Hi, my name is Bart Kleineweber from Chicago, Illinois. My interest in pipe organs dates back to 3rd grade in Catholic School, when our newly built Cathedral in Lincoln, NE, installed a new Casavant of about 40 ranks.

A year or two ago, after finally purchasing a Chicago-style bungalow, circa 1910, I decided I want a pipe organ for the second floor. I contacted Chris Feireisen, an organ builder in Manitowoc from an ad I saw on the Theatre Organ web page. Chris soon convinced me that I could have a formidable organ in the space (for very little money) if I wanted to do almost all the work myself, with his advice and tutoring. So up to Wisconsin I went with a 14 foot rental truck. It came back full! I had to unload the truck myself in Chicago, and when I got the last item in my garage, I looked at the full garage with awe, and the feeling that I had bitten off more than I could chew.

The pipe chamber in my second floor is 10 X 12 with a ceiling of 6-1/2 feet that is only that high for a 4 foot strip in the center, sloping to about 4' at the sides. In addition, there is a narrow staircase leading up to it. My first problem was to figure out how to get the stuff up there. The console had to be disassembled stick by stick. The 3 rank windchest would not fit up the staircase, so I had to put all my ranks on single rank unit chests and offset chests. The 8' open wood diapasons and 16' bourdons had to lay on their sides stacked on top of each other with the windchests standing at their toes.

Anyway, the organ will be a II/P/9 when finished. A full chorus of prinzipals, 6 ranks altogether (not unified). Unified ranks of Oboe, Salizional and Bourdon/Gedeckt. My goal is to have an instrument that I can play classical and baroque music on. Most of the pipework is used, some of which will be revoiced. Three of the prinzipal ranks will be brand new from Rieger Kloss in the Czech Republic, voiced kind of chiffy, in that North German Baroque style. Electric action, and of course, a solid state relay, because there's very little room left in the chamber. I am building the chest that will play the 2' prinzipal so that it will fit in a tight corner. Right now the organ is Jerry-rigged through the old electromechanical couplers in the console, so that I can at least practice. I have pictures of my ongoing installation and would like help designing them into a web-page that can be stored at Diyapason.

Bart Kleineweber
Chicago, IL

Email Bart