2015/6 Organ Refurbishment
The organ was dismantled, cleaned and overhauled with the fitting of many new tuning slides for the pipes. All the internal leatherwork was replaced, together with many valves which have been re-fitted with new buttons and cloth washers. The key and pedal action has been simplified for greater reliability and the valves are now lifted with low-voltage electro-magnets for spontaneity of response controlled by a custom-made Solid State Switching System. The drawstop action remains as before and is totally mechanical.
The soundboard tables were initially thought to be immaculate and without any visible splits in the timber but, as the instrument was re-assembled, some previous problems of notes running together showed themselves. Further investigation revealed that the tables were constructed of individual planks joined together with central tongues and the planks had shrunk due to the dry conditions, this causes the wind to run from one note to its neighbours. The cure was to screw the planks back to the soundboard grid and to insert a wooden dowel to seal each crack, resulting in several thousand screws and dowels being inserted; something which could not have been foreseen.
In order to prevent unnecessary dust coming through the boards, the ceiling above the organ was re-lined, finally, to aid any future maintenance, several strip lights were fitted.
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January update
