Professional Services

A Professional Approach to a Long Lasting Relationship
The installation process of a Makin organ is a very carefully crafted and well planned series of events designed to ensure a top quality organ and associated speakers are installed with the customer in a reasonable time. This ensures that no corners are cut, staff work well within health and safety legislation and with the minimum of disturbance for the customer and their use of the building. Whilst this may all sound obvious, a successful installation requires a great deal of planning and experience. Makin is lucky to have the service of Steve Lanyon who has worked for the company for thirty years. With a lifetimes experience with installations there is not much that will surprise Steve, but this is something that we do not take for granted and as the old adage says we ‘plan for the best, but are prepared for the worst’.

Detailed conversations with the customer concerning the installation often start before the final commitment to purchase. Whilst this may sound strange, we do appreciate that customers do not want to have any hidden costs at the time of purchase, so we like to get as much detail covered as possible including items such as speaker location, enclosure design, cable runs, multiple console positions etc. From the outset, we keep photographic as well as written records so that if we have additional questions at a later date the photographs will act as a memory jogger. Weeks before the installation takes place, a visit is made to site to examine the installation in detail. Our initial observations are always around access and amenities, for example if the church has steps, which set of ramps will we require.

Moving inside, we trace the path that the console will follow through church to ensure that we have a suitable route for access by moving the minimum of pews and the like. The location of the console and speakers and the wire run between them is critical and much time is spent getting this right. In general we have most concerns with the placement of speakers, particularly if they are in a new enclosure, since mounting the same on a wall must be done safely and carefully. For example, it is illegal to ‘swing off ladders’ as in days of old. Workers must operate from the safety of approved scaffolding towers or, if these cannot be fitted, from a professional scaffold structure.

Having planned well the day of the installation usually goes very smoothly, but we are always ready to solve any problems that may arise so that we can get the organ up and running with the minimum of fuss but the maximum of efficiency. Once we have thoroughly tested the instrument on site, we hand it over to the customer and to our Professional Voicer to go to the next step. Our installation team then can move on to another customer. With an average of between two and three installation per week they are always kept busy.

After Sales Service
You don’t simply buy an organ from Makin; you invest in one and get true benefits of service. Our after sales service is second to none with ten years parts and labour warranty on all Makin instruments.

We have been maintaining Makin and Johannus organs for the last 40 years and therefore have tremendous experience to quickly identify individual faults from symptoms described on a telephone call.

Our massive parts inventory means that any faults are usually corrected within a week by a single visit to the organ so any downtime is minimal. If we do run into more complex issues, such as damage by lightning strike which may require significant rebuilding work, then we can usually provide a loan instrument for you.

More details about our after sales service are available here.

Organ Rebuilds
In the last few years, we have seen a significant growth in the desire to rebuild an analogue or early digital organ. This rebuild option makes best economic sense where the original organ was built in a drawstop console since upgrading such instruments tends to require only minor or cosmetic modification to the external wood of the console. Whilst a similar upgrade is possible for a tabstop console, the economics usually mean that a new console will be a more sensible option.

Whilst a totally new instrument may be attractive to some, simple economics may preclude this option, so consideration is then given to a rebuild. The principal benefits of upgrading an old instrument to the newest technology from ChurchOrganWorld are summarised as follows:

• the finest-quality and most realistic organ digital organ sound available, sampled from world-renowned pipe organs in extraordinary resolution; you are listening to actual pipe organs rather than artificial computer-generated wave forms

• a new high-quality speaker system with a matching amplification system for optimum sound reproduction and delivery

• organs designed and voiced in conjunction with Professor Ian Tracey, organist at Liverpool Cathedral since 1980

• assistance for the organist from state-of the art console features

• no tuning costs, ever

• the potential for connecting a recording unit (Sequencer) and other MIDI devices

• first class after-sales support, usually with your own dedicated service engineer, from our own in-house team

• peace-of mind of a new full ten-year Guarantee on both parts and labour

Organ Voicing
Included in the purchase of all new Copeman Hart and Makin organs, is their voicing to very high standard, on a note by note, stop by stop basis. There is no doubt that our voicing skills and technology are now better than they have ever been. Certainly it would appear that our voicing software is far more flexible than that used by many of our competitors.

We are delighted to offer the services of Professor Ian Tracey (Liverpool Cathedral), in combination with a member of our team, to simply deliver the best voicing that anybody can offer.

We now offer voicing visits to organs that were installed a number of years ago. Is this worth the time and money? Customers have given a resounding ‘Yes’ in response to this question.

Following re-voicing, customers feel like they have a new instrument, thanks not only to the intimate knowledge our staff has with our new updated voicing software, but more importantly with the years of experience our staff have with pipe organ tuning, voicing and regulation. With ChurchOrganWorld you get the best in voicing from a professional, rather than something that is merely adequate. This helps ensure that you get the best out of your instrument.

Midi Recording & Conversion
Many churches have found problems in finding an organist for mid-week services, and indeed some churches can find it difficult to find an organist at all. Midi Sequencers (digital recording units) often help solve this problem where an organist can record a number of pieces for playback at a later date. Indeed, organists often record music for use whilst they are away on holiday.

We now provide the services of one of their professional organists who will visit your church and record pieces of your choice for later use. Having a top-rate organist, particularly one with an intimate knowledge of the instrument, to record pieces is something that a number of customers have found very useful. Indeed, with the advent of the new Midi Sequencer Plus from Johannus, it is perfectly feasible to record the entire hymn book onto a single SD card for you.

The regular organist can download the files from SD card to a standard PC both to back them up and to create their own library. Selections can then easily be made for individual services to make it even simpler to use on the day by the operator.

We also now offer a conversion service where recordings from earlier Midi devices, which for example use floppy disks, can be converted for use with the Midi Sequencer plus

Quotations are provided on an individuals basis according to your exact requirements.