A restoration, step by step
What happens between the first visit and the first service.
Every instrument is different, but the order of work is nearly always the same. Here is the route we took with a two-manual village organ, in the words we would use to explain it to the parish council.
Timings are typical, not promised. The building, the budget and the weather all have a vote.
01
The survey
Two days in the church with torches, mirrors and a notebook. We play every note, open every panel, and photograph the inside of the case before anything is moved. The report that follows is the only document the parish needs to compare workshops.
02
Taking it apart
Pipes come out first, largest last, each one labelled and laid in padded trays. The action, the windchests and the bellows follow. A week later the church has an empty case and we have a van that smells of a hundred years of dust.
03
Months at the bench
This is the long, quiet part. Leather is renewed, cracks are filled with the same species of wood, bent pipes are coaxed round again. We send a short letter with photographs once a month so nobody has to wonder what is happening.
04
Back in the building
Reassembly takes two to three weeks, then voicing and tuning take as long again. We prefer to do this in the cold season, at the temperature the organ will actually be played in. The first service is usually a Sunday in late winter.
Have an instrument that needs looking at?
A survey costs a little. Waiting usually costs more.
Write to the workshop