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St. Alban's Episcopal Church - 2/23 Austin

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Great Division

Swell Division

Console

Other Photos

Stop List

St. Alban's Episcopal Church
Bexley, OH
2/23 Austin
Opus 2588 - 1975

Photos of the Console

Click on the photo to see a larger image

The console sits in the front left side of the church, giving the organist a front row seat to service activities. While generally in a good location with relation to the pipes, the sound at the console is actually softer than in the pews due to the construction of the church. A poor console location can result in the organist choosing a registration that is too loud or too soft.

	A console rewiring and new manuals (keyboards) were part of Muller's rebuild and tonal adjustment of the overall instrument. However on the surface, the console still largely looks like what Austin installed in 1975.
	This overhead view of the manuals is meant to highlight the thumb pistons under the manuals. The buttons 1-10 on the left side are general pistons and correspond to those down below in the pedal area also marked 1-10. The buttons marked 1-6 under each manual are Divisional pistons. Note the two buttons marked PREV and NEXT which use the digital memory unit (see below). The organist can program a series of preset registrations and move through them by pressing these buttons. This is very helpful when dealing with pieces needing a larger than usual number of registration changes.
	On the right side are the indicator lights and memory sequencer for the console. The Crescendo light will illuminate when the crescendo pedal is depressed, and the Tutti light will illuminate if the tutti stop is selected. Tutti is the equivalent to Sforzando and is more or less the equivalent to full organ (loud!). The Wind light indicates when the blower is turned on. The memory sequencer is used to store preset registrations, saving the organist the trouble of manually setting everything.

Across the top of the console are the stop tabs for the three divisions. Typically classical pipe organs have stop knobs on either side of the manuals and theater organs have stop tabs across the top or in a horseshoe shape around the console. Austin at one time built both types of instruments but standardized with stop tabs on their consoles regardless of the instrument type. The three photos show the stop tabs for the three divisions. Red tabs are reed stops, white tabs are flue and string stops and black tabs are couplers which join divisions of the instrument by pitch.

Down below we see the toe pistons and expression pedals for the Swell Division shutters and Crescendo. On the left are the general toe studs for presets which apply to the entire instrument, and on the right are toe studs specifically for the Pedal Division, as well as two reversible toe studs and one for the Tutti.

Affixed to the console are builder's plates for Austin and Muller. Austin is still in business today and is one of the oldest pipe organ builders in the country. Muller is active primarily in doing rebuilds and regular maintenance, however they produce a brand new instruments as well.

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