Need help with Organ selection

[Guest]

Hello everyone, I'm Trey and new here to this forum. I'm the Minister of Music at a Baptist church located in Nassau, The Bahamas. The church is pretty musically diverse, with a balance of both contemporary and traditional parts to our main service. Currently we're in the process of looking purchasing a new church organ. I'm simply seeking feedback as to which is a better brand between Rodgers and Allen organs. Rodgers I must admit have a very strong presence here on the island, as most churches have a Rodgers instrument. Hymns and anthems are an integral part of our worship, so a rich pipe organ sound (minus pipes) is a must!! We had an old Rodgers, with those large square speakers, that no longer works. Any advice anyone here can give to help us in our consideration would be much appreciated.

[myorgan]

Bahamasteve,

Welcome to the Forum. I hope this only the beginning of your contributions and participation.

From my signature below, it's plain to see which way I lean. However, recent events (the acquisition of Rodgers by Johannus) have led me to be even more cautious about Rodgers--not the quality of the organ, rather the future of service and parts. Johannus organs, however, have been around for a while, and can often be obtained new for much less than a new Rodgers or Allen.

If the parts are available, you could always repair your old organ. However, there is a vendor in Florida who sells new and used Allen organs to the Islands. I believe (s)he currently has a 4-manual Allen, and wants you to contact them for the price (http://dunnemusic.com/Products/PreOwnedOrgans.aspx). I've never done business with them, and I've seen the organ listed for quite a while, so I'm sure it's quite a price.

Any organ you purchase should be tropicalized (designed to operate in high-humidity environments). If you have a mixture of music, it would be best to have MIDI to make the organ more flexible for use. Sometimes you can now get organs with page turning toe studs for an *Pad or similar device. Also, if you purchase from America, there may be duty and other taxes to pay, whereas if you purchase from the UK, it may be less. I'm sure you'll be more familiar with that than I am.

Best of luck in your endeavor, and I hope you are able to find a quality instrument to serve you well into the future.

Michael

P.S. My wife played for a wedding in Nassau at a Baptist church about 15 years ago. Small world.

[Horseshoe_or]

Bahamasteve,


If the parts are available, you could always repair your old organ. However, there is a vendor in Florida who sells new and used Allen organs to the Islands. I believe (s)he currently has a 4-manual Allen, and wants you to contact them for the price (http://dunnemusic.com/Products/PreOwnedOrgans.aspx). I've never done business with them, and I've seen the organ listed for quite a while, so I'm sure it's quite a price.

I bought an organ from Dunne Music. They were great to deal with.

There are many digital organ builders around. Phoenix Organs from Canada, Viscount, several from England(some of them owned by Johannus), Content, etc. Do a web search on digital organ and you will find these and a few more. There are two high end builders in the USA that if you have the budget you should check out, Walker and M&O (can't remember what those initials stand for).

Good luck on your search!

[indianajo]

We had an old Rodgers, with those large square speakers, that no longer works. Any advice anyone here can give to help us in our consideration would be much appreciated.

Welcome to the site.
While you are waiting and fundraising, I suggest you get the old Rodgers repaired. Most problems in 30 year old organs are in the power amps or speaker. Organs amps are only special in the quality of the heat sinks. Other than those which don't wear out, a beach bar PA system repairman can fix one. Check your amp with a transistor radio and a mini-phone plug to RCA plug adapter on the input. If the amp doesn't work by itself, that is probably the problem. Ask around bars with canned music who is a good repairman.
Before taking the amp to the repairman, speakers can also be a problem, espectially where rodents can eat the wires. Buy a DVM with a 2000 ohm scale or less. Mine cost $30 at sears; extra cost autoranging is no benefit IMHO. Check that your speaker wires are reading over 3.5 ohm between the two wires. There may be several outputs of several amps. Lower resistance than that, something has shorted the wiring. Disconnect the wiring at the speaker end and check if the problem is the wiring or the speakers. If a wiring fault, get an electrician or beach bar music repairman to replace it. Also if wire resistance is over 8 ohms there may be a problem in the walls.
Some Redgers organs have the amps in the speakers or in the speaker chamber. The power on switch signal is sent to the speaker in one pair of wires, (usually 12-24 VDC) and the speaker has both a signal input from the console and a local 120 VAC input. In that case, take the whole speaker to a reputable repairman to checkout and repair. Explain to him about the turn on signal from the console. With your lower cost of labor, you may want the repairman to come out and check the wiring and speaker function at the same time. I don't reccomend an inexperienced repairman work on any tone generation part of the organ- that is more complicated and expensive to learn at an hourly rate.
If speakers are under 3.5 ohm internally, or with bad surround and scraping the coil when you push in, the drivers can be replaced. The woofers are very similar to those in high quality beach bar PA speakers. I suggest replacement drivers from Peavey or Eminence. However lower quality woofers would last a while unless the organists stands on the lowest octave pedals too long. Usually church services don't stress the woofers like academic or art organ music.
Best of fortune in your musical future.

[Guest]

Thank you myorgan,
Believe it or not after posting here, an Allen dealer returned a call to me from yesterday. He informed me about the Johannus/Rodgers acquisition, also expressing his concerns about the future of Rodgers parts. Looking at an Allen 3 manual. Didnt think about having having it tropicalized. Thank you for that point. Yes, Duty here in The Bahamas is expensive. I think the Duty on an organ is 65% of the cost. But i do believe certain religious items are tax exempt. I am sure! Or at least hoping organs are on that list. Thank you for your informative response.

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Thank you Horseshoe_or. I will certainly look at Walker Technical and M&O

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Wow Indianajo. Wish I could magically get you here. Checked around, came up blank. No local technician proved successful. Of course the organ dealer suggested it was time, so we laid a beautiful wreath on the console. Lol.

[TimNewby]

Help is on the way! :-)

Hello Trey,

We would be happy to assist you with your old Rodgers or in your quest to find a new instrument. My family's firm is the exclusive representative for Rodgers in the Bahama Islands as well as for the majority of Florida. A lot of those Rodgers organs you have seen were likely installed by us. We have been serving churches since 1958.

You can learn more about us at: http://www.centralmusic.biz

There have also been a lot of rumors floating around about what the recent acquisition of Rodgers means. It is good news, and you can learn more about it by reading our recent post ("The Truth") on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/CentralMusicInc

Kindest regards,
Timothy Newby - Vice President
Central Music, Inc.

[circa1949]

the truth is out there...