My parents bought me a tiny electic organ when I was 5 or 6 and I remember playing my little tunes on it. I used to play the tracker at church just for fun as well in my high school years. But surfing the net one day in 1999 I notcied pipe organs FOR SALE and thought, "that would be really funny to have a pipe organ at home". I saw the prices were not that bad either. Hmmm, I said. Well I posted an ad and low and behold a fellow in Tennessee contacted me about a Wicks 3 rank fuga organ he was needing to sell. I had saved my money and told him I'd take it. So my dad and I headed to Tennesee and picked up this monster (it was to me at the time). I had no instructions or pictures but I got it together and WOW! I HAD MY OWN PIPE ORGAN!!!!!
I kept it for 2 years and wanted to get something with a little more growl to it. So thinking all pipe organs were the same I bought a 10 rank Schantz organ and sold my Wicks. The chapel in Massillon agreed to deliver it. When they showed up with a full 24' truck my jaw dropped and I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Electric pneumatic action was new to me and I was like a lost kitten in a jungle of pipes. "Leather? What leather?" I had no idea about how leather would work in an organ but boy did I learn. I got a few estimates from organ builders in the 10-20k range. Yeah right, this was a hobby not a career. I thought there for a while I had just traded all this junk for my little Wicks but I didn't stop there. I found an organ builder that would rebuild part of the organ using Direct Electic action and I could sell what was left over.
So in 2003 they came down and started working on the new organ project using the old Schantz pipes and console. The chests were new with old Wicks toeboards and I had a Wicks relay that would do the job. They got about 1/3 done and had to leave and go back home. So there I was with a mess of wires and still no working pipe organ. I was ready to give up and then something happened.
I play bluegrass music for fun as well and was playing at a jam we have at our church and a fellow overheard me talking about my pipe organ and asked me if I wanted another one. I found out more details from him and he told me if I moved it by the next day he would give me a good price for it. It was a 14 rank tracker made by Chapel organ company and it was in wonderful shape, but I sure did earn it because I had to move the entire thing in one day. Whew! Most of my current organ has pipes from this organ. Pipes were made by Austin and Laukhuff and are really nice.
Little by little the organ started taking shape and now it is up to 15 ranks and the fine tuning of each rank is taking place currently.
