ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Randel C. Anderson, June 1997
Wurlitzer Op 2086 is now being installed in my home, it should be
playable by the end of the year.
From: Randel C. Anderson, October 1998
I have been working on a 3/8 (Opus 2086) Wurlitzer for the last 3 years.
This organ came out of a local Baptist church here in Greenville SC in 1963
and had been in storage. Although it came out of a church, it is basically
a theatre organ without the traps and tuned percussions.
Ranks are:
16' Diapason 97p
8' Tibia Clausa 73p
8' Vox Humana 73p
8' Oboe Horn 73p
8' Salicional 85p
8' Voix Celeste tc 73p
16' Concert Flute 97p
8' Aeoline 85p
All pipework except the Vox is on 8" (Vox is on 6")
The console is a typical Wurlitzer church console with a single horseshoe
bolster. The back rail is totally blank. This will give me some room to
expand. The console is also laid out Choir, Great and Swell. In order to
respecify the console more along the lines of a theatre organ I have
replaced the original relay with an Artisan System. This also provides an
important feature, Record/Playback.
Every one asks my why I am installing an organ in my home when I don't
play. I tell them that I am a technician not a musician, the computer will
play the organ JUST FINE!
The current status of my installation is that the Main & Solo chests are
set up, pipes are racked and chests have been wired to the relay.
The 16' Diaphone, 8' & 16' Flute (Bourdon) and 8' Tibia offsets are set up
with the pipes installed. They are not wired yet to the relay, I will wire
them after the wind lines are installed. It is easier to run wire around
wind lines than wind lines around wire.
I am now working on the main wind lines from the 3 HP blower. I expect to
have the chamber completed early next year. Then I will start on the
console.
From: Randel C. Anderson, December 1998
Year End Progress Report:
As I write this it is hard to believe that another year is fast coming to a
close. I have been making steady progress on the installation of my
Wurlitzer, Opus 2086. I am now in the process of installing the main wind
line from the blower to the chamber. The wind line is fabricated from 24
gage galvanized air duct. I prefabed the line in two sections with all the
joints and elbows soldered. I did all the soldering outside on the back
deck. I did not want any fumes from the muriatiac acid attacking anything
in the house. The two sections are now in-place. There will also be a 6"
line running from the blower to the regulator feeding the bourdons. I plan
to run this line while I am on vacation for the holidays.
I have also been busy releathering the offset chests for the Bourdons, 8'
Diapason and the Diaphone. For some reason the primaries for these chests
were zephyr skin and that stuff was all crispy. The rest of the organ is
brown leather and is in reasonably good shape. I am also releathering an 18
note chime action.
I have the chamber portion of the Artisan relay installed and working. The
console portion is set up so I can do some testing of the organ. I have
been playing with Artisan's new MIDI sequencer interface board. Using a
temporary wind supply to the Flute and Salicional I have had the organ
making some sounds. With this new board I am able to playback MIDI files
that were recorded on other organs.
The major tasks at hand are to finish up the main wind line, install the
trunks under the chests and install the regulators. Then wind the chests
and offsets.
Once I have the chamber under control I will attack the console. All the
pneumatics for the stop actions need to be releathered. There are 69 stop
tabs on the main rail. There are 3 spare blow box positions so I will try
to tuck 3 additional stop tabs into the main rail. The back board which is
now totally blank will be outfitted with 16 to 20 Syndynes. One interesting
note, the back board is half the height (4") of a normal Wurlitzer console.
I will also be replacing the contacts on the pedal board using reed
switches or maybe Hall effect transistors. I already have the magnets to
mount on the pedals. I am also going to try to add second touch on the
Choir (accompaniment) manual.
From: Randel C. Anderson, June 1999
On my "Church Wurlitzer" Opus 2086 (1929) the note relay did not use
primaries, but exhausted the note pneumatic directly. This was done with
the standard "Black Cap" magnet. I am not using the relay so I don't know
what the response time was. I guess that on a church organ, speed was not a
big deal. The rest of the organ has the standard chest design.