A Tale of an Organ Transplant

June 6^th:

I got the usual dozen eBay Favorite Searches as normal. This time, in the Pipe Organ search result, there was a rather interesting one: “Casavant Tracker Pipe Organ” with a little pic:

Rather innocuous, but then it did say Casavant and tracker, two little words that sent a shock through me. I had built a room on the back of my garage a few years ago to house just such an animal. I wanted a tracker, and not one of those huge (and cheap) ones housed in a giant church and 100 years old. No I was looking for an elegant little one, with either a soft reed (contradiction in terms?) or a mixture.

Here is the ad:

For Sale: A beautiful small Casavant tracker pipe organ. opus 3144 made in 1972. One manual, 8 ranks, 6 stops. Genshorn 2, Rohrflote 4, Prinzipal 4, Gedackt 8, Sub bass 16, Mixture III / I. Case and wood pipes are medium oak nicely finished. 7' 6" wide, 5' 3" deep, 9' 1" high bass pipes, case is 7' 5" high. Contained within is a very quiet blower. 110 volt. This organ must be sold and removed by September as our new 17 rank organ is to occupy the same space. The buyer must remove. Dismantleing will be fairly easy as this is not a huge complex organ. I have contacts with an organ company who will dismantle and/or reassemble for a fee. Arangements can be made directly with them. Feel free to question, ask for pictures, come and play it! This Casavant is in perfect condition and meticulously maintained. You will be very happy with this fine instrument.

This one had a mixture, 8 ranks, 6 stops, one manual and pedal -- and Casavant Freres at that. A pretty good make. So I put a Watch This Item on it. And sat on it for a day. The auction was ending Sunday night, June 10. So I went to sleep on it.