Phantom’s Pipe Organ

by BarrysPropShop in Living > Halloween

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Phantom’s Pipe Organ

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I built a small pipe organ prop for our local high school's summer theater production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “The Phantom of the Opera”. I had a lot of freedom for the design. The only constraint was that the Phantom stands behind the organ and must be seen, and must be setup quickly. The keyboard is not visible and hence was not added.

I found a changing table being thrown out and I knew that would make a great case for the organ; I also call it the organ carcass (I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere about organ parts). You can find something similar at a thrift store, eBay, or Craigslist. This Instructable does not discuss making the organ case. The pipes are made from cardboard mailing tubes. LED flickering candles were rewired to be powered by battery packs to be controlled by a switch.

Here is a glossary of organ terms https://www.pjmorgans.com/resources-center/glossary/.

Supplies

Pipes

Candles

See https://www.instructables.com/Rising-Candelabra-Prop/ for more details on wiring the LEDs.

Tools

Organ Case

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Find or build the organ case. I found a changing table in the trash but check thrift stores, eBay, or Craigslist for similar small tables, such as an old computer table, or printer stand.

Extend the bottom shelf with a piece of 1/4-in. plywood such that it will support one or more rows of tubes (aka ranks of organ pipes). Screw the plywood into the bottom shelf.

Optionally, add caster wheels to the bottom of the case.

Paint the organ case as desired. Use flat paint to avoid reflections under stage lighting.

I happened to have a nice brass height-adjustable music stand. I removed the bottom part of the stand, and drilled a hole in the top shelf and inserted the top of the music stand in the hole. I secured the music stand post using a Pipe Strap (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Oatey-4-Pack-1-in-Galvanized-2-hole-Pipe-Strap/1001120472). I attached pieces of wood onto the shelf underneath, as a support to adjust the height of the music stand.

Make Organ Pipes

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There are different shapes and materials for pipe organ pipes, including wooden rectangular profile, and metal (aluminum, or brass) cylindrical profile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_pipe

For the prop, I considered different materials for the pipes, including foam pipe insulation, pool noodles, and foam board shaped into square profile tubes. I chose to use 2-1/2 in. diameter cardboard mailing tubes.

Design a pattern for laying out your pipes. For example, tall to small, or a U shape. I used two ranks of U shapes; a large set in back of a smaller one. I used a hack saw to cut the cardboard mailing tubes. I used painters tape to mark where to cut. Some of the cutoffs from the 30-in. tubes were used to make smaller pipes.

Pipe organ pipes have an opening on the side of the pipe, called the mouth, which is close to the end of pipe where the air enters, the foot, i.e., the bottom. https://www.lawrencephelps.com/Documents/Articles/Beginner/pipeorgans101.html

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I took creative license and put the mouths at the top of the tubes for better visibility. To make the mouth, saw a slit about 3/4 the diameter of the tube. Push the tube in, to form a concave indentation towards the small side of the slit. This was a bit hard to keep the indentation smooth, but as we like to say when building sets and props, "no one is going to see it from the third row". Paint each tube as desired. I painted with flat black paint to prevent the tubes from shining under the stage lights. The mouth indentation was painted gold. I could have just painted the mouth without indentation but the lighting casts a shadow which emphasizes the mouth.

Attach Pipes

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Put the pipes on the organ case bottom shelf extension. Secure the pipes to each other by, for example, tape, or adhesive. Secure the pipes to the shelf extension by either screwing diagonally through the pipes and into the extension, and/or by creating a 1-in. x 3-in. perimeter frame around the pipes for stronger support for the pipes. Attach the perimeter frame to the shelf extension with screws, and screw though the perimeter frame into the pipes.

Add Candles

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Add flickering LED candles as desired. To rewire candles to use a battery pack, please refer to https://www.instructables.com/Rising-Candelabra-Prop/. I used two separate battery packs to control two groups of lights, as a sort of redundancy.

Conclusion

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I built a small pipe organ prop for a local high school summer theater program production of the musical, "The Phantom of the Opera". This was a fun, and creative project. Besides being a prop for Phantom, it can be used as a prop for Halloween. If you play keyboards, you can add your own keyboard, and don't forget to wear a Phantom mask. Another idea is to put a Bluetooth speaker inside the organ and play your favorite scary music (e.g., Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565).

If this Instructable inspired you to make something, please write about it in the comments. I'd love to hear about it.

Have fun,

Barry