Console & Relay Mechanical Overhaul — Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, Bellcross

A console and relay mechanical overhaul addressing sticking stop tabs, an unreliable combination-action memory system, and worn key contacts — pipework and voicing untouched, purely a mechanical/electrical scope.

A pre-assembled pipe toe-board (Pfeifenstock) drilled for mechanical action rebuild

The project

None of the organ's tonal issues were in question — the pipework and voicing were sound — but the console itself had accumulated decades of small mechanical failures: several stop tabs stuck intermittently, the combination-action memory system (which recalls a saved registration at the touch of a piston) had become unreliable, and a number of key contacts had worn to the point of occasional missed notes. Every stop-tab mechanism was cleaned and re-lubricated, worn key contacts were replaced throughout, and the combination-action memory system was rebuilt with new relay components while preserving its original piston layout and playing feel.

The organist’s existing saved registrations were manually re-programmed into the rebuilt combination system rather than lost, following a full inventory of the piston settings taken before the old memory system was removed.