Our work is complete

As of March 15th all of our work is complete at the Basilica and the organ is playing like new again. Tonal finishing is left to be done but will be done after the organist has had a chance to go over the instrument and formulate some ideas about the type of tonal work and voicing which needs to be done. Thanks to everyone who has followed our work so closely on this blog. Check back often for the start of the next job.

Here is a closeup of the old chest cables connected to the junction board. The cables have a brass cotter pin on each wire which plugs into a brass 'ferrule' on the junction board. The corresponding wire which goes to the solid state relays is soldered to the back side of the same ferrule.

Here is the Swell junction board after all the chest cables have been plugged in. There is a board like this in each of the 4 divisions of the organ. They each have a large cable which then connects to the solid state relay panels in the basement. There is one wire for each pipe in the organ.

Here's a close up view of the console showing the sweeping curves of the terraced stop jambs. Also shown is the detail in the case of the console. Mike Ziemba of the Wicks company really did an excellent job with this console.

Here's the new console in concert position in front of the main altar. It was delivered last Friday from the Wicks company along with the new electrical system which we are now installing. We are hoping to hear the first sounds from the organ before the end of this week.

Sorry for the delay in posting. We have been busy running wires and installing the new relays which arrived last Friday. The new 4 manual console was also delivered on Friday and I will get some pictures of it posted soon. We hope to have the organ making some noise by the end of this week.

This is what 2000 feet of multi-conductor cable looks like when formed into one 100' long cable. There is a junction board on one end which will be installed in place of the old relay in the Great chamber. The other end of the cable is being fed down through an unused 10" metal wind line to the basement where the new relay system will be installed. The decision was made to remote all 4 relays (Great, Swell, Solo, & Choir) to improve access to the relays for service and in the chambers for tuning. The Great and Swell relays will be in the basement and the Choir and Solo relays will be installed in the old combination action cabinets beneath the choir stalls.