Going to Pieces: Lammermuir "Flatpack"

Musicians with some level of DIY experience wanting a 2 manual and pedal practice organ may find it at Lammermuir Pipe Organs in Scotland, a 20-year-old business specialising in house organs. However, director Neil Richerby says 'A lot of enquiriers end up saying "It would be nice but it’s very expensive".' So around 1999 the company started building kit organs 'as a way of bridging the gap between their requirements and their budgets'. Richerby designed a three-stop, two manual-and-pedal flatpack. Richerby advises 'We do strongly recommend, if they're wanting the two-manual version, to start with the single manual first (the upper case and keyboard), because it’s a much simpler design and it’s quite a learning curve if you've never done anything like that before.' The upper manual can remain a self-contained positive or be followed by the lower manual and pedals. The coupler on the two-manual instrument works from the lower to the upper keyboard, providing a chorus effect.

The kit bears some resemblance to the Hunstanton Hall organ in Norfolk (now housed in Smithfield, Virginia, USA): 'Like the Hunstanton instrument, our 4ft organ has traditional morticed and tenoned frames around fielded panels in quartered white oak with doors over the façade display pipes and attractive moulding details. A wedge bellows with a small feeder bellows is in the top of the case.' The feeder bellows is operated by a simple metal foot pedal mounted in the stretcher frame. 'The complete instrument requires an electric blower motor, mounted outside the lower case, regulated by the bellows in the upper case. This does not, however, affect the integrity of the foot-blowing facility as the upper case instrument can be lifted off and used as a separate instrument.'

So far, Lammermuir kits have parallel flat pedalboards. While it is possible to modify the design incorporating a concave parallel or radiating pedalboard, Richerby says 'I’m a bit wary of doing that because it doesn’t really fit the style of the organ - it’s not a big romantic organ - and mechanically it’s so much easier just to have a straight pedalboard. And the whole purpose of this is to keep it as simple as possible.'

Apart from the financial incentive of saving 50 per cent of costs, people derive enormous satisfaction from building their own instrument. Lammermuir provides a list of tools required for the job, as well as scrupulously detailed instructions with accompanying photographs for each stage. However, as anyone who has ever assembled a flatpack kitchen knows, directions are always clearer to their author than the pracitioner; and Lammermuir now graciously includes an additional set of notes drawn up by the first person to build their kit.

Is it necessary to have a workshop or spare room in which to assemble the kit? Apparently not: 'A man in London made most of the bits on his kitchen table, then transferred them into the sitting-room [where the instrument was to be positioned]. It doesn’t need a huge space - a lot of the smaller pipes are less than a foot long. There’s quite a bit of work in them; but if you’ve got a couple of clamps you can do one in five minutes and go off and do something else while it sets.' Small wonder that Richerby comments that any married man making the kit 'would need a very patient wife...'.