3-Rank Wicks Rebuild

[drewworthen]

Hello, everyone.

A few weeks back I started a thread about a tracker organ I was attempting to build.

https://organforum.com/forums/forum/...rst-pipe-organ

Well, that project has been put aside due to THIS project sort of falling into my lap. I recently acquired a 3 rank Wicks organ, and with nowhere else to put it, I had no choice but to place it in the chapel of our church (Greenwood United Methodist) where I was initially planning to put my tracker once it was complete.

Now, for some backstory....

In 2010 I moved from my home state of Arkansas to attend grad school at Butler University in Indianapolis. A few days after moving to Indy, I met the most beautiful girl - who inevitably became my lovely wife, Sarah, who also happens to be a very gifted pianist. On our second date, I took Sarah for a tour around Indianapolis to play various pipe organs that I had been given access to. What else is an organ nerd like myself meant to do to try and impress a girl!? We went to 2nd Presbyterian to play the big Aeolian-Skinner, Sweeney Chapel to play the Holtkamp tracker, and ultimately back to campus to play the only pipe organ on Butler's campus (sadly), a little 3-rank Wicks in one of the practice rooms. Some years later, Sarah confessed to me, that apparently that organ tour was the moment she "knew" there was to be something life-long between us. (Unbeknownst to me! I was still completely clueless!)

Anyway, fast forward a decade to July of 2020. I now work full time for a technology company, and one of our customers is Butler University. We do all of their technology solutions for classrooms, lecture halls, etc. I happened to have the master set of keys to the music building one day and thought I'd go check on the old Wicks, only to discover that it was GONE, sadly. That VERY WEEKEND, Sarah and I made a trip to Ohio to purchase the Hutchings pipe work for my tracker project, and upon walking into the gentleman's house, I saw a little Wicks, without it's case (just the windchest, pipes, and console) and I said, "I used to play a similar little Wicks when I was a student at Butler." The guy said, "oh yeah, this is it."

What are the odds!?

As we pulled out of the driveway headed for home, Sarah turned to me and said, "Do you want that Wicks?" and I said, "Naah, it's a lot of work, I have nowhere to put it, and I don't have the time to invest in it at the moment." She said, "Well, it's special to me...." Well, say no more..... So I went back to ask him to sell it to me. So, this past weekend we loaded it all up and brought it to Indy.

After ruling out putting in our house (thank God) we agreed it was best to put it in the chapel GUMC.

I spent 8-10hrs a day, over the last week rebuilding the windchest and reassembling the case. One of the glass shades broke, unfortunately, but a local glass shop is currently cutting me a new piece of glass and it should be ready in a couple of days. All of the pipes were in excellent shape, but the windchest/base had been utterly DESTROYED in order to get it out of the music building and into the previous owners house. That has all been rebuilt and is waiting to be stained to match. It is scheduled to be tuned this Thursday, just in time for its inaugural service before Christmas Eve.

The new windchest and base....




All of the pipe work is excellent condition. It does need some voicing, which will come in the near future.


A fresh coat of paint really cleaned up the interior.


All assembled. I also added some lighting inside the case.


The console needs a little TLC and will get its refinishing in the near future, though I'm considering scrapping it altogether and building a new one. It isn't of the greatest quality. I'm also not a fan of that relay system and have considered replacing it with OpusTwo by recommendation of others.

It was a fun week-long project, and I'm glad Sarah and I get to hold onto the instrument for the remainder of our lives together as a memento of our early days together.

[tbeck]

What a great story.

[voet]

This is a great story, Drew. Thanks for sharing it.

[SchnarrHorn]

Great story and nice that the organ has a new home. It looks like you tried to include pictures in your post and they didn't take?

George

[drewworthen]

Pictures are showing fine for me... how's this?

[drewworthen]

[drewworthen]

[myorgan]

Nice story, Drew. I'm glad you could get the organ back. The Wicks may have been sold in a government auction. I seem to remember seeing it a while ago on govdeals.com.

Nice work on your new project!

Michael

[jbird604]

Love that story!

[drewworthen]

So this is prepared for a 4th rank (there's an extra toeboard, but no holes have been drilled into it yet). I do have a whole bunch of Wicks DE valves. If I were to add a fourth rank, what would you all recommend?

My thought was a soft reed - perhaps an oboe, but I'm also inclined to add a Dulciana or soft celeste. I actually have a rank of string pipes in my garage of an unknown builder.

[Larason2]

I don't know the exact stoplist, but guessing from the pipes, it looks like you have a rank of Diapason pipes going down to 8', a rohr or chimney flute, probably also down to 8' and a wood bourdon to 8'. A string would be a nice addition to the mix, as would a Celeste, however this would give it a pretty romantic disposition. You may not have enough room on the toe board for a Celeste, if you plan to have it 2 ranks as is traditional. I would avoid another flute, as you already have 2! Reeds are hard to pull off in a small space, and on a small organ, you might be better off with a 4 foot rank if you want a bit more power. Personally I would go with a nice string, especially if it is keen. That would make a good combination with the existing pipe work.

[myorgan]

What about a labial Oboe? A hybrid stop could come in handy here-Gemshorn or Erzähler. Both could be added as a Celeste.

Michael

P.S. In reading the post below, nix the Gemshorn. I'll stick with the Oboe.

[drewworthen]

It is a Rhor Flute, Principal, and Gemshorn basically. Those are my 3 colors. Now, it has tons of “stops” created from all of those, but those are the actual ranks.

[Larason2]

Ah, that is a bit of a different situation, And it depends on how the gemshorn was crafted and voiced. Some builders made their gemshorns “stringier” as I assume this one is, to balance with flute stops. On the other hand, some gemshorns are “flutier,” like Silbermann's spitzflote. It also depends on how much quint you hear in the chimney flute. If the gemshorn has a lot of flute tone (fundamental), and the chimney flute doesn't have a lot of quint sound, then a string would be a good addition. However, if the gemshorn is very stringy, and the chimney flute has a lot of quint, you're not adding much with a string, and you may find the result muddy. The problem with a soft reed is that if you build and voice it very soft, often it sounds like a string, at several times the cost and several times the trouble to tune and voice. A cool addition would be a harmonic flute at 4' (flute Octaviante). This would give the organ more options for combination, give you a useful solo voice, and give the principal chorus more power. You would have to find a way to overblow the pipes, which may not be easy depending on how the wind chest is set up. Another option would be to add a soft flute like a Lieblich Gedackt, or a Dulciana. Depending on how they are voiced, they can give a soft Celeste like effect for quiet passages, and are very useful for small spaces. They don't require high wind pressures, and would fit in your existing toe boards nicely. They could be combined with the gemshorn or chimney flute for a different tone colour.

[drewworthen]

Yes, I like your observation, Larason2, especially regarding the Dulciana.

The Gemshorn is a bit stringy. It's between a soft diapason and a mild string tone.

The chapel is quite a small space and we certainly aren't going to be doing a lot of Bach and counterpoint. It would be used for occasionally practicing, or for small services (typically funeral services). I think the Dulciana makes a lot of sense. Even if it's not truly a celeste, it would give a similar effect. Their narrow size/scale would make them easier to fit as well.

I vaguely recall a conversation once about a synthetic oboe? Isn't that done with a string and mutation of some sort?

For what it's worth, too, as is often the case with Wicks (so I hear), these pipes haven't been voiced (much). Someone has done a very small amount of nicking, but it's minimal. I was considering having either Goulding and Wood (since they are local) or some other organ-builder friends do some voicing for me (assuming they were interested in such a small job). I'm not really sure how to have the conversation, though, other than to merely say, "I trust your judgement, do what you think is best."

[myorgan]

If you go to Goulding and Wood, please say, "Hi" to Phil for me. I've known him for decades.

I think the "synthetic oboe" is what I described as a labial oboe (http://www.organstops.org/l/LabialOboe.html). The oboe quality is probably obtained by a combination of extremes in scaling, winding, and resonator design. The extremes in scaling can also be extremely small/narrow rather than large.

Michael

[voet]

Drew, with so few ranks I would suggest that you would get more use from the Dulciana if it did not celeste. Typically a unit organ is wired in at various pitches. It would be more versatile if it is in tune with the other ranks.

[Larason2]

Ah, I didn't mean to imply the dulciana should be tuned flat or sharp of the main ranks! But I think a narrow dulciana pipe winded on low pressure can have a pleasing undulation that can be compared to a Celeste. Tuning it flat, it wouldn't have another similar pipe to complement, so you wouldn't get a pleasing sound, in my opinion.