Hi,  In answer to John McClure's question about tuning pipes
["Tuning Reproduco Wooden Pipes With Metal Tops", 010428 MMD]:

Before you can attempt any kind of a good tuning on the pipes, the
pipes themselves have to be in good condition and the pressure should
be known.  The chest should be hooked up with no pipes on the chest.
It should be blown out by patting the keys and vacuuming the top of
the chest.  The caps of the pipes (the part below the mouth) on all the
pipes should be removed and the throats of the pipes cleaned.  A piece
of dirt in the windway can ruin the voicing, or stop the pipe from
playing altogether.

Make sure there are no splits in the pipe itself.  Gently pull on the
open end of the pipe to make sure it is still glued together firmly.
Make sure the caps are screwed down firmly, but not enough to crush
the wood in the caps.  If you have any pipe that is speaking its
octave, check that pipe carefully for any problem.  If there is
nothing discernable wrong with it, it may be getting too much air.
(In the case of a stopped pipe it could be a loose stopper, but usually
this makes the pipe sound kind of hoarse.)

Both stopped and flue pipes will sound an octave or a harmonic above
the note they are supposed to play if the wind pressure is too much.
If all the other pipes sound just fine and you are sure the pressure
is right, you may add slivers of wood inside the foot to cut down the
wind through the windway.

In voicing metal pipes, the pipes are placed on a voicing chest that
is supplied with wind of a pressure the pipes are designed for.  It is
oversimplification to say that pipes that are too loud or soft have the
toes opened or closed to reduce the wind by evenly collapsing the toe
or opening it.

There are other factors involved such as mouth height and windway.  In
wooden pipes [one assumes that] the pipe was designed and built correctly
and -- barring someone tampering with the mouth, the height of the pipe
or windway, and if the pipe has nothing wrong with it physically, and
the pressure is right -- it should speak the way it did when it was
built.  If it's speaking its octave it could be that slivers of wood
placed inside the toe of the pipe to reduce the wind either fell out or
were removed.

Tony Marsico