B. Rule & Company

B. Rule & Company Building new mechanical action organs, restoring historic organs, rebuilding electro-pneumatic and tracker organs.

“Free” lumber. Several months ago B. Rule & Co and our AME Zion church neighbor undertook to cut down an enormous red o...
03/06/2026

“Free” lumber. Several months ago B. Rule & Co and our AME Zion church neighbor undertook to cut down an enormous red oak that sat right on the property line. We had a sawmill come this week and quartersaw it all: right now it’s stickered and stacked outdoors. It will go into our solar lumber kiln for final seasoning in a few months. 1,500 board feet.

The B. Rule crew is at First Presbyterian, Bristol TN this week. After a month spent completely restoring the Swell and ...
11/23/2025

The B. Rule crew is at First Presbyterian, Bristol TN this week. After a month spent completely restoring the Swell and Great chest of Hook & Hastings Opus 1700, we are installing the organ in the acoustically excellent chapel at 1st Pres. Previous restoration work was done about six years ago by Randall Dyer and Associates, who refinished the case and restored it to its original appearance. The Episcopal diocese recently closed that church, and donated the organ to First Presbyterian. Here are some photos of the organ as it gets assembled.

Update from two hours ago: sliders and gibs for Swell and Great all done; all planed to within .002” tolerance and then ...
10/28/2025

Update from two hours ago: sliders and gibs for Swell and Great all done; all planed to within .002” tolerance and then sanded perfectly flat. Ready to apply graphite and shimming and then toeboards can go on.

The old dark green poplar is so beautiful to work with!

We have re-tabled a little 2-7 Hook & Hastings. The sliders were pretty cupped, so after getting them perfectly flat on ...
10/28/2025

We have re-tabled a little 2-7 Hook & Hastings. The sliders were pretty cupped, so after getting them perfectly flat on the bottom, it became necessary to nail the gibs back down, and then lightly tack down the sliders, and hand plane the whole shebang, so the shimming works perfectly. This is the beginning of the first pass: we plane until there are no low spots. One must be certain to hit every single little brad with a nail set, or there will be cursing and unhappiness when the plane iron needs to be reground and sharpened! After the plane, we sand with 8x10” sanding blocks through three levels of grit to remove the plane marks. It helps immensely when sanding if the plane iron edge was ground slightly convex. The sliders to the right have already received the full treatment.

This little Hook & Hastings had its pulldown wire holes drilled out for 2mm wire at some point: the fat aluminum wires w...
10/23/2025

This little Hook & Hastings had its pulldown wire holes drilled out for 2mm wire at some point: the fat aluminum wires were causing binding and friction in the key action. I thought about using gasketed lead discs inside the chest, as one does in such situations, but instead decided to restore the brass pulldown strip on the bottom board. A couple of surgical incisions, a new piece of .025” brass, and some shaper work, and it’s all done.
The first photo shows the cove-cut piece of the old bottom board, cut out, and next to it, the old piece of brass with the too-large holes.
Second photo show the finished product: new brass and a new cove-cut piece to shield the pulldown wire loops. Just like the original, only lacking the patina.
Now for some garnet shellac to give it that 19th century color…

Got an emergency call from a Presbyterian church in Knoxville last week: the plaster ceiling fell just after the service...
09/01/2025

Got an emergency call from a Presbyterian church in Knoxville last week: the plaster ceiling fell just after the service, landing on the choir loft and part of the organ Sunday, August 24. We got a crew (and matching hardhats) together and removed all pipes from the organ, putting them in storage. Looks like the entire ceiling will have to be pulled down and replaced.

The contractor promises to cover both organ cases in plastic: we’ll probably check on that in a week or two…

This lovely Roosevelt organ is available for only $10,000. Perfectly rebuilt and enlarged by Andover Organ Co., it is in...
06/29/2025

This lovely Roosevelt organ is available for only $10,000. Perfectly rebuilt and enlarged by Andover Organ Co., it is in excellent working condition. If you know of a church that keeps saying “We could never afford a pipe organ”, let them know about this gem. Link to the Organ Clearing House: https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale #/3229-rooseveltandover-charleston-sc

Yet again, we offer something entirely new that promises to make organists’ life easier. No longer will it be necessary ...
06/27/2025

Yet again, we offer something entirely new that promises to make organists’ life easier. No longer will it be necessary to struggle with those pesky sharps, naturals, accidentals, nor those hateful enharmonic equivalents. Manual keyboards will be available soon, as well.
And don’t forget the groundbreaking “PASTOR MUTE”! Call now!

New Black Box technology is expanding the organist’s capability to control every possible variable. But supplies are li...
06/26/2025

New Black Box technology is expanding the organist’s capability to control every possible variable. But supplies are limited: order soon!

Pilcher facade pipes, all packed up and ready to go back to the church that has been their home for 130 years. We caugh...
06/19/2025

Pilcher facade pipes, all packed up and ready to go back to the church that has been their home for 130 years. We caught a few invisible loose solder seams while adjusting the voicing, and carefully re-soldered them. They all speak correctly again, for the first time in decades.

A set of facade pipes on our voicing machine from a small, charming c.1880’s Pilcher. Note the horribly mutilated tuni...
06/18/2025

A set of facade pipes on our voicing machine from a small, charming c.1880’s Pilcher. Note the horribly mutilated tuning scroll in the second photo. The final photo shows a repaired pipe, nicely straightened and rounded, and fitted with an internal tuning slide. This is an economical pipe repair for a church on a tight budget, and it means that, from here on out, tuners in future won’t be tempted to resort to pliers and hammers in an attempt to tune them.

The owner got this little six stop Renaissance style organ for a bargain. It had been badly infested with mice for years...
05/21/2025

The owner got this little six stop Renaissance style organ for a bargain. It had been badly infested with mice for years, and had become unplayable, plagued by ciphers and dead pipes. The owner brought it to the B. Rule shop and together we did a “one-week instant rebuild” on it. By Saturday we had everything working and roughly in tune. Big turn around! Instrument was built by John Bennett in 1989.

Address

New Market, TN
37820

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18654759125

Website

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