Our teams have established a reputation of professional reliability over the years, and we are persistently working to maintain that reputation. Factory trained service teams stand ready to give your instrument the finest quality service. Our shop facility is outstanding! We are equipped with the best tools available in woodworking, pipe reworking, drafting, re-leathering and solid-state equipment. We custom build every instrument. We can build a console to your exact specification, to make sure it is both functional and beautiful. Every part of our shop is designed to create a brilliantly finished instrument in an efficient, but careful manner.
Though we are part of the ancient tradition of organ building, we are not bound solely by the practices of those who have gone before us. We have an obligation to understand the spirit of our own time, and to breathe new life into the old forms we have inherited. Though designs draw inspiration from the wealth of organ history, each Milnar instrument is a unique work of art for our own time, and is contemporary in the best sense of the word.
A major strength of the Milnar firm lies in our ability to communicate with customers. Every member of our team prides himself on providing unsurpassed service in every situation. As trite as it may sound, we do build relationships right along with our products. Once we have received your initial inquiry, we will begin to focus on your requirements and considerations. This process involves listening to your opinions and perspective as well as considering the environment and utilization of the space. One of the key elements for our review is to retain a broad perspective on the project. We believe that the final installation will serve for many years beyond the time that the principals of the design will be involved.
The end result of this overview will be a specific proposal for your situation. We will provide a full detailed presentation that will provide all information on the project and style of construction. As required for clarity of communication, this will be accompanied by full drawings, details and renderings. As we work through the production of your project, we will keep you abreast of the work with progress updates. The final installation is an exciting event that retains the Milnar character.
Our Services Include
Regularly Scheduled Tunings: Regular tunings keep your organ in top playing condition. Regular visits insure your organ is always kept in tune to match the change in seasons, and any problems are caught immediately and repaired. Regular visits also give our technicians the chance to foresee any large problems before they occur. For the best maintenance of your organ, we recommend a semi-annual tuning schedule to match the change in seasons, such as in May or June, when the air conditioning first comes on, and in November or December, when the heat first becomes necessary. We will schedule our regular visits to fit your programming needs. If you notify us ahead of time, we will make every effort to accommodate your request, although we can suggest schedule options that will minimize your costs by grouping customers in one area.
A complete tuning: The entire organ is tuned to its current pitch. Every pipe is adjusted, if necessary. Drastic changes in pitch, such as matching A=440 would incur an extra charge. When tuning, the church must be as close to normal temperature as possible, that is, the temperature the church would be for a religious service at that time of year. The room must also be silent while the tuners are present. Touch up tunings are preferred in mid-season. Reeds are tuned, and any out-of-tune flue pipes are adjusted.
Systems Check: All mechanical systems are checked during every visit. Items checked include all couplers, reversible, indicator lights, swell expressions, crescendo mechanism, tremulants, chimes and other percussions, reed regulation, and the combination action. We will perform minor repairs on the service visit and notify you of additional repair work that is needed. The organ blower motors are oiled or greased as necessary.
Service Sheets: Our technicians will leave a service sheet for listing all work performed during the visit. Each contracted church is left with a blue notebook to keep near the organ console. The blue notebook has all the service sheets from past visits. The service sheet has blank areas to fill in for Time, Temperature, Pitch For Each Chamber, Repair/Tuning Information and Comments. A pad is provided in your blue notebook for you to note any mechanical or tuning problems you might encounter between visits, and aids our technicians in locating and solving problems.
Emergency Service 911: With our full-time office staff and 24-hour answering machine, makes us easy to reach at a moments notice. If a problem occurs that prevents your immediate use of the organ, we can send a crew ASAP. This is not included in an annual contract. Emergency calls are billed according to time spent plus mileage from Eagleville, TN and expenses. Although, many of our emergency calls are solved over the phone with the organist; saving the cost of a service call.
Our Service Area: Currently, Milnar Organ Company has service contracts with over 65 cities in the Southeast. Our service area stretches over a 400 mile radius from Nashville. With our central location, we are able to travel quickly to any clients in need. In certain cases, we have found our crews traveling a great distance for a client; so our service range is flexible. For example, we recently dismantled and shipped an organ to our shop facility from Kennilworth, IL. It was quite an interesting drive through downtown Chicago! If you find yourself in the Nashville area, gives us a call for directions to stop by and visit us. -Online Milnar Organ Co. Location Map-
Design and Layout: All pipe organs no matter how large or small, begin on the drawing table of the design department. The pipe layout, winding, wiring, visual design, and casework are carefully created and documented. An organ is designed after a member of the design department has been to the site to take measurements and photographs to create an instrument that will fit and match it's surroundings. A visual representation of every instrument is created so the customer can see exactly what the organ will look like in its final setting. The console is also designed here, and a layout of the pistons and toe studs and stop tabs or draw knobs is created and modified if necessary. All of this is provided to the customer before construction of the organ begins in the shop.
Solid-State Components: Our service technicians can also give you information on solid-state upgrades to the electrical system of your organ. We use all the latest solid-state equipment from the Peterson Co. in Worth, IL., to provide switching and MIDI functions for our organs. We use the same equipment to modernize existing organs. Solid-State components solve the problems caused by older mechanical and pneumatic components such as dirty contacts, noisy action, leaking or blown pneumatics, slow action, and heavy, bulky components.
Adding a solid-state relay to your organ can extend its life and prevent the occurrence of dead notes and stops due to dirty contacts and faulty parts. Rebuilding your console with Solid-State increases the functionality of your console greatly. Some available options are intra-manual couplers, a transposer, added combination pistons, multiple memory levels for your combination action, moving draw knobs and stop keys, MIDI interface and MIDI sequencer control, a piston sequencer, a clock, combination locks and power locks.
Adding New Chests and Pipes: The most frequent cause of organ malfunction is a problem with the wind chest. A small amount of water from a leaky roof or water pipe can cause an entire chest to stop working. We can replace the action in your existing chests with an electronic magnet action, giving you a more reliable action and one that doesn't require any re-leathering or seasonal readjustment. Our wind-trunks are constructed of wood, rather than the more common zinc or PVC pipe, for strength and silence. Even in winding systems allowing some flexibility of pressure, the wind is never "wiggly" or "shaky
We can easily add one or multiple ranks of pipes to your organ to add extra sounds, or to complete stops that were previously borrowed. Pipes can be added into your existing configuration, but coupled with solid-state additions or console enhancement. The whole process can give your existing organ an entirely new feel and sound.
Your Console: An organ's console is the most important and visible part of the organ. This is where the musician meets the instrument. An aging console can be upgraded to today's state of the art. Besides from solving minor problems, console upgrades often serve to make an organ a more enjoyable instrument to play, and add to its lifespan. Our refinishing department does a fantastic job bringing the console back to the looks of its youth.
Every console is built to AGO standards, and custom designed and finished to match its surroundings. Each Milnar console is hand-assembled by craftsmen who select wood components to assure perfect "book-end" grain matching as found in the world's finest furniture. Using time-honored methods, each console is glued and screwed together for maximum strength and integrity. The final step in the woodworking process brings out the wood's full beauty and ensures its protection. Through a combination of hand-rubbing and spraying, Milnar consoles are stained and then finished with several coats of lacquer. Customers may choose from a variety of standard finishes or have us custom match their console to existing woodwork in their church.
The console leads a fine instrument and should reflect the quality and character of the performing experience. The proportions and balance should be correct to the eye, while the attention to detail should be impeccable. Regardless of size, the console should be at home in its new location and blend as though designed by the original architect. Exotic woods, English bevels, custom rolled edges and a thousand other small details should simply be expected.
When the artist is seated, the mechanical aspects of the console should become transparent after a simple orientation. Manual relationships, draw knob positioning, expression controls and all other details should be intuitive in location and never disturb an artist's center of balance. If an artist is able to focus on the music and, within moments, forget the mechanics of the console, we have succeeded. Visit some of our installations, you'll find that Milnar consoles are the leader in ergonomic perfection.
Chimes and Zimblesterns: When considering additions and upgrades to an organ, most people don't consider percussion instruments. While chimes are the most popular, glockenspiels, harps, Zimblesterns and Glockensterns, are also possible. Visually beautiful, adding exposed percussion can enhance a room, as well as make the organ more versatile and interesting, and are easily added to an instrument without great expense.
Voicing and Tonal Finishing: We are Americans. Although our inspiration is rooted in the organ building traditions of Europe, we do not construct copies of historical European organs for American churches.
The diversity of music in American worship taxes the ability of a single instrument to render appropriately the many styles of literature regularly performed. We, therefore, apply a "common sense" approach to the tonal design of each organ-returning to our discipline to let the organ serve the congregation's musical needs.
Our firm's individual tonal style is characterized by warmth of tone, secured in part by generous scaling of the pipes. Each stop is carefully designed to blend with others to produce a cohesive musical ensemble, and smaller ensembles within ensembles. Once the organ is installed, we spend a great deal of time at the site working on the final voicing (or tonal finishing). This weds the sound of the pipes to the acoustics of the building and produces the musical blend.
Older pipe work can often be given a new life by re-voicing. Age, the stress of tuning, and accumulation of dirt can cause pipes to not sound their best after many years. Cleaning and re-voicing each pipe can return the original voice of the pipe, and the intended sound of the organ. This work can be done at two levels. The first is a simple tonal refinishing done in place. At the second level, all the pipes are removed and taken to our shop facility where every pipe is cleaned and re-voiced and reed tongues are polished. This kind of work is usually accompanied by an entire organ cleaning, which includes the cleaning of contacts.
Restorations: The value of existing instruments is certainly a major consideration in the overview of any project. We, at Milnar, welcome working with any quality components and have had the honor of completing many historic renovations. Our experience has taken us through the complete renovations of Casavant, Skinner, Austin, Moller, Schantz, Wicks, Reuter and many other well known instruments. The quality of our work will bring any existing instrument virtually to, or above, the original factory specifications.
We welcome the opportunity of inspecting your present instrument and providing you with complete details on the condition and viability of renovation. Upon completion of our inspection, we will provide full details of our recommendation for the long term goals for the renovation. We are open to suggesting phased methods of accomplishing those goals and believe that the desired final outcome should be firmly established prior to beginning the work. This allows all efforts to be focused to the ultimate goal with minimal redundant effort or expenditure.
Consultations: Buying a new organ or having substantial work done to your existing instrument, is a major expense for almost all churches. At Milnar Organ Co., the interest of the church is always our highest priority. We offer our assistance in any number of ways concerning pipe organs. Some of our areas of expertise are: historic instruments, electrical upgrades, tuning stability (air flow), acoustical considerations, material considerations (flooring, wall coverings, carpet etc.), stop additions, re-leathering, blower replacement, re-voicing of pipes and reeds, noisy organs, and shade machine upgrades.
Of coarse we build new organs, but existing organs rarely need replacing. Let us consult with you "Before" your next organ project. Fundraising is a very important part of the big picture for any pipe organ project. We offer our help to our clients with a guideline for fundraising. Please click on the link below.
The time will come when your Music and Worship Committee is face to face with the responsibility of acquiring a new musical instrument for your institution. With that responsibility will come the choice between acquiring an electronic organ or a fine pipe organ with centuries of tradition behind it. Click on the link below to learn of the vast difference between the pipe organ and electronic organ.
"Pipe Organs Versus Electronic Organs"
Each Milnar pipe organ is a unique instrument crafted to serve the special musical requirements it is called upon to fulfill. Painstaking attention to detail in all aspects of the design, physical layout, tonal composition, structure, installation and tonal finishing; guarantees that every instrument meets our exacting standards. This can only be accomplished through careful scaling and pipe adjustments, followed by meticulous voicing and tonal finishing to tailor each instrument to its unique environment. When completed, the instrument is capable of serving in its role of accompanying instruments and voices as well as successfully rendering a broad cross section of literature. Our goal is to build pipe organs of the highest musical integrity and mechanical reliability, qualities which never go out of style.
Dr. Wesley Roberts, Professor of Music in Campbellsville, KY:
" I want to join Nevalyn in thanking you and the workers for the outstanding job each of you did installing the Trumpet-en-Chamade. It is a wonderful addition to the instrument and the chapel. University folk and visitors have already begun expressing amazement with both the visual and aural impact of the trumpets, and I know it will add much excitement to our programs and concerts for many years to come. Thank you very much for seeing this final leg of the project all the way through! And, thanks also for tuning the whole organ.
Please extend our thanks to all the Milnar team for the wonderful spirit which everyone displayed in working on this project. It was a pleasure to have each of you here and we will certainly look forward to future visits knowing that we have a wonderful group to work with. Blessings on all your future projects."
Evelyn Gibbs, Chair, Organ Restoration Committee in Chattanooga, TN:
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for all you did to make the July 2 organ concert such a success! You worked hard and long on the organ, and I'm sure you felt good about the results. We have heard many, many wonderful comments about the organ and the concert. We appreciate the extra time and effort you spent on the organ, and especially your cheerful attitude at all times. I especially appreciate Todd's being in the organ chamber during the concert. I felt relaxed, knowing he was up there, ready for an emergency. However, he probably was deaf when the concert was over!
Again, my heartfelt thanks, and may God bless each of you as you continue your work, helping organists make beautiful music."
Jane Sharding, Organist of St. Peter in Memphis, TN:
"I thought you'd enjoy knowing that the Memphis Chapter AGO heard a wonderful recital by Paul Lee on the Kimball you re-birthed at Bartlett United Methodist Church. He really showed off all the bells and whistles with a wider variety of pieces and the organ sounded great! Jane Scharding: President, Milnar Fan Club"
Lester Seigel, Associate Professor of Music Chair at Birmingham Southern College:
"Just a quick note to thank you for the excellent job on the organ work at Canterbury. I certainly appreciate the care you took with the bellows, and for saving us a bit of money on the winkers. Of course, I greatly appreciate the timely manner in which the job was completed. I certainly look forward to working with you in the future."
Paul S. Frank, Pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran in Hendersonville, TN:
"We are truly grateful for your hard work and dedication which has in turn made this a beautiful edifice that gives tribute and praise to the glory of God."
J. Edward Culpepper, Administrative Pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, AL:
"You have had a significant role in the long process of hard work and craftsmanship that has resulted in this joyous season, and we want to take a special opportunity to express our thanks. Thank you for your faithful work."
Cary Rutland, Chairman of Bldg Committee at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, AL:
"I want to thank you for the way you worked with us on the refurbishment of our organ during our recently completed renovation program. We had some very involved scheduling issues coordinating major construction, stained glass window removal / reinstallation and your organ work. I appreciate your cooperation and responsiveness to these special requirements. Your professional concern and care for our organ was obvious in your approach to the work, and we appreciated this effort by your team."
Janette Fishell, Organ Instructor at University Of North Alabama in Florence, AL:
"The positive comments regarding your work which came from members of the administration were so numerous that I wanted to let you know immediately! Once again, thank you for your excellent work."
Lee Green, Organist of Eastland Baptist Church in Nashville, TN:
"Thanks for the prompt repair of the Tremulant at Eastland. I really appreciate your scheduling of this repair so quickly."
Michael C. Moore, Attorney At Law and Substitute Organist of First Baptist Church Huntsville, AL
"It is very difficult for me to tell you my feelings toward you and your men for the very difficult work which they performed in Iowa and the quick installation which you made here in Huntsville. I am sure no one else anywhere could have done the job your men have done. All of your technical abilities and expertise dazzles us every time you do work for us."
"Our work is about music, not about words. Only so much can be written to tell you about our commitment to musical excellence and our skills. We must rely on our work to speak for itself. We encourage anyone considering a new organ, the augmentation or rebuilding of an existing instrument to hear and play a Milnar Organ." -Dennis
Milnar Organ Company 3165 Hill Road Eagleville, Tennessee 37060 1-877-244-6177 (615) 274-6400 FAX # (615) 274-2022
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