Was/Sharp organ/Organ tuning

[jolly roger]

Hi David,
               Low C on a 64ft stop is approx 16Hz, and is usually a
stopped flute. ( wooden pipe thats 32ft long)I have heard of them being
resultants.  Thats a stopped flute half the length, that will play the Root
and 5th simultaniously.  the temperment 5th is so slow down here, it almost
sounds perfect.   Each tech will have his own fudge factors.  And will
defend it to the death.
As humans, are hearing is all over the map in this register,  so perception
of tuning can become very debateable.
My previous comment about pianos and pipe organs, re tune the piano at
A440.  period.  You will never get the organ intune with it. Just too many
variables.   This is a practical fact of life.
Working, and educating with all that are involved, is the key to keeping
your sanity.   It's a no win situation to complain about the organ tuning.
 Best case senerio, is to solicit the help of the pipe organ tech, in
explaining the problem to the church people.  The Casavant tech was very
helpful with my situation.  As has run into the problem many times.
The lack of inharmonicity in most of the pipe work, also will give an
entirely different stretch, that becomes very obvious, in the extreme
registers.  The pipe organ tech is tuning each rank, back to the Pincipal
8' and 4' reference with the fundamentals in unison.
Sooooooooo many different variables.  Try and understand all that is going
on and teach the imformation that you learn.
No simple answers that i know of.
Roger 



At 08:35 AM 5/14/01 -0400, you wrote:
>No solution....more related questions.
>
>I also have recently begun to tune for a church hall with
>a $2000000 pipe organ. The piano is a new 7" Pramburger.
>
>It costs them $2200 per tuning to tune the organ three times per
>year,$6600.....
>They bring the company in from out of town.
>(Ha... but the committee is shopping for the best tuning price on the
>piano,
>even though the music director is insistent he wants me to have the
>contract
>and they need to use it for concert work.....volunteer committees!!)
>Perhaps I should learn to tune that organ...I'll give them special price
>hehe.
>
>Serious Pipe Organ questions/obsevations.....
>
>I question the tuning of the organ, It had been done the day before.
>Are Organs purposely offset due to the differential in the size of the
>pipes may cause different pipes to change with temperature at different
>rates?
>
>A440 Unisions between different sets of pipes do beat-- about 1 per
>second.
>Bass below F2 or so seem sharp to me.   Perhaps they use a machine.
>Any comments of organ idiosyncrasies appreciated. I'm hoping that my
>critical attitude of its tuning is due to my ignorance of pipe organs
>and not
>because standards for tuning these instruments are so low at even such
>outrageous prices.
>
>As a footnote, this beast goes down to "C0"?, a full major 6th below the
>
>lowest A on the piano. I tried the foot pedals with the 64 foot stop and
>
>that low C just sounds like a jackhammer in the room ta-ta-ta -ta-ta.
>Anyone know its frequency?
>
>                                       Cheers
>                                        Dave Renaud
>                                        RPT
>
>
>
>
>Jeannie Grassi wrote:
>
>> List,
>> Anyone care to share your opinion with Greg?
>>
>> From: greg hollister [mailto:biggiewarehouse@yahoo.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 6:02 PM
>> Subject: Sharp organ Q&A
>>
>> I just had an experience with a pipe
>> organ which was recently tuned.  The pitch was just
>> above A-443. I double checked this with a spare fork
>> and with the digital piano in the church.   All
>> confirmed my initial finding.  Really sharp.  Of
>> course, the choir director loves to play duets.  The
>> piano they use is a 25? year old Kawai 300 grand.   My
>> question is this: In a situation like this  do we just
>> go ahead and tune the piano that sharp informing the
>> church they will have to tune it again and pay for any
>> string breakage?  How sharp is too sharp?  The organ
>> is almost new and pitch was not a problem prior to
>> this.  How much slack do we cut pipe organ tuners?
>> Thanks,
>>                                                 Greg Hollister RPT
>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> Do You Yahoo!?
>> Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
>> http://auctions.yahoo.com/
>