Hi all,  I was just reading, for the second time 'round, my copy of
"The Aeolian Pipe Organ and its Music," by Rollin Smith.  It's obvious
that the bulk of these beautiful instruments were purchased and housed
in the USA with a reasonable number coming to the UK and very few going
into Europe.  (I still can't get used to including the UK with Europe.)

What I would like to ask is were the pipe organs destined for us here
in the UK voiced differently than the USA models so as to suit British
tastes at the time?  I have worked on five of these wonderful organs
over the years and they have all sounded similar.  (All were original
UK installations being re-housed and not retro imports.)

I accept that there is a difference between the initial voicing of a
rank of pipes and the tonal finishing they would receive in situ (the
blending of the ranks so that the individual pipes all sound with the
same force throughout the rank).

Many years ago I met with Alfred E. Davies, organ builders, Northampton.
His company had been heavily involved with Aeolian Organs.  He had over
a number of years converted many of the composition metal magnets to
Bakelite ones.  Alfred told me that the pipe work was imported and
installed without the need to voice, only some re-speeching was
necessary, but this doesn't mean that it was standard U.S. pipe work.

Davis's had a large number of original blue-print drawings relating to
parts and installations of UK instruments which I should have rescued
at the time.  (Davis's were practically out of business at that time,
the mid-1980s.)  As there was an Aeolian factory over here (and I must
read the company history part of Mr. Smith's book again), then it's
possible that the UK pipe organs were made here in part or albeit
completely and would have received their voicing to UK standards of
the time.  Can someone please enlighten me?

There are an insufficient number of superlatives to describe the
Aeolian Player Pipe Organ; should I ever win the lottery my first
priority will be to buy a house large enough to house one.

Cheers from the UK -- wet and windy, no summer again this year.

Paul Camps