One very important part of our business here at Parsons Pipe Organ Builders is the tuning and maintenance of more than 250 organs throughout the Western New York area, and south into Pennsylvania. We take pride in helping churches care for their instruments which are a pivotal part of their weekly worship. Sometimes though, one of those instruments needs a little extra care that cannot be done on a tuning visit.
Central Presbyterian Church in Avon, NY is home to a 1900 Steere organ. While the casework and pipework are original, the organ’s tracker action has long been replaced by switching and electronic systems. In recent years that system has been failing with increasing issues with dead notes and ciphers. The church hired Parsons to install a new solid state control system by Opus 2 and replace all the existing cloth wiring with new wiring and fusing to meet the current NEC code.
Work commenced in early June with the removal of the old wiring and switching components. The console itself was brought to our shop to be modified for the new solid-state system. The console was essentially stripped down to the shell, keyboards, and pedalboard. A new stop tab system was installed, and the console was provided with a new top, all of which was carefully finished to match the rest of the console.
Work running new wires from the chest magnets to prepare for the solid-state installation was completed in July. The installation of the new solid-state system and console has been completed, and the organ is playing once again. It is our hope that this instrument continues to serve the congregation at Central Presbyterian for many more years to come!
