Tuning & Service.
Preserving musical heritage: comprehensive care and maintenance services. Specialized care is essential for pipe organs to ensure consistent functionality and protect the initial financial contribution. Greenleaf offers tailored tuning and maintenance services, providing customizable plans based on the organ's condition, building environment, intended use, and client budget.
New tuning slides for a wood 16' Violone.
Do organs require specialized care?
A pipe organ, like many other musical instruments, is made up of individual, highly specialized components working together as one. Often, the organ represents the largest initial financial contribution in a place of worship, second to the building itself and large stained-glass windows.
As with any work of art, especially one that must function consistently and reliably, regular maintenance by a skilled organbuilder or service technician is an important part of protecting the initial investment.
The importance of tuning.
The main component of regular maintenance is tuning. Consistent regulation of humidity and temperature will minimize tuning and maintenance for an organ; during large seasonal shifts, where the regular temperature of a building may shift, the organ’s tuning must be adjusted, primarily to compensate for the shift in the speed of sound, which changes with temperature.
During any tuning/service visit, the organ is inspected for other items that may require maintenance: this includes any leathers in the organ’s action, regulation of mechanical components, minor cleaning, addition of blower motor oil, etc.
Key action adjustments in progress for an existing mechanical action instrument.
Do you use modern and traditional technologies?
We frequently use modern tuning apparatus to ensure tuning consistency between physically disparate divisions of the organ. We also rely on humidity and temperature tracking methods to aid in long-term maintenance planning. Otherwise, the tuning and care of an instrument rely on the skill and patience of the technician.
Why is preventative maintenance important?
A skilled technician can help to ensure the longevity of an instrument, not only with careful tuning and maintenance, but also through communication to the client when external factors pose a risk to the instrument. Often, the organ technician is the first to notice slight changes in building humidity such as falling plaster, or, in one case, an increasingly outward-leaning exterior wall! Organ maintenance is a key part of the maintenance of the client’s entire physical plant – the results of which are regularly experienced by parishioners, concertgoers, and students.
Do you offer tuning services for organs you haven't built?
We offer tuning and maintenance across a wide variety of pipe organ styles and builders, suited to meet our client’s needs and ideal frequency of service. We also offer assistance with creating short- and long-term maintenance plans to ensure the longevity of an instrument.
Do you offer customized plans for ongoing maintenance?
All plans for maintenance are dependent upon the condition of the instrument, the maintenance of the building in which it resides, the intended use of the instrument, and the client’s budget.