Tuning & Voicing Service

Re-Voicing After HVAC Retrofit — Holy Rood Church, Corbin’s Reach

An out-of-cycle re-voicing visit for Opus 28 after the parish installed a new forced-air HVAC system — the more stable but noticeably drier winter air shifted several ranks enough to need correction outside the normal annual schedule.

Organ console showing manual keyboards and stop-jamb registration knobs

The project

The parish's new HVAC system solved a real comfort problem for the congregation, but it also changed the building's humidity profile more than its temperature — the old radiant system had kept the sanctuary more humid in winter than the new forced-air system does. Several wooden pipes, more sensitive to humidity swings than metal ones, had shifted enough in pitch and tone to be audible from the pews within a few months of the new system's installation. The visit re-tuned the affected ranks and re-voiced two wooden flute pipes that had gone noticeably breathy as their wood dried further than the original voicing anticipated.

We now recommend an additional off-cycle check roughly six months after any HVAC change on an instrument we maintain, specifically because humidity effects on wooden pipework take longer to fully appear than the temperature effects on tuning do.