Schantz Console and Control Development, Restoration, and Modernization

The earliest switching generation in these records is electro-mechanical. Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis records that its Schantz number 699 of 1965, a four-manual organ of fifty-nine ranks, originally used electro-mechanical switches and pneumatically operated systems. The church’s account goes on to record that the instrument was later changed to software-controlled solid-state equipment with expanded combination-action memory and recording capability. The same account records a renewal between 2012 and 2015 in which the console was completely refurbished. The switching generation an organist meets at that console today is therefore the later one, and the organ’s 1965 date says nothing about it.

A 1982 instrument shows the next recorded step and also the limit of what a record can say. The Organ Historical Society’s Pipe Organ Database lists Schantz Organ Co. Opus 1684 of 1982 at First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas as a three-manual organ of 51 ranks with electrical key action and electrical stop action, adjustable combination pistons and a sequencer, and drawknobs in vertical rows on angled jambs. The same record leaves the console builder as Unknown and the control system as Unknown or not applicable, so it establishes electric action and a sequencer in 1982 without identifying the switching generation behind them.

Solid-state control appears in Schantz records both as original equipment and as a later substitution, and the two must be kept apart. A database record for Schantz Opus 561 of 1963 at First Presbyterian Church, Flint, Michigan, a four-manual organ originally of 71 ranks, states that the instrument originally had a solid-state console with mechanical relay systems. The same record states that in May 2015 Goulding and Wood replaced that console with a new four-manual console connecting to the chambers over CAT 5 cable and adding playback and a piston sequencer. What a player meets at the keydesk in Flint is therefore 2015 work by another firm, and the record describes the original solid-state console and its mechanical relay systems only as what the instrument had before.

Schantz’s own later console work on older organs appears in the records as digital replacement as well. Christ Presbyterian Church, Canton, Ohio records that in summer 2008 Schantz built a new four-manual console with digital components and 256 levels of combination memory for the church’s 1952 Schantz organ. The Diapason reported in 2023 that at Trinity Lutheran Church, Ashland, Ohio (Opus 2343, dedicated April 2022) an all-new mechanism was built and the console was rebuilt with a modern control system. The published accounts describe these systems only as digital components and a modern control system.

Control-generation work can also reach behind the console. A regional organ firm’s published instrument list records that in a 2022 digital expansion of a 1993 Schantz organ at the American Fork Utah East Stake Center the original stop-action magnets were replaced with new ones. That listing is undated, gives no reason for the replacement and describes a project that also added digital voices, so it shows only that a control-system modernization can replace original magnets, not how often it does.

An instrument record can show who changed a console, when, and what the change added, which is exactly what a console cannot show about itself. The Flint record dates the console replacement to May 2015 and names Goulding and Wood; the St. Louis account names the original electro-mechanical switching and the later solid-state substitution; the Canton account dates its new four-manual console to summer 2008 and gives its 256 memory levels. Each is a single church’s or contributor’s record, and each speaks only for its own organ.

A solid-state control system in a Schantz organ therefore does not imply original Schantz fabric. At Flint the solid-state console was original and is now gone; at St. Louis the solid-state equipment is a later change to a 1965 organ that began with electro-mechanical switches. The words solid-state on their own place a console in neither column.

A console alone cannot tell you its builder, its date, or whether the equipment behind its panels is original. The published description on the Schantz console page, read on August 31, 2026, lists multiple levels of combination action memory, a performance sequencer, record-and-playback capability and MIDI; the 2015 Goulding and Wood console at Flint brought playback and a piston sequencer; the St. Louis change brought expanded memory and recording. A feature list that fits a new Schantz console also fits a retrofit by another firm, so the features are not a signature.

Even a record that describes a console closely may leave the essential field blank. The Pipe Organ Database entry for Opus 1684 describes the drawknob layout and the sequencer yet records the console builder as Unknown and the control system as Unknown or not applicable. The American Fork listing shows that original stop-action magnets can be replaced during control work, so original-looking hardware behind the keydesk is not proof of original fabric either. This page gives no verdict on any particular instrument; the answer for a specific organ comes from its own records and from an inspection of what is actually installed.

The console standing at a Schantz organ may have been built by another firm, and Schantz consoles stand at organs other firms built. Flint is the first case: a Schantz organ of 1963 now played from a 2015 Goulding and Wood console. A general-reference listing of Austin instruments, as read on September 1, 2026, records the other direction, including a 1983 Schantz console on Austin Opus 1019, alongside a 2004 Rogers console on Austin Opus 1267 and a 2002 Allen addition on Austin Opus 2616.

A Schantz opus number can also belong to console work on another builder’s organ. The Organ Historical Society’s Pipe Organ Database heads the instrument at the Lutheran Church of the Transfiguration, Pottstown, Pennsylvania as Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co. Opus 402-A of 1947, originally Skinner Organ Co. Opus 402 of 1923, and its note records changes and additions in 1933 and 1947 and the replacement of the console in 1978 by Schantz as number 1565. That organ carries four documented firm identities, and a 2024 note on the same record says all of its pipework was removed in August 2024 and stored elsewhere. The database records at least six Schantz opus numbers against instruments originally built by other firms, Opus 1565 at Pottstown and Opus 2274 at Rockefeller Chapel among them; that figure is a floor, not a total.

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago is the fullest documented case of Schantz console work on another builder’s instrument. The chapel records that in restoring E. M. Skinner Opus 634 in 2005 and 2006 Schantz completely rebuilt the chancel console inside its original case designed by the chapel’s architect Bertram Goodhue and added a new two-manual gallery console, with both consoles and the entire electrical system using current technology. The chapel’s page is undated, so current cannot be pinned to a year, and the Pipe Organ Database files the project as Schantz Opus 2274 of 2007. The console case is the original; the console rebuilt inside it and the gallery console are Schantz work; the instrument is recorded as Skinner Opus 634.

As of August 31, 2026, the Schantz Organ Company console page describes its current consoles as offering multiple levels of combination action memory, a performance sequencer, record-and-playback capability and MIDI. That published description names no control-system supplier, no relay brand, and no drawknob or stop-tablet convention, and this page names none either: nothing in that feature list tells a reader which firm’s switching equipment sits inside a Schantz console.

Schantz describes its Orrville plant, as of September 1, 2026, as a set of workshops under one roof organized as Design, Pipe Making, Voicing, Cabinet Shop, Console, CNC and Assembly departments, with component parts brought together in a three-story assembly room, and states that nearly every component part of a Schantz organ is built and tested on site. That is the company’s own description; it does not itemize which parts are bought in, and a Console department among the shops says nothing on its own about where the control electronics come from.

The first position retains the original combination action and adds the new system alongside it. At Woolsey Hall, Yale University, the 1928 remote-control combination action of Skinner Organ Company Opus 722 has been retained and remains usable and available for study as a historical model, while a solid-state combination action was piggy-backed onto the console rather than replacing it. A trade cover feature and the restoring firm’s own project page describe it; it is one instrument, not a standard.

The second replaces the console and preserves the original as a displayed artifact. St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Morristown, New Jersey states on its organ fund page, read on September 1, 2026, that many physical elements of its 1930 console cannot be revived and that a new Dobson Pipe Organ Builders console will preserve the historic feel and pneumatic stop action of the original. The same page states that the 1930 console will be preserved, relocated for display with glass paneling revealing its pneumatic selector system, and kept playable through a small blower. That is a stated plan on a fundraising page, not a completed outcome.

The third restores the original in preference to an electronic substitute. A December 1998 news report records the Curtis Organ Restoration Society objecting to a University of Pennsylvania plan to install a 180,000 dollar electronic console in Irvine Auditorium in place of restoring the original 1926 mechanical console; the university agreed the original ought to be renovated but said it did not have the money, and Joseph Dzeda of the A. Thompson-Allen Company warned that electronic consoles depend on a technology which is not readily reproducible and are replaced wholesale the first time they encounter trouble. The report cannot say what was eventually done, and the positions are those of the named speakers.

The fourth permits solid-state substitution conditionally while classing it as a major alteration. The American Theatre Organ Society, in restoration guidelines it describes as based on Organ Historical Society guidelines, classifies replacement of the stop actions, combination action or relay system as a major alteration rather than ordinary repair. Those guidelines provide that where solid-state combination actions or relay systems are necessary to meet an installation’s requirements they must be designed and installed to equal the aesthetic appearance, feel and functionality of the original console controls, and they contemplate leaving original equipment such as setter boards installed for historic purposes while carefully disconnected. Those guidelines are written for theatre organs.

Alongside these four positions stand the Organ Historical Society’s Guidelines for Conservation and Restoration, adopted in July 2008. They state that whenever possible treatments should be additive rather than subtractive, adding to an incomplete component rather than replacing it entirely. They also state that historical design, materials or workmanship failing a current restorer’s standards still give authoritative testimony of past makers’ knowledge, skill or judgment, so that every effort should be made to retain such work. The Guidelines state these principles in general terms, do not name combination actions, describe reversibility as an idealized goal rather than an absolute requirement, and are guidance rather than a compliance standard.

The one documented Schantz example is Rockefeller Chapel, where the chancel console was completely rebuilt inside its original Goodhue case while both consoles and the entire electrical system use current technology: the case kept, the controls renewed. It illustrates one outcome and establishes no general practice. The wider question of what a Schantz rebuild keeps and replaces beyond the console is the subject of What Schantz Preserves During a Rebuild.

Chest construction and the sequence of key and stop actions across the firm’s history belong to the chest and action history page reached from Schantz Organ Company, where the builder’s identity and name chain are also set out; where records for a particular instrument are held, and how a Schantz opus number should be read, are handled by their own pages in the same neighborhood. Nothing here is a service or adjustment procedure. What a console needs is decided at the instrument, from its own records and from an inspection of what is installed, and that documentation is the natural starting point for planning any console project.