Music Solutions - Digital Piano and Organ repair services in Southeastern Wisconsin

LEBANON - The glorious sound of music will resound in Immanuel Lutheran Church of Lebanon again following an extensive renovation of its pipe organ and organ chamber.

The church had a temporary setback on Sunday when the newly-tuned organ could only be played through part of the first of two services because it blew a gasket.

The latest problem was fixed and the organ is again ready to go for Sunday services. At one point in the restoration process, repairs to the organ in the loft threatened to plunge the pipe music into silence with no Hallelujah on Easter.

Several problems had been identified with the Schaefer organ at Immanuel, including relay pouches or switches that had blown apart, pressure regulators held together with duct tape, rubberized cloth on air pouches rotting away, plastic stop tablets breaking off and other necessary repairs. Another worry was white fuzz growing on the walls of the organ chamber and the potential for loose plaster falling on the pipes.

Getting the organ back in tune with the times was a project for Mark Snyder of Electronic Musical Instrument Solutions of Watertown, who has been repairing and tuning organs and digital pianos for about 16 years. He often works with his father, Paul Snyder of Snyder Organ Service of Sauk City, on bigger jobs such as the one at Immanuel.

After working for his father for 10 years, Mark moved to Janesville to expand the job area and provide service in northern Illinois. He and his wife Dona moved the business to Watertown two and one-half years ago to service the Milwaukee and Madison area. They operate the business together, with Mark as organ technician and Dona as office manager.

Musical instrument tuning is a full-time job for the city resident, who travels in a radius of over 150 miles a day, often tuning two to four organs or pianos in one day. He services pipe organs, digital pianos, keyboards, reed pump organs and electronic organs including vacuum tube, transistorized, digital and computerized. Watertown is well suited as home for the business and the family's six children. Two children attend Luther Prep and two are students at St. John's Grade School.

The initial cost estimate was $8,000 to repair the Schaefer medium-size pipe organ, which Mark values at up to $100,000 in full working condition. The tuning task involved 10 ranks of pipes with 16 stops, with rank of five pipes for the swell, four ranks of pipes for the great, and one rank of pipes for the pedals.

According to a church history, the congregation decided in February of 1942 to purchase a new pipe organ to replace the old one which was in need of extensive repair. The new organ was purchased at a cost of $3,150 including trade-in of the old organ. It was dedicated on July 5, 1942.

Very little maintenance had been done on the organ over the past 60 years, but its increase in value indicated trade-in was not an option.

"We have no idea how old the organ is, but we know the company is out of business," said Mark, nonplused at the inability to purchase new parts. "We rebuild the existing units if we can, and we never install used parts. We replace obsolete parts with something else, and build our own wood products."

The first setback in the expected two-week tuning process was the condition of the chamber walls, discovered when the chamber was opened to repair the organ.

Volunteers from the church, under the guidance of Delmar Christian, took charge of resurfacing the walls of the chamber, which looks like a large enclosed closet and hides the pipes from view. It hid them so well in the area under the bell tower that no air was getting in to reduce condensation. "Preventive maintenance for the walls is not common, but we have encountered it twice in the last six months," Mark said.

Because of the wall repair, every pipe including wooden and metal alloy had to be removed from the chamber and stored in boxes until repairs were complete. Church members again stepped forward, this time to form an assembly line to place all the pipes in the specially-made boxes, and then put them back again.

The second setback occurred with the gasket, an important link in the playing process which starts with a motor in the basement. The motor supplies air to the refurbished regulator which adjusts pressure for the pipes that create sound.

The good news is that the organ is in solid condition, according to Paul, who has been a full-time organ technician since 1976. "With an organ like this that's over 60 years old, it won't need any more big work for another 20 years except for yearly maintenance. There are a lot of Schaefer organs around. This one will not play louder than before but it will play like it should. The newer instruments like the piano keyboards are more inexpensively made with plastics and they aren't worth fixing. That's why we do more organ work." he said.

The elder Snyder got into the musical instrument fixing business by default. "No one could be found to repair a pipe organ, and I started doing the leather work on our kitchen table," he recalled, discovering that the specialized field had business potential.

The men have enough work to keep them busy for a long time, even with two separate businesses catering to a specialized clientele. "We have about 100 to 200 customers waiting for service," Mark said.

This article is from the Watertown Daily Times and can also be accessed on their web site.

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