After an immensely frustrating several days, during which I have taken the organ to pieces, unit-tested things which were known to be functional years ago, replaced reed switches, drunk lots of coffee, cried extensively, taken my shoes off and jumped on them, and basically been a drama queen, I have learned two important lessons.

Lesson 1: An oscilloscope would be a good investment.

Lesson 2 (which would have been learned more quickly if I had observed lesson 1): establish a good ground.

More to come, at some point, when I’m not so cross. Also, I need to tidy up a bit.

Also, why does my dog keep trying to eat lumps of wood and bits of wire? It’s not like he doesn’t have a whole box of toys and far too much food…

Dyson got a new toy for Christmas. This may have been a mistake. I was awoken at just after 6am by being repeatedly hit with said toy, in an effort to get me to play. Persistence is always the key to success, and I gave in after about half an hour of abuse. It is remarkable how a simple bit of rubber can give so much joy.

After a bit of playtime, breakfast, more playtime, and several cups of coffee, I made a start on re-wiring the right-hand stop jamb. Here it is, half-way complete. Each stop needs three wires, and I also had to solder a new common +12VDC to each stop. I have now completed 89 of the 140 required solder joints, but it feels like I’ve soldered twice as many. Time for lunch.

I think they probably have their own schedules when I’m out at work, and the fact that I’m here all day at the moment is putting them to an inconvenience. I am trying to cause the least amount of fuss by spending the day hunched over my desk in the corner and not drawing attention to myself, but they are clearly displeased.

Here follows the rather short third part of the two-part series on the expression shoes.

On the left is the finished base board for the expression shoes on the right. On the right are the expression shoes to be affixed to the base board on the left.

And here are the choir and solo expression shoes installed on the board. To my vexation, the solo shoe is off-centre by about a quarter of a degree, which means that when both the choir and the solo shoes are closed, the gap between them is very slightly – but noticeably – crooked. However, I am hoping that once they are in their black box behind the kneeboard, this will not be noticeable. Now, if I can only do something to erase the memory of the imperfection from my own mind…

I have to do a little bit more work on the swell shoe, which has come from a different organ. I hope to get it installed tomorrow, and then at the weekend I will have a look at installing it in the console.

The spare keyboards went to a new home today. David is coming round next week to discuss how to wire up the drawstops, and I am waiting for the ever-helpful Roman Sowa of midi-hardware.com to get back to me about the extra components I need to drive them. I think I know what is required, but it’s best to check before I commit to an order.

I also need to do, or at least arrange to be done, a bit of carpentry on the kneeboard and the toe piston mouldings. Adding an extra expression pedal for the solo division will eat up 5½” of space to the right of the extant two pedals. This will perforce eat up 2½ toe-piston spaces. There is space on the left for at least one more toe-piston, possibly even two, but the half-a-space means that I can’t simply chop off a bit of the moulding on the right-foot side. Instead, David will need to create a replacement moulding. It’s possible that he will need to create a replacement for the left-foot side as well, if his forms aren’t the same as those used by Wyvern. They should be, but who knows?

So things are happening. They just aren’t happening right this very instant.

In dog-related news, Dewi is settling in reasonably well. There is some challenging behaviour, but only to be expected of a young dog who has had a terrible start in life. I don’t think he is broken beyond repair; he just needs a bit of love, firmness, and consistency. However, he has learned the Two Great Commandments of this house, namely: First, thou shalt respect Bailey at all times, and not wait until she is asleep before thou jumpest-on her to demand playtime. And the second is likewise: thou shalt not covet Bailey’s food, nor her toys, nor anything that is hers, and most especially not when she is eating or playing with them. Bailey is by nature a sweet and amiable dog, but at 50kg of mostly muscle, she is quite capable of being intimidating when she wants to be.

Apart from the control boards for the drawstops, everything has now been stripped out of the new console ready for rebuilding.

The transformer in the bottom left steps 240VAC down to 12VAC, and the little blue things behind it rectify the current to 20.4VDC. This is the power required for the drawstops, and will be put to good use. At some point, David will, I hope, build me a 12VDC linear psu for the rest of the electronics. Until then, I have my trusty (and cheap) switched-mode psu from A Random eBay Seller.

Those keyboards are in fact the new manuals. This is what they look like from the front:

They are sloping towards the player, and the stack is consequently about 1.5cm higher than the stack it replaced. This will require modifications to the music stand, but I have Plans for that anyway.

Tomorrow, the old console is bid a fond farewell, and there will be a general reorganisation of the lounge. I will then be off with Bailey to look at potential new packmates. She’s not happy being the only dog in the house, and I sympathise.

So the last few weeks have not been particularly fun.  Betty took ill, and then died last week.  It was expected (she was a very old dog, with numerous serious ailments) but it still hit me hard.  Consequently I haven’t been in the mood for organ building, or writing about it.  Bailey has decided that now would be a good time to come into season (well planned, since she was due to be speyed on Thursday).  Everything feels a bit flat.

There has been a little progress in recent days.  I have continued to make minor adjustments to the magnets on the pedalboard, and am now reasonably happy with them.  I have also installed a micro-DIN plug in the connecting cable, to make it easier to remove the pedalboard.  I will have to do the same thing for the expression pedal connectors, when they are eventually installed, as these feed into the pedalboard MIDI module via a short connector cable.

I’ve also purchased twelve toe-pistons, ready for installation when the kneeboard is re-jigged (approximately some time soonish).  Currently amusing the parental units, so no further updates for a week or so.  The next task is to screw down the manuals and connect the thumb pistons.  I might then be able to produce some noise.

Recently I have been focusing my activities on what happens below the keyboards.  You can see in the photo that I have now attached neodymium magnets to each of the pedals, and the reed switches are laid out on the bench in front.  The spacing is perfect, so all that remains for me to do is to work out the correct distance between the magnets and the reed switches, and secure the circuit boards accordingly.

The next step, once the pedalboard is properly assembled, is to secure the manuals to the console and make sure that everything is properly wired-up.  Then I might be able to actually play something.

In other news, I had a visit from organ royalty yesterday, to look at the instrument thusfar assembled and discuss the correct positioning of the swell shoes (increasing their number from two to three) and toe pistons.   Measurements were taken, chins were scratched and the merits of the RCO console specification were reflected upon.  There will be a return visit in the not-too-distant future, for some experimentation.  Then the knee board will be taken away for a gurt big ‘ole to be cut in it.  I am very fortunate to have the advice of such vastly experienced masters of the craft.

Both dogs are now in full moult, and there is a layer of hair over everything.  I have given up trying to keep the house clean, and have settled for keeping the hair down to under waist-deep.

Still ridiculously busy, but hope to have more free time later this month to work on the pedal reed switches.  I am also in discussions with Mr Norwich Organs about the swell pedals and concomitant adjustments to the kneeboard.  In the meantime, I have finished affixing the MIDI modules to the console:

Beautiful, is it not?  Pay not attention to the apparently wonky placement of the module on the right – it is perfectly straight; your eyes are crooked.

There is enough space on this board to fit several additional modules should they be required.  I think I may actually run out of space on the MRG2, and will need an additional one at some point.  However, that is a problem for future consideration.

In dog-related news, Mia’s space on the bed (but not her space in my heart) is now occupied by Bailey, another rescue – a younger bullmastiff/French mastiff cross.  She is boss-eyed and has no hips (at the moment; she’s dieting), but she is quite gorgeous, and very affectionate.  She has immediately adopted Betty as her foster-mother, and Betty has stoically accepted the same.  She gives me long-suffering looks whenever I glance her way, but I have secretly observed her wagging her tail and allowing Bailey to share her sofa.  She’s not as tough as she likes me to think.