Marc Dannecker
Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- St. Francis, WI
Ted,
One of my first projects of the summer was to try and make an Orchestrion I purchased last summer (bargain price, horrible sound) sound decent. A key to this was tuning a set of open flute pipes. I used the same approach Jay describes of cutting bit by bit until very close to the note and then sanding until there. This worked, except once where I went too far. I was prepared with thin sheets of brass to partially close the top to flatten the pitch(similar to what John shows on page 14 of the Topsy 3 construction drawings) but was amazed at how little of a change was needed to correct the pitch. Ultimately I ended up using a small bit of wood added to the top of the pipe in back and the problem was solved. My fix looks much like that in the lower left portion of page 13 in the topsy3 construction drawings. So, an errant over shortening of a pipe will likely not require a rebuild of the pipe as long as one of these corrections can be achieved without disturbing the visual aesthetic of the instrument (which must be why in most pipe organs few of the pipes are actually visible. . .)
Congratulations, you seem to be flying through this project. (I am slowly working on the much less complicated Busker)
Marc
One of my first projects of the summer was to try and make an Orchestrion I purchased last summer (bargain price, horrible sound) sound decent. A key to this was tuning a set of open flute pipes. I used the same approach Jay describes of cutting bit by bit until very close to the note and then sanding until there. This worked, except once where I went too far. I was prepared with thin sheets of brass to partially close the top to flatten the pitch(similar to what John shows on page 14 of the Topsy 3 construction drawings) but was amazed at how little of a change was needed to correct the pitch. Ultimately I ended up using a small bit of wood added to the top of the pipe in back and the problem was solved. My fix looks much like that in the lower left portion of page 13 in the topsy3 construction drawings. So, an errant over shortening of a pipe will likely not require a rebuild of the pipe as long as one of these corrections can be achieved without disturbing the visual aesthetic of the instrument (which must be why in most pipe organs few of the pipes are actually visible. . .)
Congratulations, you seem to be flying through this project. (I am slowly working on the much less complicated Busker)
Marc