking awesome how you didnt throw it out and actually undertook the massive work of properly cleaning and restoring the whole thing, massive respect. Absolutely loved every step of this whole project so far and always super looking forward to watching these
Thank you for restoring the original keyboard! I am a believer in the vibes of "all the great musicians who've touched it in the past". :) Amazing that it's within your abilities t do so.
Hi Sam great job! I actually did this exact same thing about 15 years ago on a 1916 Kimball Organ. Except for the fact it was a theater organ that was used for playing along with silent movies. I had 3 manuals ,foot pedals 15 memory buttons 95 different sounds that you could assign to the manuals and pedals plus a volume pedal and swell pedal..all in about 300 midi channels if I remember correctly. We actually did not use the pipes for many reasons mostly tho reliability and playability but a piece of software called Hauptwerk had samples of organs from around the world and a Mac G5 with Presounce combo sound /midi interface and about 30 speakers and amplifiers and it was great Keep up the awesome work
It might have been "too much work" to restore the keyboard, but the state you brought it to has so much beauty and value! I imagine Joan would approve.
I completely understand had you decided to replace the keys it would very much make sense to do so. At the same time, I am very happy that you were courageous enough to go the extra mile and make the old keys operational again, it is quite magnificent to see it working with the rest of the organ!
There's a lot to love here, but I'm mostly hung up on the keybed being made before diodes were readily available. To think about what 'electronics' meant so long ago, and what went into designing something like this....what a trip, thanks for sharing it with us
Dude you are such an inspiration in your passion for reworking this old kit. Keep doing the good stuff from a somewhat older fellow classic mini owner.
Hi Professor, this is Jeffrey Barry from Pennsylvania in the United States. Can I say something constructive criticism I hope when the organ is together, you build some type of boardwalk or catwalk that you can go to do repairs tuning’s and what not because like I said, you put many hours into that re-wiring and refurbishing the leather and wood and what not and like I’ve said in past comments that I believe in a pipe organ, being a work of art because everything is handmade and even with all your wiring and working on the wind boxes you used your hands and I believe a pipe, organ, or any musical instruments, but mostly a pipe organ she get the upmost respect
This is without a doubt my favorite thing you've ever done. It's already amazing to see a piece of history being preserved, it's even more amazing to see it put in a museum, and it's even MORE amazing to see it put into a museum in such a way that people can actually play it and experience it for themselves. I think Joan would have been happy to know her organ was able to be saved in such a way. I'm going to be really sad when this series is over!
Thank you so much for all your efforts and your inexhaustible energy! It is really appreciated and makes me smile throughout every video you upload hehe ;)
As a pipe organ builder, I've had some mixed reactions to this series. It's wonderful to see an instrument saved and it's thrilling to see the instrument get a modern upgrade! It hurts to watch sometimes though because well, let's just say it's clear you haven't built an organ before. I almost had a heart attack watching episode 6 when you were fiddling with those reeds. Other than that though, I'd say the project is going along fantastically! There's a place over here in the states called Organ Stop Pizza and this project reminds me of that. Theatrical and fun while making wonderful music. I'm also totally biased, but you should look into getting a local organ technician/repair shop to come and work on some of those pipe, and windchests. It's a lot easier to fix all those sticky notes if you've done it before, and a thorough tuning would do wonders for the instrument. I know if I got to go to that job, it would be the highlight of many weeks to come making such a publicly accessible instrument that much better. It would be expensive, but what's better than stimulating the local economy?
cheers alexander. reeds turned out fine, had someone come over they were happy with em. the series like all the other series on this channel are about jumping into things and figuring it out because 9 times out of 10 it aint as hard as people are saying, organs being one of them. sure ive learnt some stuff. but fixed everything and improving as going. the stuck valve in the video above was not one, i needed to rebuild the valve. have a good day
im confused as to what was done wrong with the reeds. thanks for the comment, but tad confused, i know a lot of folk have been mentionning them being hard to bring back to making noise, but i struggled to see how. even one i found before i started shooting the video the reed was bend, i just hammered it out again and it worked fine, i struggle to see why they are more of a delicacy than other types of pipes?
the plan is when its done to have a organ person come over to have a look. probably not a tuner as i think it sounds fine, infact a tuner came over the other week to tune the reeds :D. they did a good job, :)
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER reeds are just touchy. I've seen a speck of dust smaller than a pin point completely stop an 8 foot trumpet from speaking at all. The curvature of the actual reed also changes the sound of the reed and can be tricky to get right. Your pipe repair is right on point though. Broom handle down a pipe works as well as any mandrel I've ever seen
I will totally agree. Most of organ building isn't hard, it's just tedious. If you've already got an instrument, a crafty willing person such as yourself can clearly at least rebuild and modify the whole thing. Most people aren't willing to put in the 100s of hours and you clearly are. Good on you and good luck moving forward
Seeing the inside is so cool, as much as I agree with keeping the history and everything original; having an acrylic lid for the upper manual that could be swapped in/out with the original would also be cool. OH, make the original flip up to expose the acrylic lid showing off the magic!
Kudos on restoring the old manual. I mean, as a museum it does feel like it'd be the right thing to do, even if it does take a really long time and a lot of tedious labour :)
I wish you could see all of the smiles on everyone's faces as we get to listen to this. This is a really great project. Thanks for all of the hard work! 😊
Love all the work... especially the waxed twine lacing like what I used to do when I was wiring up telephone exchanges and forming out the cables. I thought it was a lost art, but you're there doing it today (or yesterday.. or whenever you did it). All I do now is plug in CAT5's and fibres... boring :(
That was a wonderful video. Your love of the organ shows. Leaving it natural when possible is great. The rehab of it is so respectful of the instrument. And the playing by your friend was fantastic.
Think of all the work Sam is doing by himself to refurbished this organ, and remember this what is considered a small church organ. There are other on Europe that are almost a magnitude bigger and it takes a team of people to refurbish/repair those. That said Sam is retrofitting/modernizing it a bit to fit his/the spaces needs. All said fabulous work on this project, I look forward to seeing it fully up and running in future videos as well as possibly seeing it in person when I get a chance to criss the pond
Just had a random thought, but when you get to doing some sort of console, build a mod synth-esque control unit into the top of it. The Kosmo Pipe Organ!
You could go full pianola style and add a mechanism to automatically depress the keys from underneath so then when playing from midi on the computer the normal keys press! This project IS amazing (i did grade 3 music exam on Organ). Please keep up the amazing work!!! Side note playing organ is a weird technique compared to piano as you have to play 'detache' which mean you have to be more defined in the stop of the note not just 'beginning' otherwise you loose all the intonation (the note will play for as long as you hold the note and not decay lile a piano string, and as the mechanisms for the pipes all have slop the note doesn't always finish at the same time when you release the key again no dampers like piano stings.) Its even worse for much older 'tracker' organs with all the mechanical linkage slop. Can really be off-putting if the note doesnt respond as quickly as you're use to when pushing down the key. Near-ish to where I grew up there is a very very old Handel Organ (as in one played on BY George Frederick Handel) so is of very old construction, albeit having modifications and updates/restorations in 1897 and 2012 its in a C of E Church called Holy Trinity Church Gosport
The most surprising part of seeing it played is how the much lighter sides of the long, long keys would pop into visibility, so it was like little streaks of light going across the backplane(?) of the keyboard while it was being played. Kind of mesmerising really.
Absolutely marvelous to see and hear this incredible machine being brought back to life :-) I take my hat off to You for having the crazy notion to rescue the organ and for having the sheer guts and determination to restore it to working order. Restoring the original parts and using 'modern technology' hidden from view is a master stroke of genius :-) Well done Sir! I look forward to seeing this project completed and would suggest inviting Bill Bailey to visit the museum as I am sure he would love to play this magnificent machine and would get into playing many of Your other wondrous music making creations! Keep up the good work Sam, You are doing a grand job! :-)
Was just thinking after seeing all the effort and superb work your doing, that the initial project of taking the organ from the church and installing it on the house, by using the old wiring, connections and having to adapt it to the house dimensions must have been as interesting and mind blowing as your current project. So, in a way, you're making sure that it lives again, adding new features but keeping the magic, making each of the past and present efforts count. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing it with us!
I would probably have a panic attack at every part of this build.. You just go along and do it, and I take my hat off for that (after I've bought a hat).
Very interesting video, I enjoyed it. I'm always impressed and pleased when people do their best to actually repair and not just replace and throw out material. I was a little on-edge though: your narration style over the music (during the montages) kept making me anticipate oncoming SICK BEATS. Very much a "hip-hop intro to a banger" vibe. I wish I could be as casually, accidentally, and/or unintentionally groovy =)
I love what your doing Sam and the effort your putting into this. Keep going. It's well worth it. The controls your developing might be useful to control many church organs. Keep going. Love it
What's not to like about watching a guy in a funnybones t-shirt playing with his organ? It's going to be interesting seeing how you interface the stops, are you planning to make the whole thing completely stand-alone with it's own control box? I guess I'll have to tune-in next week to find out!
Absolutely loving all these videos. It always makes me wonder how much work / craftsmanship went into it when originally built. Before covid, I had a brief visit to Shires organ pipes in Leeds. Absolutely fascinated me. I could watch these all day. Please keep em coming. ps, anyone like me needs to check out Shires organ pipes website. all sorts of interesting stuff going on.
That was so satisfying to see him gut out and cut out all of that dino technology and give it a good clean and fresh wires. This instrument is long overdue for the kind of care Sam is giving it.
Sam, your work is really awesome! I like to see you don't complete restorate the organ and keep the patina of the years so it can tell many storys about his live from all over the years 👍. I'm looking forward for the next episode, many greetings from Germany!!
Lubbuly jubbuly! Good to see it moving forward, and glad that the keys were fine once cleaned up! I was a bit concerned by the radio silence, but I see now that it was just a lot of work. Straightforward, but tedious. It's also amazing how much simpler it is in the rebuild thanks to MIDI. It was such a Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg arrangement to make it work 100 years ago, but now everything is nice and modular.
If you wanted to add some additional interactivity, you could fashion a small bank of pipes out of a more "user friendly" material ( like brass or steel ) and place that where the museum guest could tune them to their hearts content.
I was kind of curious as to when and if, you were going to do something with the console. Nice job on the cleaning and re-wiring!😉 I don't know how much key pressure it takes to actually sound a note, but it's better to err on the heavier side with the springs, so that the keyboard has a uniform 'feel' all the way across, and is responsive to quicker paced pieces of music. You could take the key-press weight from one of your midi keyboards and just carry it over to the console, using a weight that pushes the key down just so it touches the bottom felt. Once you have your key weight set, and the key travel set, and all leveled out, THEN set your key switches to contact around 50% of total travel. If you try to set the key switches first, they will all change when you set the key height and travel. Just an FYI! Keep up the good work.. this thing is really coming together nicely!😄👍👍
The work you are doing is amazing Sam. I could I dare say a blueprint for others to follow to keep these wonderful old organs working and bringing them into the future.
It has been mentioned below by a couple of kind folk the keyboard manufacturer s w Browne operated between 1850 and 1890. So the actual keyboard may very well be Atleast 140 or so years old.
Cool! Great to see another video on the organ that is now found to be 140 years old!
According to Japanese lore, objects that reach 100 years of age gain a soul. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukumogami
@@torquemada1971 I have the same belief, but about people.
If it's bits are that old, you're giving it well over a century of upgrades to bring it new life in a different millennium.
Did you replace the felts at the front of keys? They are bushings, the pins at the front are called bat pins they can be turned to stop sideways movement the felt that was in keys would have stopped rattling.
When this thing is all done, it would be really cool to do a colaboration with Anna Lapwood (have her visit the museum, talk about organs and what she thinks about the project, and maybe play something together). Considering she played the Royal Albert Hall organ together in a concert with Bonobo I think this would be up her alley.
That would be awesome!
So much yes!!!!
Add my name to the list of requests to get Anna to come do a recital on this organ and just generally mess around!
Would love to see Anna playing your organ! That sounds so wrong!!!
I hope Sam never finishes it, because this is some of the best content I've seen on UA-cam in years!
Love how you always refer to this as "Joan's organ", and how you are so respectful towards the previous owner as well as the organ itself. Too bad she won't ever be able to see (or hear) how you've lovingly been bringing the organ back to a second life while incorporating modern technology.
8:39 Whoa! I love the wax lacing of the wiring harness. Something that's becoming a lost art and something I should learn. So much prettier than cable ties and seems less wasteful.
I think we should ask Sam to do a quick video. I hate shorts, but this would be a good time to use it. I would love to know how to do it myself.
Craig it's straightforward once you get the hang of it so it's well worth having a try.
Yeah it's awesome. Not difficult, just take a turn around the wires every few inches and loop it through the parallel part of the thread, finish however you like!
_::NASA Electrical Engineer intensifies::_
Oh yeah it sure looks pretty and much less wasteful and more eco friendly, I learned how to do them from soviet electronics, it is very common practice there.
I like how you did the voice over in the sped up bits. Sounded like a poetry slam over your church organ theme.
Sam would be absolutely SICK at slam poetry
It feels like he is winding up to a rap song.
Felt a bit like The Streets performing.
Yea, that felt like a rap. Wiring rap... I dug it
Agreed. Sam, keep doing this! It was great, and totally reminded me of The Streets. Love it! Keep it up!
Man, the narration segments with the repeating organ lines in the background are giving off real slam-poetry vibes! 😄 Loving the journey of this restoration project.
I thought the same! The first time it came up I wasn't sure if he was about to start rapping over a time lapse. 😂 I really liked it though!
When you get the console done, you should hire a random organist to come react to it without telling what they are going to see.
Very Mattias Krantz. I like it.
Anna Lapwood specifically
@@slughead I don't know if Anna knows if he has that organ or not but if she doesn't, it would be interesting to just invite her over for a tour of the museum and see if she recognizes it.
@@Saotik possibly he shouldn't make the organ shoot electricity though
@@keithyinger3326 Anna knew about the organ in the house, though I don't know if she knows Sam has it now.
This is amazing! The amount of work that went into this so far is astonishing, but now I can see how close you are to finally finishing it.
Great job. I love the way the air box just rises up slowly, it looks like it's coming to life. It still amazes me how you just acquired a church organ ( A very old specialised unique instrument ) and redesigned the whole bloody thing, piece by piece! Like who does something like that, wow.
The organ is my one of my favorite instruments, it's nice to see the organ get repaired and fixed , and not end up in a landfill.
Great job sam!
12:37 this is an AMAZING view. I love how you can see how long the keys are, and with how they're stained and the lighting it's very striking when they're played. Needs some plexiglass on top, and somehow keep the top manual hinged easily, so visitors can see it all too. as the top side is shorter. (edit: oh maybe the top side is the same depth, nvm)
I pulled an old organ out of a church years ago. Those electro-pneumatic style consoles are a nightmare with the wiring, but at the same time, it is all very logical. Each key is wired separately for each coupling . ie 16, 8, 4, 2, then duplexing with other manuals and pedals. Thats why they have so many wires. The couplers are mechanical/pneumatic. The pedals often have more since they are also typically hardwired to the pedal ranks. They do make expensive systems to modernize, but your approach using just arduinos and a laptop has been amazing. I have rewatched a few times thinking I might do the same.
This synthy mozart cover that's playing in the background... its rad
Hearing this play brought tears. You've done a great thing saving it. I know it's been a crazy amount of work, but keep it up.
This reminds me of how the Hammond B3 organ manuals are setup, each key activates 9 wires that connect to the drawbars, which in turn are connected to the tone wheels. Laurens created the Hammond organ to simulate the Pipe organ and I'm very impressed on how similar they are even "under the hood".
The amount of work and care you put into this...... wow. Tip to clean the other part and save some time: use a dish brush. A brush works great to get out any dirt in corners, holes or other difficult to reach areas. You can also cut the tail of the dish brush, drill a hole in the center of the brush and use a bolt to clamp the brush into the claw of a handheld drilling machine. Works really well! Don't be afraid to try it 😉👍
S.W. Browne was a trade keyboard supplier operating in London between 1851 and 1890, so it's at least 130 years old.
Mark Pitts suggests a quick tutorial on waxed lacing. I think you qualify as an expert now and you always make the smallest details interesting.👍
My lord your are a clever chap, this is a sincere compliment. Your skill set seems to equip you with the ability to repair, design, manufacture any musical instrument, be it mechanical, analog or digital.
What a project! You're making great progress!
So freaking awesome how you didnt throw it out and actually undertook the massive work of properly cleaning and restoring the whole thing, massive respect. Absolutely loved every step of this whole project so far and always super looking forward to watching these
Thank you for restoring the original keyboard! I am a believer in the vibes of "all the great musicians who've touched it in the past". :) Amazing that it's within your abilities t do so.
Hi Sam great job! I actually did this exact same thing about 15 years ago on a 1916 Kimball Organ. Except for the fact it was a theater organ that was used for playing along with silent movies. I had 3 manuals ,foot pedals 15 memory buttons 95 different sounds that you could assign to the manuals and pedals plus a volume pedal and swell pedal..all in about 300 midi channels if I remember correctly. We actually did not use the pipes for many reasons mostly tho reliability and playability but a piece of software called Hauptwerk had samples of organs from around the world and a Mac G5 with Presounce combo sound /midi interface and about 30 speakers and amplifiers and it was great Keep up the awesome work
It might have been "too much work" to restore the keyboard, but the state you brought it to has so much beauty and value! I imagine Joan would approve.
That wire loom looks NASA quality. Nice, tidy job.
I completely understand had you decided to replace the keys it would very much make sense to do so. At the same time, I am very happy that you were courageous enough to go the extra mile and make the old keys operational again, it is quite magnificent to see it working with the rest of the organ!
You were right, having the manual installed felt like a bigger step forward than maybe it really is. It's so enjoy emblematic of an organ.
Amazing what cleaning out a few decades worth of dust and grime can do. Top notch restoration of this lovely instrument. Thanks for sharing!
There's a lot to love here, but I'm mostly hung up on the keybed being made before diodes were readily available. To think about what 'electronics' meant so long ago, and what went into designing something like this....what a trip, thanks for sharing it with us
Ooooh that wire management at 8:37. I would watch timelapse of that wax lacing for hours. Love it.
Old and new music technology working together. Amazing.
Dude you are such an inspiration in your passion for reworking this old kit. Keep doing the good stuff from a somewhat older fellow classic mini owner.
Sam - Somewhere, there is a huge radiant smile on Joan's face. Well done!
Hi Professor, this is Jeffrey Barry from Pennsylvania in the United States. Can I say something constructive criticism I hope when the organ is together, you build some type of boardwalk or catwalk that you can go to do repairs tuning’s and what not because like I said, you put many hours into that re-wiring and refurbishing the leather and wood and what not and like I’ve said in past comments that I believe in a pipe organ, being a work of art because everything is handmade and even with all your wiring and working on the wind boxes you used your hands and I believe a pipe, organ, or any musical instruments, but mostly a pipe organ she get the upmost respect
Bless your patience, stellar effort.
Thank you for saving this wonderful old instrument.
It sounds great so far! looking forward to the next deck and theres bass pedals too I guess :)
Bass pedals in previous vid check it ooot
That made my morning. Restoring and creating stuff is awesome.
Brilliant project Sam, and all these videos documenting it are incredible. You're the best!
This is without a doubt my favorite thing you've ever done. It's already amazing to see a piece of history being preserved, it's even more amazing to see it put in a museum, and it's even MORE amazing to see it put into a museum in such a way that people can actually play it and experience it for themselves. I think Joan would have been happy to know her organ was able to be saved in such a way. I'm going to be really sad when this series is over!
Thank you so much for all your efforts and your inexhaustible energy!
It is really appreciated and makes me smile throughout every video you upload hehe ;)
Give Anna Lapwood a Shout out! I'm sure she will be up for a few hours of fun!
As a pipe organ builder, I've had some mixed reactions to this series. It's wonderful to see an instrument saved and it's thrilling to see the instrument get a modern upgrade! It hurts to watch sometimes though because well, let's just say it's clear you haven't built an organ before. I almost had a heart attack watching episode 6 when you were fiddling with those reeds. Other than that though, I'd say the project is going along fantastically! There's a place over here in the states called Organ Stop Pizza and this project reminds me of that. Theatrical and fun while making wonderful music.
I'm also totally biased, but you should look into getting a local organ technician/repair shop to come and work on some of those pipe, and windchests. It's a lot easier to fix all those sticky notes if you've done it before, and a thorough tuning would do wonders for the instrument. I know if I got to go to that job, it would be the highlight of many weeks to come making such a publicly accessible instrument that much better. It would be expensive, but what's better than stimulating the local economy?
cheers alexander. reeds turned out fine, had someone come over they were happy with em. the series like all the other series on this channel are about jumping into things and figuring it out because 9 times out of 10 it aint as hard as people are saying, organs being one of them. sure ive learnt some stuff. but fixed everything and improving as going. the stuck valve in the video above was not one, i needed to rebuild the valve. have a good day
im confused as to what was done wrong with the reeds. thanks for the comment, but tad confused, i know a lot of folk have been mentionning them being hard to bring back to making noise, but i struggled to see how. even one i found before i started shooting the video the reed was bend, i just hammered it out again and it worked fine, i struggle to see why they are more of a delicacy than other types of pipes?
the plan is when its done to have a organ person come over to have a look. probably not a tuner as i think it sounds fine, infact a tuner came over the other week to tune the reeds :D. they did a good job, :)
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER reeds are just touchy. I've seen a speck of dust smaller than a pin point completely stop an 8 foot trumpet from speaking at all. The curvature of the actual reed also changes the sound of the reed and can be tricky to get right. Your pipe repair is right on point though. Broom handle down a pipe works as well as any mandrel I've ever seen
I will totally agree. Most of organ building isn't hard, it's just tedious. If you've already got an instrument, a crafty willing person such as yourself can clearly at least rebuild and modify the whole thing. Most people aren't willing to put in the 100s of hours and you clearly are. Good on you and good luck moving forward
Seeing the inside is so cool, as much as I agree with keeping the history and everything original; having an acrylic lid for the upper manual that could be swapped in/out with the original would also be cool. OH, make the original flip up to expose the acrylic lid showing off the magic!
I love organ music and old organs! Thank you for video documenting your progress restoring this instrument.
"We'll figure that out when we get to it" Excellent attitude!
Kudos on restoring the old manual. I mean, as a museum it does feel like it'd be the right thing to do, even if it does take a really long time and a lot of tedious labour :)
I wish you could see all of the smiles on everyone's faces as we get to listen to this. This is a really great project. Thanks for all of the hard work! 😊
Joan would be proud of you and the work you have done. Well done sir.
Love all the work... especially the waxed twine lacing like what I used to do when I was wiring up telephone exchanges and forming out the cables. I thought it was a lost art, but you're there doing it today (or yesterday.. or whenever you did it). All I do now is plug in CAT5's and fibres... boring :(
I absolutely love the radio commentaries over that music! Freaking cool!
Eeeek! Thank you LMNC! I was so excited for this part from the very start!
I really thought you were going to throw it away!
It's brilliant the way you're putting new life into this old stuff which could have so easily be gone forever.
That was a wonderful video. Your love of the organ shows. Leaving it natural when possible is great. The rehab of it is so respectful of the instrument. And the playing by your friend was fantastic.
Think of all the work Sam is doing by himself to refurbished this organ, and remember this what is considered a small church organ. There are other on Europe that are almost a magnitude bigger and it takes a team of people to refurbish/repair those. That said Sam is retrofitting/modernizing it a bit to fit his/the spaces needs. All said fabulous work on this project, I look forward to seeing it fully up and running in future videos as well as possibly seeing it in person when I get a chance to criss the pond
Just had a random thought, but when you get to doing some sort of console, build a mod synth-esque control unit into the top of it. The Kosmo Pipe Organ!
Loveliness increased! And you know how I love the cable lacing... can't get enough of that stuff. You guys are absolute fuckin' LEGENDS.
Thanks Sam! I love it! Every video in this series is a crescendo of fantastic!
This series is one of my favourite materials , I hope It keeps going even after the completion of the restoration!
Fantastic to hear Jake playing on the manual, and I continue to love how this project is going.
Love that old wood work. Cool that you got someone in to play it! Sounds awesome.
You could go full pianola style and add a mechanism to automatically depress the keys from underneath so then when playing from midi on the computer the normal keys press!
This project IS amazing (i did grade 3 music exam on Organ). Please keep up the amazing work!!!
Side note playing organ is a weird technique compared to piano as you have to play 'detache' which mean you have to be more defined in the stop of the note not just 'beginning' otherwise you loose all the intonation (the note will play for as long as you hold the note and not decay lile a piano string, and as the mechanisms for the pipes all have slop the note doesn't always finish at the same time when you release the key again no dampers like piano stings.) Its even worse for much older 'tracker' organs with all the mechanical linkage slop. Can really be off-putting if the note doesnt respond as quickly as you're use to when pushing down the key.
Near-ish to where I grew up there is a very very old Handel Organ (as in one played on BY George Frederick Handel) so is of very old construction, albeit having modifications and updates/restorations in 1897 and 2012 its in a C of E Church called Holy Trinity Church Gosport
The most surprising part of seeing it played is how the much lighter sides of the long, long keys would pop into visibility, so it was like little streaks of light going across the backplane(?) of the keyboard while it was being played. Kind of mesmerising really.
Absolutely marvelous to see and hear this incredible machine being brought back to life :-) I take my hat off to You for having the crazy notion to rescue the organ and for having the sheer guts and determination to restore it to working order. Restoring the original parts and using 'modern technology' hidden from view is a master stroke of genius :-) Well done Sir! I look forward to seeing this project completed and would suggest inviting Bill Bailey to visit the museum as I am sure he would love to play this magnificent machine and would get into playing many of Your other wondrous music making creations! Keep up the good work Sam, You are doing a grand job! :-)
Your comment to revitalising that old organ is amazing, I doff my virtual hat to you Sam!
Was just thinking after seeing all the effort and superb work your doing, that the initial project of taking the organ from the church and installing it on the house, by using the old wiring, connections and having to adapt it to the house dimensions must have been as interesting and mind blowing as your current project. So, in a way, you're making sure that it lives again, adding new features but keeping the magic, making each of the past and present efforts count. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Really enjoy the equalizer pass on the voice-overs :)
I'm happy you kept the original manuals.
I would probably have a panic attack at every part of this build.. You just go along and do it, and I take my hat off for that (after I've bought a hat).
heroic.
do you ever talk to anyone about *why* you do this work, why it's important? because it is, very important.
It's just fantastical that you have the patience and determination to restore this old organ Sam!! I am quite impressed. Yaay!
This is my favorite project of yours. Well done.
Very interesting video, I enjoyed it. I'm always impressed and pleased when people do their best to actually repair and not just replace and throw out material. I was a little on-edge though: your narration style over the music (during the montages) kept making me anticipate oncoming SICK BEATS. Very much a "hip-hop intro to a banger" vibe. I wish I could be as casually, accidentally, and/or unintentionally groovy =)
Just bloody brilliant, you have so much energy, I am exhausted just watching, keep going, I am going to visit the museum as soon as I can.
I love what your doing Sam and the effort your putting into this. Keep going. It's well worth it. The controls your developing might be useful to control many church organs. Keep going. Love it
I really like the juxtaposition between the two playing styles.
What's not to like about watching a guy in a funnybones t-shirt playing with his organ?
It's going to be interesting seeing how you interface the stops, are you planning to make the whole thing completely stand-alone with it's own control box? I guess I'll have to tune-in next week to find out!
Thanks!
Thanks a lot!
Absolutely loving all these videos. It always makes me wonder how much work / craftsmanship went into it when originally built. Before covid, I had a brief visit to Shires organ pipes in Leeds. Absolutely fascinated me. I could watch these all day. Please keep em coming. ps, anyone like me needs to check out Shires organ pipes website. all sorts of interesting stuff going on.
I’m so glad you rescued this organ, you should be awarded an OBE.
That was so satisfying to see him gut out and cut out all of that dino technology and give it a good clean and fresh wires. This instrument is long overdue for the kind of care Sam is giving it.
Great idea roping in a pal to put the manual through it's paces. Great work Sam! It's sounding really good
Wow, she's a beauty!
Good on ye for restoring it!
Very cool. You've restored the function and upgraded the electronics without wrecking the mojo.
Yet again - simply marvelous.
Sam, your work is really awesome! I like to see you don't complete restorate the organ and keep the patina of the years so it can tell many storys about his live from all over the years 👍. I'm looking forward for the next episode, many greetings from Germany!!
Lubbuly jubbuly! Good to see it moving forward, and glad that the keys were fine once cleaned up! I was a bit concerned by the radio silence, but I see now that it was just a lot of work. Straightforward, but tedious. It's also amazing how much simpler it is in the rebuild thanks to MIDI. It was such a Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg arrangement to make it work 100 years ago, but now everything is nice and modular.
OMG I was so sceptical about this project when you started, but you've done a great job, and the organ has maintained its integrity!
After all that organ magic, there’s more organ keyboard magic! An absolutely unbelievable project. The bast.
If you wanted to add some additional interactivity, you could fashion a small bank of pipes out of a more "user friendly" material ( like brass or steel ) and place that where the museum guest could tune them to their hearts content.
That monologue with music was so damn good, though a bit goofy 😂 Would listen to your voice like that for hours
Ok WOW!
The results make it soooooo worth it!
I was kind of curious as to when and if, you were going to do something with the console. Nice job on the cleaning and re-wiring!😉 I don't know how much key pressure it takes to actually sound a note, but it's better to err on the heavier side with the springs, so that the keyboard has a uniform 'feel' all the way across, and is responsive to quicker paced pieces of music. You could take the key-press weight from one of your midi keyboards and just carry it over to the console, using a weight that pushes the key down just so it touches the bottom felt. Once you have your key weight set, and the key travel set, and all leveled out, THEN set your key switches to contact around 50% of total travel. If you try to set the key switches first, they will all change when you set the key height and travel. Just an FYI! Keep up the good work.. this thing is really coming together nicely!😄👍👍
It's fine as it is but cheers!
You have done a really good job. Also a good choice to repair because of his history. I really hope to come to England one time and visit your museum
What a fantastic labour of love, thanks for sharing
Amazing work Sam! Not so much a restoration, as a rebirth - this machine has a story to tell...
Glad you kept the original manuals. Definitely good karma.😁
Sam, this is awesome! Happy to see you restoring the original keyboard (manuals, I suppose).
Sam you are amazing, I must try and visit the museum sometime. Really love your videos, keep up the good work.
The amount of work you’ve put in is incredible.
The work you are doing is amazing Sam. I could I dare say a blueprint for others to follow to keep these wonderful old organs working and bringing them into the future.