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Estey

St. Philips Episcopal Church

Joplin, Missouri

This congregation has a curious history when it comes to organs. The building was built in 1908 and did not have an organ. At some point a small Estey pipe organ was installed next to the chancel, in a space not intended for an organ chamber. In 1929 the Estey was completely rebuilt and a fund established to maintain the organ. In 1949 the Estey was removed and a Hammond instrument was installed. It is not know what happened to the pipe organ or the maintenance fund. In 1962 a Schulmerich electronic carillon was added to the Hammond console. In 1973 an Allen Computer organ was installed with front speakers, but the carillon was not connected to the Allen until 1981. In 1992 additional switches and amplifiers were added for four new rear speakers. In 1997 the computer organ received two new dual channel amplifiers, and DAC (digital analog converter) cards. It is unclear when carillon ceased to function.

Over the last decade several minor issues had developed with the organ, but had not received any attention. When the issues were finally looked into it was determined that one of the main computer boards had failed. Organ Expressions has helped the church to get the circuit board repaired and brought the instrument back to full operation. Now the weakness in this instrument was the lack of sound on the chancel. Since 1973 the choir and the organist had been unable to hear the instrument with any clarity. The front speakers are hidden behind the facade pipes in the far corners of the nave. Organ Expressions was commissioned to add new amplifiers and speakers for the chancel area. The instrument is a four channel model, so four channels of amplifiers and four Ambiance 5 speakers were added. The speakers are hidden behind a pipe facade and face directly towards the organist.

Two of the existing Allen amplifiers had already failed due to age, so it was decided that all new amplifiers would be added for the four channels of front speakers and the four channels of rear speakers. (The church is unclear as to when the rear speakers stopped working.) To better facilitate the audio performance of the instrument, a digital speaker processor was added to the signal chain to allow general voicing the instrument in the room. This 4 input, 8 output processor allows for dedicated outputs for the chancel speakers that are separate from the speakers in the nave.

The repairs and enhancements were completed just in time for Palm Sunday. The choir and the organist are thrilled with the results and the administrator is very pleased that the project came in on budget and solved all the organ issues the music ministry was battling. (During their first rehearsal following the completion of our work, the choir gave us a standing ovation.)

The four Ambiance 5 speakers are hidden behind the Estey facade pipes shown below.

The amplifier rack still uses the previous relays, but with new electrical filtering for the AC.

The rear speakers are high up on the clear story walls.

The OE enhancements includes:

four - Organ Expressions Ambiance 5 speakers
six - dual channel power amplifiers from Stewart Audio
one - digital system processor from BBE
cleaning the mess in the old amplifier rack
assembling and testing the amplifier and processing rack
Interconnecting the various electronics
Optimizing the speaker response to the room

Please listen with high quality speakers or headphones to better appreciate the sonic performance of the organ. These selections were recorded with professional equipment at the front of the seating area. All MP3 demonstrations are 320 kbs in 16 bit, 44.1kHz.