Organ servicing always comprises
the tuning and maintenance of the organ.

Part 1: Tuning

An organ should be tuned „as little as possible“ and „as much as necessary“. For this reason, we do not recommend an overall tuning every year. For high-quality organs, the overall tuning can be limited to once every four or five years. In the in-between years, a partial tuning will suffice. Of course, these time frames will be set individually for each organ and also in compliance with the requirements of the parish.
Overall Tuning

Overall Tuning
• control and/or correction of the tempering

• intonation balance of single pipes

• tuning of all pipes that need to be tuned while maintaining their original tune colour

Partial Tuning

• retuning of single pipes that are very much out of tune

• tuning of all tongue registers

Part 2: Maintenance

The organ maintenance comprises the following tasks:

• examine the wind supply: check the oil level and possibly refill special oil

• check the secondary voltage of the rectifier

• check and possibly adjust the wind pressure, check the wind-chest bellows springs

• examine the instrument for traces of dirt, cement, humidity, signs of excessive draught and other damaging influences. The customer will be notified in writing of any damage noticed.

• Remove loose dirt from under the pedal board and keyboards

• check all technical functions and the pipe reaction

• check and readjust the keyboard and register sections as well as the couplers

• remedy small damage and failures at the pipes, wind chests, bellows, wind channels and felt covers

• repair or exchange small parts, especially in the keyboard and register sections

• remove small objects that might have fallen into the organ casing and the pipes

If the repair of damage or failures involves major work considerably exceeding the regular time-frame, the customer will be informed, and a cost estimate will be elaborated. Example: removing a particular howling noise usually implies dismantling the pipe section concerned.

Basic Outline of the Organ Servicing Contract

An organ servicing contract for a particular organ will be based on a general agreement with the diocese or regional church of the customer. Legally, this will always keep you on the safe side!