Seeking some help with an old Allen analog organ, model number unknown.

[coasterfreak88]

The church I am attending now has two sanctuaries, the original one and a bigger one that was built a couple of years ago. The original one was bought by them when the church occupying it before closed. The original organ is still there however. It is an old analog Allen; I'd say it is from the late 60s or early 70s. It is in reasonably good condition. They don't use it very much now, as the big sanctuary is where services are held. I got to play with it after our young adults meeting last night. The Great appears to be real soft. I have no idea why. The pedal I thought was crescendo didn't do anything at all, and it took me turning up the Swell volume to get any loud sounds. It is connected to speakers in the balcony, which leads to some interesting reverb times. It was also sputtering like crazy. I'm guessing it needs new electronic parts in it. How would one go about restoring this kind of organ? Btw it is a 2-manual organ. I think it has 47 small moving tabs on the board above the manuals. No idea how many actual stops there are as some may be couplers. There is also no Set piston that I can see. It is not in the usual place. Being blind I had no idea where to guess it would be. I'm thinking about talking to the elder board to see if they will let me restore this organ and move it to my house for me to use so I don't have to rely on drivers to drive me around to the church I use now, which has a pipe organ. It has really old-style Allen manuals; I think they may be from the days when Allen didn't use keyboards with bubble contacts. I like the feel though. How would one go about getting one of these into a home? And, I don't have much space; lucky this is a small organ. So I need to find a good speaker system that is small. I can't afford to have it rebuilt as a digital organ. So I'm wondering if anyone knows how one can get parts to fix it. I wish I had a picture to show you. Thanks for any help.

[OrgansR4Me]

Re: Seeking some help with an old Allen analog organ, model number unknown.



Most of the older Allen organs have a metal plate inside the back giving the model and serial number. If not, it might be hand written inside the cabinet as back then the workers often labeled the individual parts. Get this information and contact Allen Organ directly. They will guide you to local technical assistance.</P>


The organ can be moved to a home very easily by competent movers and the organ can be connected to speakers of like period which can be purchased at times through the Yahoo Allen Owners forum (there is a general Allen forum and also an Older Allen forum available)and Ebay. The Technician may have suggestion for newer speakers possibly. Trying to use the speakersfrom the church may not be desirablebecause of space or wear. Also the present wiring is probably not well suited to reinstallation. In home use it would be very pleasing to acquire a gyro type cabinet (no longer made) which will make available a theatrical tremolo on the unit. I am prejudiced against most of the electronic tremulants. While they can create the variation of tone, they can't project the sound around the space like a Leslie (or in the case of Allen their own adaptation of the process was called the gyro speaker). This is assuming you might wish to play less formal music at home than in the church.</P>


Allen makes an excellent vintage collectible because of all the factory support and availability of parts. Hopefully, as it is being used very little the church might gift it to you! Best wishes. Please let us know the future of the project you are considering.</P>

[myorgan]

Re: Seeking some help with an old Allen analog organ, model number unknown.



[quote user="coasterfreak88"]Btw it is a 2-manual organ. I think it has 47 small moving tabs on the board above the manuals. No idea how many actual stops there are as some may be couplers. There is also no Set piston that I can see. It is not in the usual place. [/quote]</P>


On an old Allen analog, you probably won't find a set button. However, if the organ has pistons under the manuals, there are probably setterboards available to you. These are located under the left-hand side and/or right-hand side of the lowest keyboard in slide-out drawers. MOS and ADC Allen organs used these same drawers for cards, and newer Allens use these drawers for the MIDI controls.</P>


Hope this helps narrow down the choices of what organ it might be.</P>


Michael</P>