The windchests that carry the main portion of the pipework in a given rank – the remainder being carried on offnote chests. Most manual chests are 88 inches long, and between 4 1/2 and 11 inches wide per rank. On Wurlitzers, the manual chests are grouped so that one chest may contain as many as eight ranks; these chests can form very large assemblies up to several feet wide. On other makes, there is usually one chest per rank.
Also known as ‘Unit chests‘ (Compton terminology).
Windchests are built up in many different designs, but almost all the sub-components are similar in function and used throughout the instrument including in percussion units. These basic building-blocks are described here.
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