In response to Marc Elbasoni's letter about band organs being made of
theatre organ pipes, I can only say I hope I never see one.  I have
seen band organs, both original and homemade, with church organ pipes
as well.  It's just amazing how nice a pipe can sound when it's being
blown with 8 inches of wind when it's voiced for 1 inch.  Sometimes the
pipes are all painted with real pretty fluorescent paint as well.

I am not aware of any replica Wurlitzer 165 organs being produced.  If
it has theatre organ pipes in it, it's not a replica -- it's a roll
played organ made of theatre organ parts.  I am aware of only two true
replica W165 organs.  Neither of them contain theatre organ pipes, you
can be sure, which even if they just happened to be correct in wind
rating and voicing, would still not be used.  Any man that calls
himself a band organ builder will be making his pipes and loving it.

If you're planning on building a band organ from scratch, you will find
that very few pipe organ pipes will be the correct pressure or voicing
for band organs.  You may find some 8-foot stopped and opens you could use
for bass foundation, or something small scale that could suffice for
stopped and open flutes, but what about the violins, trumpets,
trombones, and other assorted reeds you may need?

You won't find anything in the "Theatre Organ Pipe Warehouse" you
mention.  (By the way, I do not know of a warehouse full of theatre
organ pipes, do you?).  Even if you found reeds and shallots that
might work, you still have a _lot_ of woodworking to do to make boots,
blocks, and resonators.

I am also very curious as to why you would think that theatre organ
pipes would be voiced any more carefully than church organ pipes.  What
brings that conclusion?  Just wondering, that's all....

Also, if it takes a fellow a whole day to make one organ pipe, I would
guess it's either a very difficult pipe to make (full of mitres, etc.)
or he's real slow, or both.  I know that if I spent a whole day making
one pipe, I would find a new job because I ain't gonna be paying any
bills for a while.

I'm not slamming anyone's work, I'm just wondering why it would take
a guy a day to make one pipe.  If I had a boss who came to me at the
end of the workday, asking what I had accomplished all day with his
dollars, and I showed him a spitz flute, I think it would be
'evaluation time'.

Conversely, if a person is not willing to put in MANY hours building an
organ from scratch -- and yes, that means all the pipes, even if it is
one pipe per day -- you need to look into another hobby.  Restoration
and construction is lots of time and labor, but is always rewarding
when a beautiful project finally comes together.  There's no such thing
as "Instant" automatic musical instruments.

A fantastic band organ could take a long, long time just to plan out.
When you think about how all those parts need to fit together so
perfectly -- wind chest design and division spacings, pneumatic stack,
pumps, wind conductors and chests, key frame or roll frame design and
construction, and on and on -- building all those pipes suddenly seems
like the straightforward easy part.

As far as splitting the 165 scale wind chest in two, I guess you could
have half on one city block, and have the other across town (I would
connect them electrically at this point, not pneumatically), but of
course my question is why do you ask?

John D. Rutoskey
Automatic Music Machines
Baltimore, Maryland