Last night I was able to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Wanamaker Organ with my pal Dave Kim, with Scott Kip as our faithful guide. It was a mind blowing romp through rooms and rooms of organ pipes, tight spaces, ladders, and delicate, antiquated electronics. Somehow I was able to overcome the anxiety of bumping into/destroying something delicate, as well as get a few crummy iPhone shots, which I present to you, dear reader, after the jump.

So I guess I should start off with this, a blurry photo of the old organ shop. Within the past few years, the organ department has inherited the 4th floor mezzanine of the Macy’s building, which includes a slew of restoration rooms, air duct and sprinkler pipes, and a cozy woodshop. I forgot about my camera at the time we were there, as well as a tour of a recently restored Wurlitzer, but let’s just get on to the delicate beast of an organ.

This is where it all goes down: 6 keyboards, tons of voicing options (those switches in the concave area), and foot/sliding keyboard volume controls. If you know how to use this, I don’t know why you are reading this blog.

This is a set of drawers next to the organ player, I just love those drawers.

This is about 1/3rd of a pipe room. The Wanamaker Organ has about 29,000 pipes. The average organ: 7-10,000 pipes. It’s like the Betelgeuse of air powered instruments. Whatever, I’m a nerd.

Mo’ pipes. Somehow, people are able to tune this thing. How they do it: pure mystery.

Giant (my guess is about 20′ for the largest) wooden pipes. The whole place is littered with old wood. 20″ planks make up walls, 16′ 12/4 beams make up raised platforms to access pipes at their connection points, all coated in shellac. Scott Kip, who gave us the tour, restores the mechanics of the organ and does all of the woodworking needed to maintain the organ. It’s a pretty rad job, and takes places in a hidden world within a huge department store.

The view from the top: this is actually above the organ, accessible via a 10″ door that I could barely squeeze my buddah through. But I did, and it was worth it.

Sorry for all of the shakey shots, but that’s what happens when you use a phone for a camera.

Major props to Scott Kip for the tour, and Dave Kim for the invite.

Cheers,
Shaun Baer