These are pipes examples of five of the six ranks of pipes I just bought from Aaron Tellers. The one at the bottom is from a 8' Krumhorm rank, the next up is from a 8' Regal, next up is a 8' Trumpet (there is a 1/2 length 16' extension to this), nest up is from a 8' French Horn, and the last is a 4' Choral Bass. For who needs to know the four from the bottom of the picture are reeds, the top pipe is a flue.

This is the 16' Fagott rank. See how the cone shaped resonator has a cap that fits into the pipe and can close off the holes in the sides at the top. These tune the resonator. These are 1/2 length resonators. The square wooden pieces with the green sides are called boots. The metal block which holds the reed and shallot fit into the boot and the boot is pressurized with air when the valve open at the bottom. The green sides are very this and appear to be made of fiberglass or isen glass. I believe this resonates with the reed. This is a pedal rank and contains 32 pipes. The short looking pipes in the back hold the longer resonators.

These are the reed pipes with the boots removed so you can see the tuning wire, the reeds and shallot. For those who may not know, the reed is a thin flat piece of brass which vibrates against the shallot which is typically a tubular piece closed at the bottom with a slot in the side that the reed vibrates against. The top of the shallot is open and inserted into the lead block which opens in to the resonator. The tuning wire shortens or lengthens the vibrating portion of the reed changing the pitch. The differences in the design of the shallot, resonator, and reed makes the variation in the sound the pipe makes ie Clarinet, Oboe, Trumpet, ect.

This is a picture of the reeds from the top. The Krumhorn at the top has an narrow open resonator made of copper there is a slide tuner ( sleeve at the top which lengthens or shortens the resonator ).

The Regal below has a this brass tube which opens into a spotted metal resonator, (lead and tin mixture makes the metal spot, the more tin the finer or smaller the spots). It also has a slide tuner.

The trumpet (next down) has a cone shaped resonator with the top portion being spotted metal. It is open on top and has a scroll tuner in the resonator ( winds down like an old fashion sardine can with the key ) The different metals affect the sound as does the shape of the resonator.

The bottom one is the French Horn. It is cone shaped like the Trumpet but the top is closed but open on the edge and can be rolled up to fine tune the sound. It also has a scroll tuner on the resonator. The metal of the resonator is what they call Hoyt metal. It is a less expensive metal with a bright finish to resemble tin but in fact has a lot of lead in it. All the reeds have a tuning wire for the reed as well and the reed and resonator are tuned together to get it all sounding right.

I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get this all up and running, but I think it will be awesome when it is. I have run out of room for anymore pipes and I'm going to have to get creative to get these in place.

Til next time