A small pipe organ for the home?

[Organfella]

Well, I am not sure if this thread belongs here but the Moderator can please move it to an appropriate section if necessary.

I have just been offered a small single manual pipe organ by a mission station who has no use for it. I do not yet have pictures and cannot remember how many ranks of pipes it has. The organ is assembled in a single case, including the blower with the pipes on top. Some of the smaller pipes are mangled and there may be one or two missing.

The make is a Whacker Opus 3614 built in 1957 and I will post some pictures when I get them.
Any comments at this stage welcome - I am definitely excited by the prospect of having a small piper in my home... if the organ bug will not let me go I might get it however.... space, funds, transport... oh what the heck... :P

Whaddaya say?

Nico

[lizny]

how close is your nearest neighbor? :-D

[ChristopherDB113]

Personally I would want two manuals.

You might want to see if you can find someone to repair or replace those pipes and get a rough estimate on the cost before committing to getting that organ.

[Jay999]

I agree with lizny. How loud is it? Is there a "wife factor" in making this your new hobby? Is the floor area you plan to place
the organ in, strong and well supported from underneath? Most pipe organs weigh about 300 pounds per stop. Is the blower electricity requirement the same as your household electrical supply? Have you taken measurements of the organ, width, depth, height....and know it will fit in your home location?

The top end pipes that are damaged can be repaired or replaced by most pipe organ tuners, or in a worst case scenario, you can ship a good pipe just below the mangled ones, also ship the mangled pipes, to an organ builder and have the pipes repaired for nominal costs.

If the organ is a mechanical action, chances are you will not need to do many repairs to the keying action. If it is a pneumatic valve action (thin bladders that move up and down to cause the valves to open) then you may be facing an action releathering job. If the valves are mounted onto a lever that is hinged to coil type magnet, you may, or may not be facing a valve replacement job. Your best knowledge about this can be obtained from the man who tuned and maintained the organ in the past, or if the builder of the organ still exists, you could obtain that information from the builder. Doing this much preparation and knowledge gathering in the beginning should help you decide whether you will be happy, or not, with a pipe organ in your home. Good luck.

[myorgan]

Nico,

I moved the thread for you. Hopefully, you'll get more information there.

Michael

[Organfella]

I thank you all kindly for all the valued comments.

Here is a list of answers:

My closest next-door neighbor is a musician and much into noisy stuff so I'm OK there - and he does not own a shotgun. The other one is a vet and unmarried so he tends to be away most of the time digging into the guts of cows or horses...

My sweet wife is the organist and although she kind of cringed at the thought of "yet another organ in the house" she is generally OK with the idea.
The floor of the room, in fact the entire house is of solid concrete with ceramic tiles over it so that will take the weight. Actually the organ does not look that big and my rough guess is about 400 lbs.

The action appears from the pictures that I have seen to be the magnetic type but cannot be sure. I am still waiting for some pictures hopefully before I get to take a drive out there and have a proper look-see. The organ actually still sounds - according to the pastor so the pipes that are still OK are doing their job. The blower is a small one mounted inside the case and connects to the single phase mains power supply.

The location of the organ is only about 10 kilometers away so easy to get there but it seems difficult to pin the people down for a time to view the organ. It was built by a local manufacturer in 1957 and I will try and trace them - although it is unlikely that they still exist.

Thanks for the comments so far and thanks Michael for moving the thread to this Forum. I will get back with pictures and more information as and when I can.

Nico

[regeron]

WEIGHT & STOPLIST - A single-manual organ will likely have one or two 8' stops. The rest of the stops will be smaller. It is unlikely that there are any 16' stops. I would not expect it to weigh in at 300lb/stop.

NEIGHBORS - A single-manual organ is usually not built to fill a really large space. Aside from the one or two 8' stops, it will likely have some 4' and 2' stops and might have a small mixture and/or a reed and/or a mutation or two. The keyboard may be divided. Even if you had neighbors close by, all the stops except one or two of the highest/brightest ones should be usable at most times.

MAKER - I tried to search "Whacker" organs but found nothing. If this was Opus 3614, you'd think their name would show up. I also searched South African Organ builders. Nothing close to that name. Could it be the English Walker or the German Walcker?

It sounds like a tempting find! Keep us informed. :-)

[Organfella]

Actually the name is Walcker (I was thinking of someone who likes to whack things and misspelt - sorry). Walcker organs are shown on the web but invariably they are large cathedral types. Have a browse and see.
Nico

[Sarah Weizhen]

I don't know too much about putting a pipe organ in a house.
But I know a person who has a two manual many many stops 700 pipes organ in his house, it has swell box pedal and tremolo and everything.

He is an old professor in Manhattan school of music, and has been having that organ since the 90s if not 80s, he had a fire accident once which destroyed part of it, but he got it repaired, it's in a very good function now,
only one thing that I don't like about it is that it has absolutely no weight to the keys, when I play that organ if I habitually use a lot of strength on my fingers I would feel that my finger bones are going to break.

Before I see this "home organ" in person, I was expecting it's to be a single manual little organ which only has 3 stops, or, I was expecting him to have a huge house with very high celling and lots of big open space. Because I thought that you got to be super rich to have a full pipe organ at home.

But it seems I was wrong! I was very surprised that he actually don't even have a very big house. He lives in the second floor, rented out the first floor, and the pipes filled up at least one room in second floor of the apartment (where he lives), the organ console is in the other room right next to the wall where the swell box shade is, and some pipes are outside next to the console.
When the shade is closed, it doesn't look very obvious that there is a pipe organ in the house. And when he close the swell box or only use some soft stops, it's not loud at all.

I did asked him about the neighbors, he said "I own the house, who could complain?" I guess the neighbors in the other building can't hear him.

I was very impressed by it.
When I visit him next time I will have a closer look at it, and maybe take a picture if he allows.

What really surprised me is that it really looks like it's a big pipe organ in a cluttered little apartment.
It almost has a feeling that it's his only treasure in the house, he is a real artist, the organ is his life, his everything.

[Organfella]

I am sorry about the suspense of delays caused by my silly forgetfulness in getting decent pictures - I even lost the contact person's mobile number but I promise when I do get ready, I'm gonna be busy.... Trying to make space by selling off one of my favoite Hammonds...:'(

Nico

[Organfella]

OK, so I got some pictures. The beast is larger than I imagined, over two meters wide and three tall. I will have my work cut out to accommodate this old lady, if at all... :-P I am surprised that there does not seem to be a pedal clavier...:embarrassed:
Nico

[Sarah Weizhen]

Looks beautiful!!

[lcid]

Nico,

You may want to consider some limitations. In college, we had practice rooms with similar small pipe organs and I always hated the sound of the pipes (box of whistles) SO close to my ears; harsh and almost hurtful. With the instrument you are considering, I would terribly miss the pedalboard and not being able to practice an entire musical score. My best wishes to you this Christmas season.

[andijah]

What an interesting instrument! While I'm totally fine with having just one manual available (my main organ has one manual only), I wouldn't want to have another pedal-less keyboard in the house. If you want to have it just for the sake of having it and maybe restoring it yourself, then it might be good choice. As a practice instrument, it might not.

[Pipeorganbuilder]

Very nice looking organ. Very nice chest magnets and blower. That would be a fun little organ if the price is right.

Michael

[Jay999]

That's an electro pneumatic organ. There's a magnet for every note, so it may be unified to play more than one pitch for each rank of pipes. The Blower is a Midenger. Before you officially take this organ, I'd highly recommend that you contact the man who was tuning and maintaining it, and find out what sort of condition the pneumatic action is in. If the organ was built in the 1950s, and has never had an action refurbishment, you will be faced with a very good possibility that all the action bladders (pouches) need to be replaced. Replacing pouches is a rather precise job, and it can be expensive.

A second consideration...even if you went to the extra work of adding a pedal board and a bass stop to the organ, the pedal board would stick out, under the keyboard, and never be ergonomically comfortable to play, without modifications to the case work, and possibly modifying the keyboard desk as well.

I see a lot of work here, and a lot of reasons that you ought to make friends with a local pipe organ technician who would guide you in correct, and rewarding decisions, physically, financially, and musically. Good luck!

[Organfella]

Thanks everyone.
While this prospect seems alluring sanity must prevail. We took measurements of the only room in the house where the tall pipes on this beast will fit - only just... That happens to be our daughter's current bedroom which was actually an office before. It has a high ceiling. However, if the tall pipes' upper openings will be so close to the ceiling the sound may be compromised. The measurements of the organ are 2025 X 570 X 3060mm - a really tall order!;-)
The width and depth will fit in easily on the one wall but the ceiling is exactly 3080mm high - to my thinking just too tight a fit. Besides we would have to relocate our little girl (fourth year medical student who is seldom home...) which seems unfair. Secondly given the condition of the contemplated acquirement, extra space would be needed to swing hammers, chisels and axes etc. while doing the work. Given all that, the organ bug bite is starting to loose intensity - until I look at those pictures again....

The name of the Manufacturers: South African Organ Builders Pty Ltd, Silverton. They do not show on brief searches but help could be had if one should look hard enough.

Next I shall have to ask the wife to accompany me to the site and look the old gal over, perhaps press a note or ten to hear if she still breathes. My main fear is that the organ may end up in a trash heap!

Decisions, decisions, decisions..... :o:o

Nico