Casework is coming on...

Hello dear reader (notice singular rather than plural?).

So, a very fast recap. 
I'm a musician, moderately good.  Play piano, sing and, importantly for this blog, am a classical organist who didn't practice due to access to pipe organs.  I found a computer programme called 'Hauptwerk' and was immediately bitten by the bug to build my own virtual pipe organ.  I started off with one, then two manuals then plus a pedalboard then three and eventually four.  However, I'm now at the stage where this monster has been created.  Always wanting more, that's me. 

The build project has been going on now since Captain Cook was a sea cadet and I've decided today to stop pretending that it'll ever be finished.  Whenever I think that the end's in sight, I think of something else that I can do to add to it and off it goes again.

During the last 9 months or so, I've had a lot of time on my hands due to being incapacitated and unable to attend work.  Don't worry, nothing very bad but what it did give me was TONS of time to get going with the organ. 

I did quite well in the early part of the year building the casework but then gradually ground to a halt as I really didn't know what I wanted to do with it although I knew I wasn't finished.  The big job I'm dreading is doing the finishing lacquer work.  It'll take FOREVER so perhaps I'm subconsciously putting off ever doing it.

This last couple of weeks I've had my head down below the keyboards and have concentrated on the nether regions (couldn't resist). 

The idea was to butch up the legs to make the thing look much more sturdy.  Although the legs were doing a fine job, they did rather look unfinished.  I wanted to have the legs looking much more robust.  This is what I ended up with...

 

 

Clearly the photo shows it in an unfinished state but it gives a really good insight into how it is put together.  The inside of the panel that you see is actually the leg itself.  The rest has been clagged on top of it.  The frame is simply four bits of veneered mdf glued on around the edge.  No need to mortise or anything like that as it is decorative.  The black inside edging is 18mm stripwood from B&Q that I spraypainted gloss black and cut to size.  The bottom skirting was slightly more complex but barely.  To have it further out there was plain mdf behind it to make up for the depth of the new panel edges.  Trusty old can of spray paint (lots of them too - I'm on number 4 and counting) and the mitre saw to give the edges and corners and you're pretty much there.  This next picture shows how it looked when it was finished.

 

The front of the leg detail was courtesy of good old B&Q again for some decorative moulding and spray paint.  The pieces at either side of that are offcuts of solid maple.  The whole setup not only looks good but hides forever, the raw and very unattractive edges of the mdf.  What started out being 18mm thick is now, measuring at the skirt 9cm.  It now does indeed have a much more solid appearance.

Clearly, the design carried on around the corner, look!

This picture handily shows off a few other things.  Firstly, I led the line right on to the separate unit of the toe stud rail.  I still want it to be separate for maintenance reasons.  This proved a little tricky but in order to get that out I ensured I was able to remove the skirting and lower portion of the panel.  Yes, they do have to be held in by screws but big deal: that can easily be tidied up after all.

Do you notice the colour of the pedalboard?  Not good is it?  I thought not anyway. 

I've been meaning to respray the pedalboard for ages and finally, when I got around to doing it last week, it had such gratifying results very quickly indeed.

Here's how it was when it was partly disassembled in anticipation of a paint job;-

 

Do you notice the detritus that had fallen through the pedals?  I guess it's always worth pulling them out occasionally if you're looking for lost pens, pencils, staples, money, sellotape, escaped convicts, missing children or bankers' ill-gotten-gains from money laundering.  It's surprising what you find under there!

 

Here is the frame outside being repainted...

 

 
Shame I didn't do the same to the railing up to the kitchen door while I was at it!

This part of the project was very gratifying indeed.  Painting something black has instant results.  I loved how the felt on the pedal bushings really shows up.  And now, here it is all back together.  Very nice, I'm sure you'll agree.

There's lots more to follow but to be honest, I need to have a bath and it's already midnight!

 

Gradually getting there

Hello campers!

This week has been quite good regarding the development of the casework of the organ. As you'll already know from previous posts this month, I've started butchering the grade A quality oak I've got for the cabinet. The key cheeks for all four manuals are done(ish). They were all beautifully measured and amazingly it was correct even when I did it. The scrolling I did as a little decorative end was NOT easy. That took ages as it was my first time of using a scroll saw and putting oak that is quite thick through it with the wrong blade on (ahem) made for an interesting couple of evenings. I got there all I've got to do now is the glueing and screwing into place and then lots and lots of sanding to make it look lovely - which it will.

The next part of the project is to start on the cabinet. To be honest, I'm anticipating it being the easier part of the project. I've got most of the wood cut more or less to length so that's a start at least!

I've been doing a lot of research this week on using a router successfully. I borrowed my mother's as well as her router table (yes, my mother's, she's a funny girl!) and spent the other evening just getting a feel for them and just working out - without even turning it on - how it feels and how to attach the fence, bits and how to adjust the depth and things like that. I'm now the leading expert in the world when it comes to a router that's not been plugged in.

Youtube's fantastic for learning new skills. I've watched at least 3 hours' worth of tutorials on there which has been great - Very interesting indeed to be honest. It saves pratting about in the library for hours on end and then finding that the only reference book you can find was published in 1954 which would make it only slightly out of date in 1955.

Today's plans are to go out into the garage and have a few tentative attempts at using the router and if I'm really brave I might even knock up a side panel... if I'm REALLY brave AND LUCKY I might do two if they work out well. Well, there's nowt wrong whatsoever in optimism is there?

Wish me luck!

Hive of activity

It has been several months now since I wrote in my blog. For that I'm sorry. Why I'm sorry I've no idea as I'm pretty certain that I'm the only person out of 6,500,000,000 people on the planet who actually reads this. Ah, already I've digressed!

Anyway, I'm off work poorly bad (AWWWW). I've got Impetigo which is pretty minging but as I work in education and it is very infectious (the impetigo - not the education) I've been told to stay at home. It's the best illness in the world. You feel spotty and scabby and have to watch that you don't pick bits off yourself but you feel fine and are able to tackle some of the jobs you've been meaning to do for ages so that's a result then!

On the right, you can see the results of what I've been up to thus far this week. Yes, there's some extremely oversized key cheeks there, you're right. How high they look. Don't worry, I've not got an elastic tape-measure. I was playing.

The hawk-eyed readers amongst you will spot what looks like a different MIDI keyboard from the ones I've been using until now. It's absolutely right. I decided the other day that I wanted them all to match, to have no cracks in them and for them to actually have tidy wiring (Ahem) so I bit the bullet and bought four keyboards from Thomann, a German company that I can't recommend enough. They're the best company in the world. Fantastic quality, service, prices, the lot. I got four brand new midi keyboards, including delivery from Germany to the UK (3 days) for £236.00. Bargain or what? Anyway, I ripped them all to pieces so I could just have the keyboard and the midi bits rather than the bells and whistles and the little oompa rhythm section. Now, what you see above is the result of one of the recently gutted keyboards with a very rough-and-ready mock up of what the keyboard setup will look like. Impressive, I agree.

I looked all over to ensure the depth of the manuals would be right. Too deep and it would be too high (as in the picture) and too shallow and there'd not be enough space to get the keyboards in correctly thus forcing me to move each keyboard further back to accommodate. I'd end up stretching further than I need to if I did that. I measured my own (keyboards... dirty buggers), measured one or two other instruments I know and came to the conclusion that the correct height for a 'cheek' is 2.5" or 5cm whichever you prefer. With that in mind, I marked up the oak lengths I'd bought. Once that was done I decided that I wanted to have the cheeks thicker than they currently looked. They were only 1" thick which made them look a bit cheap so I doubled up each edge which made them look MUCH meatier. I'm glad I did that. As you can see to the left the cheeks do look much more butch now they're twice as thick.

You'll have seen lots of pencil marks and a pretty little drawing on the side of the cheek too. Well' I didn't just want a plain edge like most organs have, I like a bit of show. I looked around on the internet to find a design I liked. That took a LONG time as strangely, people don't seem to put close-up shots of the corners of their pipe organ keyboards on the 'web for the world to peruse. Eventually, I found a design that I like. If you look closely above the top bow outwards, there's a tiny step. That is to echo the top of the key so that the key can sit just a couple of millimetres below it and run parallel. How posh, eh?

The design looks a bit fiddly and to be honest it's dead easy. You've just got to be brave enough to trust your eye for detail. I actually got a bit of cardboard, a £2 coin and a £1 coin. I put them both on the card and drew round the £2 above the £1 coin and just followed the line around and ended up with that shape. Here, here's a picture that I hope will help. Also the template is 2.5" high... remember? Thought you did.

So, now I've got my cheeks and, as you can see from the money shot (ho, ho, oo, er) above, there's a step cut out of the bottom. There is but that's only on the inside one. The outside one goes along the entire bottom too (the save level as the foot at the front of the template). The reason is so that the keyboard can slide in on the little MDF base I've made but not told you about so that you'll not see it at all from the front. Clever, eh?

As I don't trust my freehand precision cutting with a jigsaw that's slightly less accurate than a blind man wielding an axe hoping to take the top off his boiled quail's egg, I decided that I'd best get a coping saw. After thinking further on the idea I opted for a scroll saw. I ordered one off eBay which cost me about £75 inc. P&P which I was very pleased with. I'll use it a lot as I'm planning on doing several fretwork projects in the future. Yes, indeed my grandmother is going be be receiving the world's worst attempt at a bit of fretwork on a manky panel that you hang on the wall for her Christmas present and she's going to like it too... or else!

Tomorrow's plan, therefore, is, presuming the saw arrives, to cut out the inside (stepped) cheeks, screw them to the outside cheeks and then cut the detailing for the ends on the scroll saw. Ideally, I'll be able to at least knock up the four keycheeks with maybe one keyboard attached. If I can I'll put up a piccy or two of the setup. I'm determined to get that part finished by the end of next week so I can transplant the new keyboard setup into the bedroom and demote the four keyboards I have been using to the garage in anticipation of a quick journey to eBayland... or maybe two of them can go to work in my office to practice with. We'll see. The former I'd guess. My boss has already told me that he doesn't like my harpsichord that I took in. Damnitt!

keyboards galore

So, after the last update I was thrilled to announce that I'd got the swell pedals to work as they should. I was a very happy bunny. I had a couple of days worth of playing the instrument which was marvellous. I'm saying lots of nice things about it and building it up aren't I? I bet you're expecting me to bring it crashing down with a comment about it all going pear-shaped after blowing up or something. Well, sorry to disappoint but it was still fine.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner a couple of nights ago. As these friends are such good company (that is, they like to get plastered too) I dismantled the organ to take it out of the bedroom (that's what the room is in all honesty) so I could pull out the sofa bed in case they ended up with too much booze in their systems that they'd need to stay over... they did!

Oh, already I miss it. The poor little thing comes apart in several very large pieces. Two lots of two manuals, two touchscreen monitors, the desk the bench and the pedalboard. Not really difficult to dismantle but when you're still trying to get your hand strengthened after a carpal tunnel operation it's not quite so easy. I managed to get pretty much all of it out to the garage and it is now strewn across the grand piano in there.

There is some VERY exciting news about the organ though... I've actually bought the Hauptwerk software at last. HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hauptwerk are doing a very good special offer over the Christmas period which is a bit late for any of you to benefit from now. The version 3.3 has been reduced by about 20% with a free upgrade to the version 4.0 which is due out in a month or so. God knows how long it'll take for the product to arrive as it is winging its way from Canada I believe. I'm also certain that I'll be stung by the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% in the next few days. We've got to get the national debt down somehow I suppose... those of us who've still got jobs that is! C'est la vie. I think that in total it'll cost me £420 or somewhere in that region. I'm not even putting that money into the British economy anyway if it's coming from Canada... Hmm, didn't think of that!

The organ will have to stay in the garage for a little while now which is really killing me. I start to build up the strength in my hand and start playing a bit more confidently with not a lot of trouble, I buy the software I've been coveting for months and then get an appointment for my second operation for the 4th January. That means at least the beginning of February before I can consider playing again. BUGGER! What irony is that for you?

I was rooting around on Ebay again tonight. I've seen another couple of keyboards that would be great to convert. We'll see... I've already got 6 now. Did I mention the wooden ones I bought a few months ago? They're very nice although I might have to re-list them. They cost me £90 which was a good price but it'll cost me about £500 for the necessary hardware to convert them. I might let them sit in the garage for a few months to see if anything comes up. Ideally they'll be part of the main organ for the home instrument. I'd rather add them and take the keyboards off the top off the current stack of four as the colour doesn't match (as shown on the picture in the first posting).

I'm still not happy with the organ though. The thumb pistons don't work at present. They're all wired up correctly; that I know as I did have them working a while ago but then had to dismantle it and then forgot how I'd configured it when I put it back together!

Do you know what thumb pistons are? Well, here, have a butcher's;-

Now you know what they look like I'd best explain what they do and where they are. To be honest,they're simply pre-programmed combinations. The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to your car radio. You have your favourite stations tuned in already so that you just push a button and there they are. These do exactly the same job - except you don't get 'The Archers' if you press number 4! They pull combinations of different stops out all at once instead of having to pull them out individually. The pistons are easily reached as they're positioned directly beneath the keys on each keyboard. If you closely look on the picture you'll see the black notes of the keyboard below and the underside of the keys above.

That's it for now. You know when you're sure there's something you've forgotten to say? Why am I getting that feeling very strongly at present?

Oh, and one other thing... While I've been writing this the clock has ticked past midnight. That means that we're into the very last day of 2010. I'm sure that my next post will be in 2011 so with that in mind HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope it's a good 'un.

The early joys

Hello, dear reader.

I suppose I'd best start at the beginning.

Many years ago I was a very rubbish church organist. However, I did have style so managed to make a modest living at it. It was lots of fun. I loved a good funeral but strangely, I hated weddings. My theory is that it's very unusual for the corpse to arrive late whereas a bride...

After moving across to Cumbria in 1999 I sort of stopped playing apart from very occasionally helping out in a church or two in Carlisle. Of course, as in most places, organists (or even pianists who can busk a bass accompaniment with the pedals) are pretty few and far between. After lots of thought I decided that it wasn't worth me playing classical organ any more as what folks expected in return outweighed both the pleasure and the remuneration... £10 offered for two hours on a Sunday morning with a twenty mile round trip? Not for me, ta! Especially as I'm a great big atheistic heathen to boot!

A few years go by and of course the enjoyment of organ music hasn't gone away - nor has the want to play. I accepted a post as an organist in a tiny little parish church. I only did it for a few weeks until sadly there was a huge personal family crisis that took me out of normal life for well over a year.

It was during and after the 'recovery' process that I started really getting into YouTube. Now this, to me, was fantastic. It was here that I looked at organ videos and eventually stumbled across Hauptwerk and MidiTzer. WOW!

As soon as I heard what the technology could do (in 2008 when I discovered it - yes, I'd been living under a stone 'til then) I wanted to start to use it. I mean, what could be better? Get the stuff together to build a basic virtual pipe organ at home? "Wuhoo!" as they say in the Houses of Parliament. I had a Yamaha keyboard that I use for concerts. That was a good start. Don't want to spend money until I'm sure, do I? So, I downloaded the free version of Hauptwerk and plugged my usb doo-dah in and off I went... or not. It's at this point I have to tell you that I'm TERRIBLE with technology.

Did I check the cable?
Yup.
Did I check the other end of the cable?
Yup.
Did I check that I had the right configuration on the Hauptwerk settings?
Yup.
Did I know what I was looking for when I did it?
Nope.

After lots of argy-bargy I flicked the MIDI button on the digital display of the keyboard, pressed a key and STILL nothing happened. "Aah", I thought. I drew a stop with my mouse and it worked! HURRAH!

Now, this setup was acceptable for about 24 seconds. I didn't want to be clicking the mouse pad on my laptop every time I wanted to change registration. However... Christmas was just around the corner and what with my birthday being only a fortnight before then I felt brave enough to ask 'Mother Dearest' if she knew what she wanted to get me as gifts 'cos if she didn't I wanted an Oxygen 61 thingy keyboard. So, I now had two keyboards and one of them now had the capability of changing pistons with one push of a button right above the keys. RESULT!

I was really enjoying this little setup. For a good few weeks but I was very aware of a couple of problems.

1. I was only using the crappy monitor speakers from our old PC.

2. The alligator double keyboard stand, although solid enough, wasn't the most appropriate thing as jumping from the great manual to the swell seemed like miles apart.

3. No pedalboard.

4. Because the setup wasn't quite right for me I was starting to get my old, old problems - bad back.

Back onto eBay I went...

First thing to address was the speakers. At the time I wasn't so flush so I didn't want to spend more than £100 or so. I found (brand new) some Roland Edirol MA-150 studio speakers. FANTASTIC pieces of kit for the money. Wired them up and instantly the whole thing sounded much better.

The keyboard stand I simply had to live with as for the short-term there wasn't a sensible solution as we'd just decided to put the house on the market. With that in mind, in our naivity we thought the house would sell by the end of 'Murder She Wrote' so we tidied up by moving the grand piano out of the living room (very small house/very big piano doesn't really work when you're getting house viewings) and the basic organ set-up had to be pretty easy to take apart and hide away to reclaim the spare bedroom it was living in.

After a few weeks I discovered http://www.classicorgans.co.uk/ . Wow, they have two manual setups from reclaimed organs. That means that at least part of the keyboard stand problem would be resolved. I gave them a nudge and started my longterm dealings with Ron Coates who runs the show. Fantastic and really helpful bloke whom I'd highly recommend. He sold me two keyboard stacks. No, not two keyboards - two keyboard stacks which means four manuals in total. I never do things by halves tha' knaa! I wanted to have as much practical input in building the organ so I bought the computer hardware from him and rapidly learnt how to solder.

So here I was with four keyboards that were being recycled from older instruments, which I wholly approve of. Why get new when you don't really have to - especially if you're going to be bastardising it regardless? After hours of wiring up the solder connections and working on the PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards, no less... notice I was becoming technical) I had four manuals that eventually were up and working.

Now, what do I do about a pedalboard? Oooh, look, there's one. Already midifyed too. No-one's bidding on it. How strange. I'll stick a bid in. Ooh, I've won it. BUGGER, where do I store it ? The house was still on the market and we were getting a trickle (and I mean a trickle) of viewings so a great big radiating concave 32 note pedalboard strewn about isn't a good look. The garage wasn't an option as by that time I had my boudoir grand piano in there (6ft 2") and a recent purchase of a 9 foot concert grand piano as well as several hundred books. Hmm, won't go in there then. "MOTHER!!! Are you home on Tuesday?" "Yes, why?" "Oh, that's good, you're getting a delivery for me. Will you keep hold of it until it's convenient for me to pick up please?" "Yeah, of course." So, the pedalboard stayed in her hallway (she couldn't move it anywhere else!) for two years!

Two years since putting the house on the market we still hadn't sold so I thought, "Sod it. I'm going to build that organ." I gathered together all of the bits that had gradually become stored out of the way and laid them out in front of me. I went to my mother's house 90 miles away to collect the pedalboard that would fit in neither of our cars... One of them was my Rolls Royce and it wouldn't even go in the boot in that!!! So out came the precision instrument... A hammer. I unscrewed all of the screws that could be unscrewed, removed the pedals and gave each corner a good knock. It all came apart with no damage at all. I brought it the 90 miles back home (yes, it's the same distance back) and brought it into the house to reassemble. It looked great. And still big.

We plugged the pedalboard into the laptop, put on Hauptwerk and played bottom 'C'. Nowt happened. I worked my way up the pedalboard until I got to the 'F' and then it started to go up the rest of te scale no problem... Apart from it being a major 4th out of sync. ie the 'F' on the pedalboard was showing and playing 'C' below. After lots and lots and lots of faffing about over the course of weeks I came to the conclusion that I'd found the reason why the bloke was selling it! It wasn't a problem with MidiTzer as I just independently transposed the pedalboard but I was unable to find a way to do that with the Hauptwerk. I gave Ron Coates a nudge and he sorted me out with a new PCB for it, out came the soldering iron again and 'et voila' I was off... Apart from I didn't have an organ bench...

I think at this point you realise that there's always something else I want.

EBay yet again. I discovered someone was selling a hideous old Livingston organ but without the bench. I let the auction run and saw that the organ sold for £1 (a quid!). Whoever bought it even for that was ripped off in my opinion. I used to play the exact same model every Sunday over in Hartlepool and by the time it was got rid off there was only one manual working and none of the 'F's on that manual, or the lowest octave were working. None of it repairable. ANYWAY.... I gave the guy who was selling the organ a nudge and asked if he had the bench. He had. I asked what he wanted for it. I offered him £20 and he not only sold it to me but gave me back a fiver 'cos he thought I was paying too much. Needless to say, I KNEW I was getting a bargain so shut my gob and drove back across the low-lying Cumbrian Fells the short distance home.

So now I had the manuals, the pedalboard, the bench, the programme and what else? Hmm, now what happened to those two touchscreens I bought off eBay when I first got into this? Oh, they're in the loft. Up I went. They had originally been part of some sort of fruit machine game that you needed a touch screen for. I wired them up. Both faulty. Oh well, £100 wasted. Never mind. Into the bin they went. Online, two brand new fantastic 19" widescreen touchscreens with plenty of change out of £350. ALWAYS do a bit of bartering. I did pretty well out of that deal as the asking price was £250 each.

Hmm, how do I get a console started? I really don't want to build one as we'd STILL not sold the house and I was very aware indeed that we'd still be dismantling the setup if we had a viewing (we'd reduced the asking price by 15% of the original price by this point). I did a bit of research online and read in a really obscure article that if you're lucky you can get the right size thing at Ikea. I'm an Ikea virgin and after my first time there with this purchase I'm thrilled to report my planned celibacy! I hated the joint. However, I DID get what I wanted. We got a large table top for about £35 after taking a smaller one, wandering around the warren to the checkouts and thinking that it was too small. And, what was great 5 individual adjustable table legs. I think in total it cost me something like £70 for the lot + fuel to get there of course. our nearest Ikea is 50 miles away. Got home, a leg at each corner and one in the middle of the back longside just to add a little extra support. I did that as the manuals are heavy. It fitted like a glove. The pedalboard fits very neatly under there and the manuals sit on top with enough room either side for the touchscreens to sit perfectly. It really did look designed for it.

The whole thing can be dismantled in its entirity and shoved in the garage (on top of the heavily, heavily padded and covered concert grand) in 30 minutes. Open the double bed-settee and do a bit of jiggling of the furniture and in 1 hour it's back to a very attractive spare bedroom rather than an organ room!

At present, though, the organ is very much an ugly duckling. It very much reminds me of a Victorian Skeleton Clock. It has all the same bits as the really higly decorative and attractive ones but is only showing the rough basic structure that's needed. For the time being that really is how it'll have to stay.

When (IF!!!) we sell and get a larger house, the ideal plan is for us to have the space for several reception rooms. Ideally we'd like a living room, dining room, music room and a library. I'm sure that with some juggling a library could easily be the music room as well as to be honest practically all of the books in the house are mine (have a bit of a thing for books - can't resist buying those either!) and around 25,000 individual pieces of music all of which need to be kept handy. If the music room and library were combined that, although ideal in theory would be a pretty tight fit... especially as I'm really, really, really hoping that I just might be able to bring my 7ft harpsichord home from work although I doubt that'll happen if I'm being realistic. So, with the tight-fit situation in mind I thought about integrating the organ into a library so having the console and shelves around it all as one huge piece of furniture. By doing that I can also have as much access space for the guts of the organ by just having a couple of cupboards underneath and beside the organ that will indeed look like they belong there especially if I build them into a continuous feature. You know, 7ft library shelves with low cupboards all the way around. Perfect. How the hell we'll get the two pianos, the organ, a library of about 28,000 pieces of music and books combined and potentially (but still very unlikely) harpsichord into one room I'll never know but hopefully that's where a dining room will come in... Maybe that can double up as a library instead! Ooh, didn't think of that!

The organ saga still isn't finished though...

All of the setup is now really marvellous but there is STILL something missing. Expression or swell pedals. I'm really missing them. Google search came up with a guy over the big blue pond. After buying something from him (I can't remember what but I'm sure it was hardware of some kind) I happened to mention swell shoes. He asked what type I wanted and I said ideally Allen. I was in luck. He had 6! None of them had the potentiometers on them so they were literally just the swell shoes but I got the lot for... wait for it... including postage from Canada... $75 at the time that was about £48. BARGAIN!. I got in touch with Ron Coates again who is right at this minute doing the PCBs for me so that I can get it all rigged up. Hopefully by early to mid December I'll have probably four shoes set up. I'll keep the other two for the organ at work!

I really want wooden keys rather than plastic ones. A quick shufty on eBay (again but I do have 100% rating) got me a two manual keyblock for £90. They're for future reference as I'm planning on building a second organ for my office at work. Probably just a pretty basic one that I can move about as it'll be very useful for concerts that we do there. I'll need another computer, pedalboard, speakers.....

I've kept a moderate eye on what I've spent. It really does mount up over time but you must bear in mind that it has been over the course of two years with £50 here, £90 there so you really don't notice you've spent it. I'd say that a realistic estimate is £2,000 I'm anticipating spending £500 on getting a really nice console sorted out, another £300 for the toe studs and the thumb pistons (although I've already got the PCBs, again, courtesy of Ron). £800 on a computer specifically for the organ, and another £300-£400 on further speakers.Yes, it's a LOT of money, especially as I've not even bought the software which is around £400. Each further instrument you purchase is a few hundred quid (or more).

I'm not turned on by plasma tellies, or brand new top-of-the range cars. I don't have any children, I earn a good wage with a decent disposable income so I feel that it's worth every single penny. When you look at the 'off-the-shelf' digital organs that will have the same features that mine'll have you'll be looking ar somewhere in excess of £20,000. OUCH!

What's the best bit of it all? That's easy. I get to learn to play the organ again without the joy of freezing cold fingers, feeling heavily leant on to play for services, I have the joy of being able to access the best organs in the world with the press of a button, I can play harpsichord, harmonium, romantic, baroque, Scandinavian or theatre organs at will and all from the comfort of home.