Specification.
Immediately after the Tea Dance the organ console was stripped down and pushed into
it’s storage area ready for an early start the next morning. Work now started apace,
since the plan was to have the second stop rail, the electronic relay system and the
piston setter all installed, wired up and running for the next tea dance in September, a
mere four weeks away!
Having an electronic relay system (pictured to the right) means that the electronics in the organ are connected
to the electronics in the organ chambers by a cable containing 36 wires, of which only
28 are actually used. The original cable containing hundreds of wires which it replaces, can be seen in the above picture. It also means that things like Sustain and Pizzicato are easily
achieved. The addition of a Midi module and Midi stops on all manuals including the
pedals give the ability to plug in and play any midi capable instrument, like an
electronic piano, from anywhere on the console.
Original ranks were.
New ranks are.
English Horn
Trumpet
Tuba
Tibia
Diapason
Orchestral Oboe
Tibia Clausa
Oboe Horn
Saxaphone
Flute Celeste
Gamba
Viole d'Orchestre
Gamba Celeste
Viole Celeste
Flute
Vox Humana
Kinura
Clarinet
Quintadena
This is the chapter's own Wurlitzer organ, which was originally installed in the Granada
Welling in South East London and opened on the 22nd. November 1937. It was Opus
2220 and with its original three manual eight rank specification it was one of six
installed in theatres in the London area. They were considered as standing head and
shoulders above all other organs installed in neighbouring theatres. Sadly all but one of
these instruments have been removed from the theatres and reinstalled in other venues.
The only organ remaining in situ is in the Granada Harrow but this is now unusable
due to closure.
When The Granada at Welling was closed the organ was purchased by the London and
South of England Chapter and was removed by the technical team under the leadership
of Mr. Les Rawle. The organ was stored for a number of years before the technical
team with new recruits from the local area installed it in the Projectile Hall at Woking
Leisure Centre. Three chambers were built at one end of the hall, the centre one being
of half height, so that a storage space for the console was formed under the floor. The
centre chamber, which is shuttered, houses the Traps, Glockenspiel and Xylophone,
and it also accommodated the wurlitzer relays. The pipe chambers either side are at
floor level with a glass window in each so that the pipes can be seen by the public
attending the concerts. The opening concert in the Woking Leisure Centre took place
in August 1995. Between then and the summer of 1998 an extra chest was installed in each
chamber in order that the ranks of pipes could be increased to 17.
These extra ranks of
pipes were slowly added and indeed some were connected up to play using the surplus
piano stops already in existence on the then single stop rail. By the beginning of 1998
the console had been altered to make space for the second stop rail which was still
under construction. Since the size of the organ was to be doubled this would mean an
extra set of Wurlitzer relays would have to be found to control the extra ranks. While
this might have been possible, the problem of where to site them remained, as very
little space was available in the small centre chamber where the existing relays were
housed. At this point it was decided to install for the whole organ an electronic relay
system designed and produced by Bill Walker, and at the same time to add an
electronic piston setter with 64 memories. The electronic relay is simply a digital
multiplex system and is not a computer, therefore eliminating the problems of system
crashes suffered by some microprocessor driven organs.
Two weeks before the Tea Dance on the 4th. Thursday in August 1998 the Technical
team under the leadership of Les and Len Rawle, started work. The idea was to carry
out all the work that could be done while still keeping the organ in a playable condition
for the Tea Dance. This involved installing the electronics in the centre chamber and
starting to wire up the extra ranks wire by wire to the electronic boards now screwed
to the walls. At the same time, some members of the team were completing the
building and wiring up of the second stop rail ready for installation later.
Members of the technical team worked on the organ diligently every day, and on the
Monday before the tea dance was to take place, Len was able to test and play the
individual ranks as the multiplex system was connected up rank by rank. Very few
problems were encountered at this stage, which was a testament to the quality of the
soldering of the many thousands of joints which had been made in the past six weeks.
Any faults were cleared on the Tuesday and the organ, all 16 ranks of it was tuned by
Les on the Wednesday. The newly enlarged organ was first heard at the tea dance the
very next day where it performed faultlessly.
In early 2003 a Quintadena rank was added, and then in 2004 a Clarinet and Kinura were added making a total of 19 ranks in all.
The Wurlitzer attracts more people into the hall now renamed "Wurlitzer Hall" than
any other activity, thus with regular well supported concerts each year, the
future of the organ is assured.
Any Questions or comments E-Mail Concert Secretary Ian Ridley.
Click here to Send E-Mail.