We have sound!

Paul, our electrician, finished wiring all the new circuitry this week and Mike and his team began fitting the bottom pipes of the Great 8′ Open Diapason onto the casework, where they will provide facing pipes on the right and left hand sides. I haven’t seen these pipes before and was amazed at their size – the longest is about 11′ high, which was no surprise, but also about about 9″ in diameter which is large for an open diapason – however, I’m told that they sound terrific!

The console was wired into the circuits and on Thursday night we had the great “switch on”. When the console switch was pressed, both of the blowers and all the internal circuitry came on first time.  We then had a little play on the organ using some of the Swell stops.  Even though the have not been properly voiced or tuned yet, they sounded pretty good.

The organ bench from Whyke has now returned to Coventry, cleaned up and refurbished. The height adjustment mechanism had seized up whilst it was in store in Chichester before it was given to us, but this now works perfectly. This is all a bit of a luxury for me – I have never had an adjustable bench before. In the past at All Souls we used some wooden blocks!

The gilded cross and panelling for the casework has now been fitted in place. This weekend I will be looking at the rest of the fretwork that will need to be made, gilded and fitted, and returning to the tedious task of stripping several thick layers of old paint from the front display pipes.

Next week, John, our software designer, will be on site to carry out the final tweakings of the stop control software, the rest of the Open Diapason bottom octave will be fitted into the side panels of the case and the blowers will be soundproofed.

Gilded panel in place

Main casework in place