Celeste Gang Switch

In order to convince the console to play a sixth rank (it was only designed to play five) I had to get a little creative with the wiring.  To do this, I had to ‘piggy-back’ the Celeste off of the Salicional.  My original plan was to send the electrical current from the Salicional pin to both the Salicional and Celeste pipe.  When the Salicional alone was drawn, only the Salicional would speak because the Celeste stop would actually be a switch in the common negative wire going from the Celeste back to the rectifier.  When both stops are drawn, both ranks would speak.  I was advised that this would probably work, but I would need to install flyback diodes on each magnet because the magnets would act as an inductor and create all sorts of arcing and electric mayhem in the console.  I don’t know much about electronics and I have no clue how to determine the correct size and capacity diode to use.

Plan B involved building a gang switch out of left-over parts I had lying around the shop and installing it before the Celeste magnets.  Drawing the Celeste stop would activate the gang switch and electric current would be sent to both the in-tune and Celeste rank.  This arrangement eliminates the need for diodes, but requires me to build a switch.  Plus more moving parts and electrical contacts could mean higher maintenance in the future.  Building the switch is not difficult, just time consuming.

I solicited the opinions of the people on an organbuilder’s forum and everyone recommended the gang switch.  A number of people also offered to sell me a used switch they had on hand at a ‘very reasonable price’.  Thanks to Tim Bovard from Nichols & Simpson in Arkansas who promptly got a switch in the mail to me.

When it arrived I gave it a cleaning and testing and it was ready to install.  All I had to do was run a cable from the Salicional junction pins to the gang switch, then a cable from the switch to the Celeste junction pins.  I mounted it in the console (these work best in a vertical position, and that’s just the place I had for it) and ran a wire to the stop tab contacts.  The finished part is pictured below as installed in the bass-side of the console.  It took a full day to install, but was well worth it!  Much easier than building my own switch!