ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: John Koerber, November 1998
Here are corrections and additions to the stoplist and modifications
list for the Los Angeles Orpheum Wurli
Style 240, Opus 1821.
1. (Correction) The Tibia unification on the Great at 2-2/3', 2' and
1-3/5' is a modification, not the original configuration for these
pitches. These pitches were originally taken from the Concert Flute.
2. (Addition) To complete the new Tibia unification, a small extension
chest was added in the Solo chamber.
3. (Confirmation) The added Post Horn rank, correctly identified as a
modified Orch Oboe, is indeed on 10" wind, and is tremmed with all the
rest of the Solo chamber manual chests except Tibia and Tuba.
4. (Addition) The additional Post Horn rank is controlled from what is
now the "Kinura/Post Horn" stop, originally the Kinura stop. Post
Horn or Kinura are alternatively selected using one of the additional
toggle switches on the backrail. It's down for Post Horn On, up for
Kinura On, with no way of selecting both.
5. (Addition) A photo of the console with a handwritten caption dated
1936 shows the added toggle switches on the backrail, as well as the
present boxy incandescent lights for the music rack. But for the paint
scratches, it looks today as it did then.
6. (Addition) The diaphones are metal, of the "smaller" size (6'+
offset chest). They are quite effective. On some days (maybe it's that
the lift has to be up) the pedalboard resonates with some of the bass
notes, and one gets the delightful feedback of feeling the 16' pitch of
the pedal notes through one's shoes while playing.
The method of making the change to the EP relay (locally attributed to
Ralph Sargent?) to effect the change in unification from Flute to Tibia
is noteworthy because it is easily reversible, without damage, to the
original Flute configuration.
Specifically, the area on the switch stack under the moving contact
bars for these 3 adjacent pitches was overlaid with a single-sided
printed circuit board etched with the same pattern of vertical contact
strips as the original embedded-in-wood metal contact strips now
underneath, undisturbed, and uncut. The new strips, facing the contact
bars, were wired to the Tibia pipe wiring elsewhere on the relay, while
the moving contact bars, coming from the note relays, require no
changes in wiring. The left and right bearing-block ends of the
contact bars are shimmed up to the proper height by virtue of their
sitting on the circuit board itself, the board being as wide as the
entire contact bar plus bearing blocks. And the screws that hold the
bearing blocks in place also fix the circuit board in place, the board
being under the bearing blocks. All quite ingenious, IMHO. And the
added wiring includes some bow-tied spares, as do just about all the
original cable runs in this organ.