Viscount Canticus I

[Wisconsin Organist]

Interested in connecting with organists who own/play a Viscount Canticus I.

[arie v]

Hi,

I have no experience with this model myself, but a friend of mine who sells Viscount organs, was quite taken with this model. Looks like a self-contained tracker style organ.

This model did sell in North America, but only half a dozen were sold.

Likely wouldn't get much feed-back on this organ from user in Canada or US.

AV

[Wisconsin Organist]

Only a half dozen sold in North America! Wow. I have one of them. I wonder why there wasn't more interest. I'm enjoying it. Have had it for just over a year now.

[arie v]

Hi,

I found some Church Organ Systems information, and it mentions at least 8 were sold - this model was also known as Prestige G-502. It was produced from 1998 to 2006.

Why there wasn't more interest in it? Good question. This model was kind of unique, in that it's design was to imitate a tracker organ. Speakers are in the top of the cabinet facing upward, so it worked very well in a living room. But North Americans by and large prefer organs with a combination action, toe pistons, crescendo pedal etc. One could say that it was too purist to be mainstream. The other fact is, this model was 40% more expensive than the G-501 that basically had the same stop list.

I think the real reason that it did not sell well, is that the organ buying public generally did not even know it existed. Church Organ Systems, the distributor of Viscount organs from about 1997 to 2004, concentrated on selling the cheap line of Viscount organs, rather than the higher end stuff. I guess they figured they had a better chance of selling product if it was cheaper than competitor offerings. And because some of the Viscount models were poor quality all round, and cheap, there was this reputation for not very good organs.

This was too bad, as the Prestige organs were a giant leap forward for Viscount. But by then they had this reputation.

Keep on enjoying your instrument. It was a superior effort from Viscount.

AV

[Wisconsin Organist]

I had a Baldwin Howard Classic D-900 for 22 years. At first, it had a few problems, but those were rectified within the first year. It served me well for those 22 years and then eventually began having problems again. A friend had recently purchased the used Canticus but need some quick cash. He agreed to take my D-900 on trade for the Canticus. I had seen pictures of this instrument and was always intrigued by it. You see, my church instrument is a tracker with no combination action, toe pistons, crescendo pedal, etc. So, the Canticus is almost an exact duplicate of the Jaeckel tracker at my church, and missing those gadgets doesn't bother me at all. While some of the voicing characteristics can be adjusted, much of what a stop is what it is. For instance, the Great Trumpet 8' is weak and yet almost obliterated by the Great Kornett IV. The factory setting is pleasing enough. I tried to adjust things myself and got very frustrated. Reset the factory settings only then to find a voicing disk buried in the documentation. I popped it in and loaded the settings created by whomever made the disk, and the instrument is sounding quite nice!

[NoTalent]

It looks like they are still carried by

http://excelsiormusic.com/index.html

The Canticus is a really unique design -- an electronic that looks like an old tracker!

Greg

[arie v]

Hi Wisconsin Organist,

I'm sure the Canticus is a better sounding organ than the Baldwin D-900, which essentially is a Galanti Praeludium I made by GeneralMusic. The D-900 was not a particularly inspired model, especially the poor speaker system which let it down. The D-910 or Galanti Praeludium II was a much better sounding organ. Considering you had the organ for 22 years, it doesn't owe you anything.

About the Canticus organ, which is the same technology as the first generation Prestige series, the parameters that one could change were rather limited, so balancing the organ as one wished was nigh impossible. The basic tone was good though, pretty much on par with most other manufacturers for the mid to late 90s.

Several Viscount dealers that also sold Ahlborn-Galanti told me that in some ways they preferred the Viscount sound, but ended up better A-G installs as the the voicing parameters gave them more lee-way.

One thing you can do to make the organ sound even better, is add external speakers, 2 for each division. This would really open the sound up even more.

The Canticus 50 replaced the Canticus I and II about 5 years ago.

AV

[Wisconsin Organist]

It looks like they are still carried by

http://excelsiormusic.com/index.html

The Canticus is a really unique design -- an electronic that looks like an old tracker!

Greg

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>This guy seriously has all of this stuff in inventory? I wonder how he stockpiles all of the old inventory. I was told that only six Canticus Is were sold in the United States, and that instrument was available around 2005. The Canticus design is great and nearly identical to the Jaeckel tracker organ I play at church. http://www.sbmoravian.org/music

[arie v]

Hi,

This website is seriously out-of-date. Copyright is dated 2006, and information does look current for that year.

I seriously doubt that they had all those models in inventory. More likely just a listing of models available.

Try contacting them and see whether they have any of these models, whether they are still Viscount dealers, or even if they are still in business.

AV