Allen Organ for $150

[upmost]

Hey Organ Forum family! I have a question. Has anyone ever seen an Allen organ with a 25 note bass pedal board? For some reason, (oddly enough) this doesn't seem to make much sense. There's this family I know who is selling their Allen organ for $150 on Craigslist; and I'm thinking "Wow, what a great steal!" But when I opened up the link, I saw pictures of this organ with only a 25 note pedalboard and four presets. I called the seller, and this Guy answered; he doesn't really know too much about organs. He just relocated and purchased a home, and the original owner of the home left the organ in the home for the new owners to do what they please with it. I asked the seller if he knew what model this is, and he wasn't able to find a model number. I'll see if I can upload the photos of the organ.

[toasterDude]

Yep, that's an Allen Sheraton - a Sheraton 15, I believe. Allen made a similar model called the Empire, but I don't think those ever had the preset buttons between the manuals. Either way, a nice enough organ, but all flute voices. Very similar to the T15 as I recall.

To confirm the model number: have the seller lift the organ top. The ID plate is usually on the underside of the top.

Also if you go for it, make sure he has the original bench - Allen's 25-note pedalboards are wider than most. So for example a Hammond console bench won't fit over the pedals.

[upmost]

Wow thanks Toaster Dude. I've heard the T15 played before. I can't really remember ever playing it though. So it's all flute voices, no reeds? Does it sound similar to the Allen TC1? So would this instrument provide my church the warm sound need for classical music and church hymns (Like most Allen organs do)? By the way, has anyone ever played the Allen Organ MDC 20

[toasterDude]

So it's all flute voices, no reeds? Does it sound similar to the Allen TC1? So would this instrument provide my church the warm sound need for classical music and church hymns (Like most Allen organs do)?

Yes, all flute voices - it functions just like a Hammond in that respect, i.e. the only way to get more complex harmonics is to build up sine waves (flute tones) additively. The TC1 is different in that it also has a set of Diapason generators, giving much better foundational tone for classical and liturgical playing. I would think the Sheraton would actually fall short in this application - probably better in a theater or light popular music milieu.

T15 is kind of in between the two, by the way: all flute generators, no independent diapason generators; but Allen added a clipping circuit that takes the output of the flute generators and roughs-up (scientific term!) the waveform to yield a diapason tone. Trouble is, since it draws from the flute generators you run out of tonal resources very quickly.

Good luck with it whichever way you decide to go...

td

[Kurzweil]

Looks like it was intended to compete with the Hammond B models for gospel, jazz, rock playing. The presence or absence of percussion tones would tend to support of refute this assertion.