St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, Princeton, NJ
Rebuilding and Recasting
When an instrument has been through a number of changes and modifications, there comes a point when these changes have compromised the integrity of the instrument. Often it may then be in one’s best interest in preserving the integrity to halt further additions and modifications and simply preserve and maintain the mechanical life of instrument. This is where rebuilding becomes appropriate.
The goal of rebuilding is to strengthen the practical, mechanical, and tonal integrity of the organ. An example of rebuilding is when all of the mechanical, winding and the windchest components are renewed in some way, but the pipework is retains its original tonal configuration.
Recasting
While the work to rebuild an organ is often extensive, depending on the state of the components, rebuilding often takes the form of recasting. Recasting refers to evaluating an instrument to determine which components are in good mechanical and tonal condition and which are not. With recasting, those parts that are good are retained and those that are not are removed and replaced. For example, if some pipework is in good condition it is retained, while some pipes are discarded and replaced. If the mechanical action is past its prime or the additional modifications that have been made over the years do not integrate together consistently or correctly, they are removed and replaced.
For more information, see Patrick’s article on rebuilding.
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