DAY ONE OF A (PIPE) ORGAN TRANSPLANT

PROBLEM:  We had an ailing pipe organ that was heading for repairs that would be around $300,000.

OPPORTUNITY:  A Protestant church, Trinity Lutheran in Canton, with a much larger instrument was merging and wanted to sell their instrument.

A MATCH:  So we purchased their organ and hired the Schantz organ company repair and refurbish our organ and for a bit more investment we could expand our it.  The work at the parish began yesterday with the arrival of the Schantz truck.

We had Easter Tuesday Mass before they began work.  At the end of the petitions we prayed for the workers and blessed them that they might be safe and do their work well.  As soon as we stepped off of the altar they began assembling scaffolding from the ground floor up to the choir loft.

The first piece to be removed was the organ console.  We will be using the console from the other organ since it is much larger and more capable of handling the much larger organ this space will hold.  The console was sold to St. Vincent Parish along with repetitive sets of pipes we will no longer need and they will expand their organ and replace their console which is also ailing.  Win/win!

The first step was to man-handle the console onto the scaffolding.  No easy task!

Then they hooked it up to a winch and slowly lowered it to the floor.

Then the removal of the pipes began.  They are pulled out and carefully catalogued and stored with like voices and in order in various boxes designed to hold them.

This is a part of the swell chamber (one of the divisions of the organ) from where pipes have been removed.  Every single one of those little holes you see once held a pipe.

Some pipes are smaller than your pinkie.  Others can be two stories high.

Some of the larger pipes are seen below being laid out across the pews until they can be properly prepared for moving.  Today and tomorrow they will continue to remove every bit of the organ.  Spectators may come during business hours and watch though the best part of the show was yesterday.  Enter through the south doors only and remain behind the ropes.