On the Road Again...

Back in September I put an ad on churchorgantrader.com looking for the bottom octave of a 16' reed to extend my oboe down an octave.  The resonators would need to be half or quarter length and mitered (if necessary) to fit under my ceiling.  The only other requirement was that it be loud enough to support the fuller registrations, but not so loud that it sticks out. 

I got a reply from Shawn Keith in Michigan.  He had the bottom octave of a clarinet / krummhorn hybrid that he was willing to sell.  It came out of a chapel seating ~100 people.  The resonators were half-length, open and cylindrical (my Oboe is capped and inverted conical), but they were mitered.  Plus he had a small offset chest that would play them.  After exchanging several emails I decided to buy them.

Since I was facing a road trip to pick them up, I wanted to make it worth while.  The last big thing I was looking for was a new Principal from 4' C (or from 8' if the voicing and price were right).  He replied that he did in fact have a 4' Principal built by Jerome Meyer of Miluakee.  It was from the same chapel mentioned above and was realtively narrow scale- ideal for a residence.  It was also in pristine condition- perfect for a facade.  So, I decided to buy that as well. 

Now, the logistics of getting the pipes to me.  It was way too much to reasonably ship, so I was faced with a road trip.  He was willing to deliver the pipes to Schneider Pipe Organs in Kenney, IL, saving me about 4 hours drive time.  Plus, Rich Schnieder is an experienced pipe voicer and he could address any voicing issues we may discover.  I wanted to take the 8' octave of my Principal and Oboe so we could hopefully voice them to match and blend.  I was able to borrow my employer's covered 12' trailer to make the trip.  After a bit of a fiasco getting trailer brakes installed I was ready to go.

I left work at 2:30 pm on a Wednesday and headed out.  My first stop was at Temple Organs in St. Joe, MO to pick up a set of chimes.  The 25-tube set and their action was built by the Maas Company of California.  I also picked up a 24v transformer, volume switch, and new under-key contacts.  All of those parts had been removed from my console long before I got it.  I then set out to drive across the state of Missouri.  I got a hotel room in Hannibal before making the last leg of the trip ro Kenney.

I arrived in Kenney the next morning at 9:00 am and met Rich Schneider.  Unfortunately, I neglected to charge my camera battery, so I don't have any photos of the entire project.  We began with the Principal.  Although the rank was originally voiced on 3" of wind, someone revoiced it on about 5".  Their tone was weak and anemic on 3".  So Rich opened the toe holes and raised the cut-up just a bit.  The pipes now speak with an excellent Principal tone- bright but not over-bearing, and nice clear articulation.  As he continued voicing, I began washing the pipes in EDTA.  A ten-minute soak followed by a rinse and they sparkled.  Rich then fitted the pipes with new stainless steel tuning slides and it now looks like a brand new rank!  We decided to call it a day before diving into my bass octave.

My basses were in pretty rough shape.  The next day, he hammered out the dents, repaired all the miters, replaced several missing ears, and one damaged toe.  The original voicing was a little forced and harsh.  He remedied that by removing the harmonic bridges, increasing the cut-up, removing much of the knicking, and closing the toe holes a bit.  After adjusting the languid and a few other tweaks, the pipes just purr!  Fortunately, the scaling of the Meyer Principal fits with my old basses and it's a fairly smooth transition.  I am thrilled!

That took the better part of the second day so we didn't have much time to spend on the reed.  We did put it on the voicing chest, but found several issues.  First, the rank originally had quarter-length resonators.  Someone extended them to half-length.  The problem is that it is nearly impossible to tune the reed to the resonator.  Second, the curvature of the reed itself isn't ideal, and that affects the speech.  Third, the reeds were filthy and needed a good cleaning.  We put a few of my Oboe pipes on the voicing chest and they have issues as well.  Their reeds too are filthy and need a thorough cleaning.  My reeds also had a lead weight attached to them and many of those weights are missing.  Finally, my Oboe is considerably softer than the Clarinet.  We realized that it would take much more work to get all these in shape than what Rich could squeeze into his schedule.  I had the whole drive home to think about what I wanted to do, so we packed everything up.  Before I left, Rich showed me around his warehouse-  an incredible collection of pipes, chests, reservoirs, consoles, and much more!

Overall it was an excellent trip.  I learned a lot about voicing, the most important lesson being it is way more complicated than I care to attempt- best left to the professionals!  I am very excited to have the Principal, and I am looking forward to the challenge of the reed.  A huge thanks to Rich Schneider for all his help on this project!