Assembled almost in its entirety in the Fisk shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the organ was then disassembled so that no individual components were larger than the doorways through which they'd have to pass. Pipes ranging in length from a few inches to 32 feet were individually wrapped and packed in wooden crates for shipping to Oberlin. A crew from Fisk spent most of August and September reassembling the organ in Finney. Since then, pairs of Fisk voicers have been adjusting the 3,951 pipes in a painstaking process that is expected to take up to 10 months to complete. They have to establish the right level for the room, the right timbre.
Pipes can be quite willful.
It's a matter of the voicers listening to the room, listening to the pipes, and making many minor adjustments. The pipes were shop-voiced, and that gives us an idea of what the final sound will be. The sound so far is very promising. Professor of Organ and Chair of the Division of Keyboard Studies Haskell Thomson concurred. It is characterized by a virtual rainbow of tone colors, with a dynamic range extending from the softest flutes and strings to the most powerful foundations and reeds.