Glenn Grafton wrote: > >Here's the situation we've encountered with pipe organs. Often times >>the church has a maintenance contract on the p.o. which includes >>tuning. Unlike a piano the pipe organ guys often times do not go > >through and tune the whole organ. >snip > >I explained the tuning issue to the music director. He contacted the >>pipe organ people to ask why the organ wasn't really tuned. The >>answer was that the rates would be much higher if they had to tune >>the whole organ to pitch. >> >>The church now has a new Allen Digital Computer organ >>(http://www.allenorgan.com/) and a Yamaha C6 6'11" grand. The only > >tuning needed is on the grand : ) David I. wrote: >Well, they should get rid of the grand also and then no tuning will be >needed. I really hope the church didn't sell its pipe organ to replace it >with a digital organ...if so, it is very short-sighted and sounds like the >salesman struck again. > Yes the church got rid of the pipe organ and replaced it with a new Allen digital organ. The organist is thrilled with the sound (and the tuning problem is not an issue.) You must remember that just because an organ is a pipe organ does not automatically relegate it to being a wonderful work of art. There are many, many dog pipe organs that are in need of major rebuilding at a cost beyond many churches budgets will allow. Yes there are also some very fine pipe organs that should not be replaced but maintained and rebuilt. If you have not heard an Allen organ in recent years you should really take the time to listen to one. We're long passed the issue of whether or not they sound like pipes. We've done a number of additions to pipe organs using a new Allen console and digital tone generation, yet keeping the pipes. On a stop by stop comparison the tone IS indistinguishable. The real issue at heart often times is an emotional issue with the organist, not a tonal issue. When the evaluation is tone, playability and stewardship, the Allen is a wise decision...oh but you may be thinking pipe organs last for hundreds of years but a digital organ will only last for 20 or 30 years. Dig a little deeper and you'll find that pipe organs need major rebuilding at some substantial dollars, often times in the 6 figures. On the other hand we have older Allens that we service that are 50 years old and working fine. One final note; why is that when a church buys a digital organ for $15-60,000 they are "sold" it by a salesman, but if they spend $180,000 to rebuild a pipe organ they magically are led through the buying decision process with no sales tactics on the part of the pipe organ person. -- Glenn Grafton Grafton Piano & Organ Co. 1081 County Line Rd. Souderton PA 18964 http://www.graftonpiano.com/ glenn@graftonpiano.com 800-272-5980 The box said "Requires Windows 95, or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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