Over the past 25 years our firm has provide expert organ tuning services on a wide variety of instruments ranging in size from 2 to 65 ranks.

All organs require routine tuning and maintenance to work and sound their best.  Without proper maintenance small problems can accumulate to the point that an organ becomes unusable.  In addition to tuning, our regular service visits include a thorough testing of all appurtenances such as couplers, combination actions, etc.  Also included are minor pipe regulation, blower lubrication and minor repairs.

In most cases we recommend two regular tuning/maintenance visits per year.  The Spring/Summer tuning is done in May or June after the heating season has ended and with air conditioning systems operating as applicable.  The Fall/Winter tuning is generally done in November/early December after winter heating has begun.

 

Why do we recommend semiannual tuning/maintenance visits?

The pitch of the individual pipes in the organ go up and down as the temperature of the air in and around the pipe increases and decreases respectively.  It is therefore necessary to establish correct tuning for the summer and winter seasons.  The semiannual visits are also an ideal schedule for making routine repairs and adjustments.

More information about how temperature effects organ tuning can be found on the page Tuning and Temperature.

Tuning and pitch

As we mentioned above, the pitch of the organ changes with changes in room temperature.  It is not our practice to repitch an organ at a regular semiannual tuning/maintenance visit.  Changing the pitch of the organ requires retuning every pipe in the organ to establish the new pitch. Our practice is to establish the “base pitch” of the organ  at an initial complete tuning of the instrument. This base pitch of the organ is then expected to change seasonally with the change in “normal” temperature of the room.  At our regular service visits we will carefully check the base pitch and bring any pipes that have drifted off back into tune.

Re-pitching the organ

If we find that an organ is too far off standard pitch to be usable, as is sometimes the case if the organ is used with symphony instruments, we can schedule a tuning visit to reset the pitch of the entire organ.  This service is will be carefully arranged with the customer involved to assure satisfactory end results.

Major repairs

At each regular tuning/maintenance visit, we inspect the organ for  physical and water damage, deteriorated materials such as leather or rubber cloth and other things which may warrent major repairs to the organ. If we find any such concerns they will be immediately pointed out to the music or maintenance staff and we will send the customer a followup letter outlining the problem and/or a proposal for the repair work involved.

Advanced knowledge of pending major repairs allows the customer to work out a financial plan for how and when such work will be completed.