Over Christmas I finished painting the outside of the top sections of the Swellbox, and on 31 December Mike and his team arrived to finish building it. They also fitted the bottom Pipes of the Pedal Principal rank in front of the Subbass pipes and fitted a completely new windchest behind the Swellbox, which will take the bottom octave of the refurbished 16′ Bourdon stop. This will provide us with a soft bass sound for accompanying cantors and quiet choir items (our old bass was much too loud for this).  Emily and I now have more painting to do whilst the next sections are being built in the workshop.

Refurbished pedal principal pipes installed and awaiting final painting

From a distance (you’ll never see this view once it’s finished!)

Over Christmas 2014 Simon Tipping remembered seeing some wooden principal pipes in part of the “condemned” Bloxwich organ.  Mike and Simon went over to have a look on 27th December. Simon was half right – there were some suitable pipes, but not where he thought they were.  They were “liberated” and Mike tested them in his workshop.  They were of the right age and almost matched the Nelson pipes, so work started on refurbishing the bottom 6 pipes to complete our Principal rank.

Upon being counted in the workshop it looked as if the bottom 6 wooden pipes of the old Nelson Principal rank were missing.  There was no sign of them among the pipework back at church. Eventually we worked it out – they were never put in in the first place!  Instead, the Principal rank “borrowed” the bottom 6 pipes of the Flute rank.  This rank is a fundamental part of the new organ, so we now need to find 6 pipes from somewhere that will match the rest of the Principal rank and finally complete it – over 100 years after it was first made!

 The organ builders are back to refurbish the large wooden pedal subbass pipes ‘on site’ (some of which are 9’ long!), cleaning them with compressed air, cleaning, polishing and re-greasing the tuning stoppers that fit in the top of the pipes, all ready for repainting.

Refurbished Pedal 16′ Subbass pipes refurbished and painted

The biggest pipe so far all done and ready to be fitted!

At All Souls – the rear wall is sealed by me before being painted over by volunteers from the parish.

In the workshop – the Swell division’s windchest and soundboard are rebuilt and the pipes are refurbished and fitted with new tuning slides (metal sleeves which are moved up and down the top of a pipe to tune it). The windchests for the pedal bass pipes are being remade completely (they could not be refurbished – they were originally so poorly made that they leaked wind very badly).

The pallets are fitted to the inside of the Swell windchest

Looking into a rebuilt pedal windchest showing the small bellows motors which control the wind supply to each big pipe

Organ builders due on site this week – now it begins!