Prinzipal Racking

The new Prinzipal rank I bought is a bit smaller scale (diameter) than the Diapason originally planted on my main chest.  The holes in the rack board were quite a bit too large.  Plus, the original rack board had been damaged and would have needed to be replaced any way.  Since this rack is front and center, I wanted it to look especially nice.

Using the original as a guide, I marked all the holes on a piece of new 1/2" thick poplar.  I found that Forstner drill bits made good centering guides.  If I didn't have a drill bit close enough to the original hole, I did my best to eyeball it.  I also marked the holes for the rack pins this way.

After marking the holes, I used my racking jig and a calipers to measure each pipe.  I added a little bit to each diameter because it was difficult to get the rack perfectly centered over the toe holes.  I figured it would be easier to drill big holes and then make each pipe perfectly plumb by felting the holes as needed.  I wrote the hole size needed on the blue tape on the rack board so I would be sure to drill the right size hole.  I then drilled the appropriate size holes.  As planned, many holes were too large and I wanted these pipes to be perfectly plumb (being the facade, so to speak) so I added felt as needed to make them stand perfectly upright.

Finally, I added a strip of oak trim to the front edge of the rack board to dress it up and match the finish of the console and swell box.

Prinzipal Racking Album

16' Reed Offset

Of course, I wanted to extend my Oboe down to 16' (who doesn't want a 16' reed in their house organ?).  I really don't want anything that will shake the house.  Instead I wanted something that would just beef up and color the Bourdon.  I had been keeping an eye out for just about any reed extension (12 notes) with half-length resonators, 3" wind pressure, and not too loud.  I finally found 12 pipes listed on churchorgantrader.com.  They were originally built by Jerome B. Meyer as a clarinet but had quarter-length resonators.  Someone else extended the resonators to half-length and mitered them to fit under an 8' ceiling.  They needed a little work and the price was acceptable, but I knew it would be tough to find something perfect.

I bought these and they came with a small direct-electric chest.  The chest wasn't designed specifically for the pipes, but it should work, right?  Nope.  The toe holes in the chest were much smaller than the toe holes in the pipes.  Plus, I wasn't crazy about having one direct-electric chest with an otherwise electro-pneumatic organ.  So I set about building an offset chest.

The process was much like the chest I built for the Celeste and Rohrflöte.  The design was a little different though.  I put the magnets on the bottom of the chest and ran the vinyl tubing straight down instead of into the side with borings leading to the magnets.  This allowed the chest to be more compact and was a little easier to build.  The drawback is that if I ever need to do anything with the magnet, port, or armature, it will be a PAIN to access.  It worked when it was finished so I'm crossing my fingers.  The picture here shows the chest lying on its back side on my workbench.

The unique thing about this chest is that it is not chromatic.  It is random.  If you look at the album link at the bottom of this text you will see the complex miters of the resonators.  I could either have Bedient un-miter and then re-miter them to fit on a normal chromatic chest, or I could arrange the chest so all the pipes make room for each other.  I wanted to do the latter, but there wasn't a good way to do it.  I solved the problem by making the rack board so some of the pipes lean toward the wall and some lean out into the room a bit.  Not much, but enough that the miters will clear each other.  It will look a little goofy, but they will be in the far back corner (pity the organ tuner!) so no one will see them.

Reed Offset Album