Another shot of the original high altar and reredos, and the pulpit to the left.

Interior Photo of St. Mary's Catholic Church Sleepy Eye, Minnesota

I think I should also add a photo or two of the beautiful interior of the church.

Allen will also be keeping a blog on his website. The link to the blog is: www.moepipeorgan.com/sleepyeye/

It's finished. You can clearly see the blower, static regulator, and rectifier in this photo.

The framework is coming down.

The framework of the blower house. It used the old "balsam wool" insulation in the walls for sound deadening. My dad, John, was helping tear it down.

We will also be getting a new blower. The original blower, made by Wicks, is not the quietest thing in the world (it screams like a civil defense siren). The new blower is made in Germany by Laukhuff and is engineered for quietness. The photo shows the blower house built at the time the organ was reinstalled in 1947.

The same relay cabinet completely emptied.

These are the old relays which came out of the relay cabinets.

Another view of the same relay cabinet from above.

Here is a photo of the relay cabinet inside one of the organ chambers. It will be completely emptied to make way for the new solid-state relays.

The organ builder and assistants

L-R: Allen Moe (organbuilder), Arden Moe, and Marion Moe

Here you can see the difference in shape between the English Horn and Trumpet resonators.

Loading the trailer

Getting all of the parts loaded into the trailer for the trip back to the Moe Pipe Organ Co. shop in Wadena, MN.

It's all gone!

All of the parts that we removed from the organ have been lowered to the main floor of the church.

The 8' Clarinet rank from the Choir division. Of all the reed ranks in the organ that imitate orchestral instruments, this rank is the most convincing. It really does sound like a clarinet. Also visible are some resonators of the Great 8' Trumpet.

These are the pipes of the 8' Vox Humana rank from the Swell division. This rank attempts to imitate the human voice. It vaguely sounds like a male chorus singing in the distance.

Here are more pipes of the 8' English Horn. The resonators on this rank are shaped differently, and also closed on the wide flared end (the Trumpet's are open), giving this rank a more mellow, horn-like sound. The Trumpet rank has a brighter, trumpet-like sound. Also visible in this photo is the coupler board and crescendo mechanism from the console, along with my tools. ;-)

The bass resonators of the 8' English Horn rank from the Swell division.

These are three bass pipes of the 8' Trumpet rank. Interestingly enough, Allen told me that these basses were not made by Wicks, while the rest of the Trumpet rank was. At the time the organ was rebuilt, the United States was recovering from World War II, and the tin and lead used to make the metal alloy for organ pipes was not availible. Most of the pipes from the original organ were reused in the rebuild, but the original organ did not contain any reed stops. So, the basses were recycled from another old organ from somewhere, while the rest of the Trumpet rank's resontators (bell-shaped appendages) are made of zinc, and were made in the Wicks factory.

While I was hacking away at the console, Allen Moe, the organbuilder, and his parents, Arden and Marion, were busy removing the reed ranks. All four reed ranks from the organ will be taken back to the Moe Pipe Organ Co. shop where they will be cleaned and tonally restored. In this photo are the pipes of the 8' Trumpet rank from the Great division. Pipe organ reeds differ from concertina reeds in the fact that the free ends of the reed tongues strike the face of a brass shallot to make the sound, and are also tuned by a wire which makes the beating length of the reed longer (flatter in pitch) or shorter (sharper in pitch). Concertina reeds are riveted to a reed plate, and their free ends pass through a slot cut in an aluminum plate.

These are the parts off of the old pedalboard that will be reused on the new one.

Here is the console completely gutted. The next step is to get it over the choir loft railing and lower it to the main floor of the church (~25 foot drop).

Next off is the manual stack. These are also being reused. They are covered in real ivory, and will be cleaned and polished, and any keys that have missing pieces of ivory will be replaced. In this photo you can also see some of the old electro-mechanical switches that will be replaced by solid-state equipment.

Next off is the coupler board. This piece will be reused.

Next to come off are the stop jambs. These will be replaced by new ones as well.

Next, the pedalboard came off. We will be getting a new pedalboard and a new adjustable bench.

Here is a photo of all of the old electrical parts that are in the console. All of this will be replaced with new solid-state equipment.

Pipe organ renovation

I'm taking a little break from concertinas. As it says in my profile, I like pipe organs. So, naturally, when my church decided to renovate theirs, I was there to help remove it. The first photo is of the console before disassembly started. This organ was a rebuild of the church's previous organ built in 1907 by the Wisconsin Pipe Organ Factory of Slinger, WI. It was rebuilt in 1947 by the Wicks Organ Co. of Highland, IL.