Lowrey still making organs?

[musicgeek854]

I thought lowrey stopped making organs forever but I recently found a new video advertising the new ringway and estey organs. Is lowrey still making organs, but now just under the ringway and estey names?

[RogerM]

From an earlier thread -

Yes, I was mindful of the fact that we had concluded in another thread that Lowrey replacements would come from Estey at entry-level and from Ringway at the higher level. The new Ringway models seem to be a natural progression from the existing RS600 and RS1000, bearing no resemblance to anything Lowrey, whereas the new Esteys bear a strong resemblance to the Lowrey EZ range.

I would have thought something would be made of the Lowrey/new Ringway connection if, indeed, it is there. The RS800 has been available in Australia for a year now so it's not that new.

We seem to be generally agreed on the Estey contribution but there is doubt over the Ringways. Some posters think the latest Ringways are to replace the bigger Lowreys while others think there is something more Lowrey-like yet to come, from Ringway or perhaps even Wersi. I think you can rest assured that Kawai/Lowrey themselves are out of the game.

There's plenty of reading on the subject here -
https://organforum.com/forums/forum/...lus-a-surprise And here
https://organforum.com/forums/forum/...ay-organs-demo

[musicgeek854]

Thanks man, sorry for the late reply.

[andyg]

There are rumblings of US dealers having bought things like injection mouldings for stop tabs and the style and sound libraries from Kawai. They haven't bought the Lowrey name. Either Kawai want too much for it, or they have plans to use it themselves.

But having all the parts is a million miles away from having a model or two in the high end range completed and on sale. We'll have to wait and see.

The Estey 'replacements' for the low end Lowreys have been around for a while, but so far I haven't heard from anyone who has bought one. I assume that they are selling and that the new owners haven't joined one of the on line groups.

The bigger Ringways now sold by Allens in the UK are nothing to do with the replacements for the higher end Lowreys. Allens need three price bands covered - entry level, intermediate and top end. The have Wersi at the top and Estey at the bottom, so I guess that for the moment they're slotting the Ringways in between.

[musicgeek854]

Yeah, but the Ringways and Esteys (at least the small ones), sound pretty awful.

[musicgeek854]

If I could find a new organ that sounds better than my D550, I might consider it, but for some reason the new Lowrey organs don't even sound good.