In February of 1995, we purchased our 4 Rank, 1939 Wicks Pipe Organ from the Flanner & Buchanan Mortuary. They were getting ready to demolish their old flag-ship mortuary at Fall Creek & Meridian; and, they had this organ available.
Since a pipe organ cannot be moved in one piece, it had to be disassembled -- all 268 pipes were pulled, marked, and wrapped; all of the wiring was unplugged, marked, and taped; the framework was taken apart; the four windchests were disconnected from the blower; and on and on... This was all done in one day and stored in one side of our two car garage.Putting it back together took much longer -- three months. The wind chests were disassembled and cleaned, the solonoids that control the airflow to the individual pipes needed to be cleaned and rewired, and all air leaks were repaired. All of the pipes were cleaned and repaired.
A new enclosure was built that would fit into our family room and the wood shutters were replaced with plexiglas so that the pipes could be seen from the front of the console. The blower needed to be repaired and installed, along with all duct work to the windchests. Then, all the pipes were reinstalled and the completed instrument was tuned. By May, it was finally ready for its debut -- i.e., it was ready to be used at our end-of-season choir dinner/rehearsal.
For those interested in the detailed spec's, read on... (otherwise, click on return now.)
SWELL ORGAN
16 ft. Bourdon -- 61 Notes
8 ft. Stopped Diapason -- 61 Notes
8 ft. Viola -- 61 Notes
8 ft. Aeoline -- 49 Notes
4 ft. Flute -- 61 Notes
4 ft. Aeoline -- 61 Notes
2 2/3 ft. Twelfth -- 61 Notes
2 ft. Fifteenth -- 61 Notes
8 ft. English Horn -- 49 Notes
PEDAL ORGAN
16 ft. Lieblichbourdon -- 32 Notes
8 ft. Gedeckt -- 32 Notes
PIPE ANALYSIS
16' Stopped Diapason & Lieblichbourdon -- 85 Pipes
Viola -- 61 Pipes
Aeoline -- 73 Pipes
English Horn -- 49 Pipes
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Total Pipes -- 268