Allen Organ Pricing

[Guest]

It seems that the market is slim pickings for good used organs in my area. I've found a dealer some 100 miles away who has a vintage '87 Allen ADC3160 that I could get for $6,000 including home delivery. But he's only offering a six month warranty. The organ was recently taken out of a church. Can someone tell me if this is a fair price for a ADC3160 with four external speakers. I'd really like a longer warranty of ~three years on the organ. I may be wrong, but it seems I'd likely need to replace the speakers and possibly boards soon on a 30 year old organ. Your advice is appreciated.

[toodles]

I live in northern Utah, and my Allen dealer routinely sells ADC-3100 & 3160 organs for around $5,000. I think he offers a 1 year warranty.You will generally get better prices if you by from a non-manufacturer's dealer (i.e., a Rodgers dealer for Allen organs, and Allen dealer for Rodgers organs) as they don't seem to value the brand name as highly and want to preserve the used market value, and the best prices come from private individual sales.

Speakers don't usually require repairs even after 30 years, but may require that the foam surrounds be replaced. This should be done before purchasing from a dealer. Allen pedalboards do not need replacement after 30 years--they are about the most rugged and dependable in the industry. Rodgers of that vintage frequently need some rework (i.e., tightening of tension springs and replacement of up/down stop felt) but not replacement.

You do not identify your area, and including that in your profile will let others here help you find a decent value on a used organ.

From a dealer, $6,000 for that organ is not a bargain, but about what you will see. He has to allow some room for possible trade-ins, and moving it does cost him some money. About 15 years ago I bought that same model for $4,000 used from a Rodgers dealer, but I paid for the moving.

Five or so years ago there were lots of good used organ bargains but not so these days.

[organman95]

The thing with the (M)ADC-3100/3160 organs is they were solid, sound instruments for the price back in the day. The 4 channel audio system was more than enough to drive the 30 or so stops, and even in a dead room, add a touch of reverb and it had an excellent sound to my ears. Even at $6000, if I had the money I'd take one of those over the C-series Rodgers any day.

[toodles]

My sole complaint about the ADC smaller models (MADC, really, like the 3100/3160 & related products) is that the attack on the manual voices is grouped for all the voices--i.e., the 16' flute speaks at the same speed as the 16' reed, and all the other voices. This is most noticeable in the lower octaves. That is not very pipe-like. Reeds should speak faster, higher pitches speak faster than lower pitches, etc. This is, I realize, being very picky.

These organs do, however, have a really versatile set of stops that blend together quite nicely to form very useful combinations. the "xx60" models being a bit better than the "xx-00" models, in my opinion. The xx60's have a mixture in the Swell instead of a 1 ft. Sifflote, and the Quintaten 16 is the soft flute, duplexed to the Great and Pedal which is, instead, a Lieblich Gedackt on the xx00 series models, from the Swell (but not available there) duplexed to Pedal and Great. The Quintaten a very nice tenor solo stop used with Tremulant--with a hint of Clarinet in its voicing, but of useful blend. Not all Quint flutes are as versatile as the one chosen for these models.

[MarkS]

My sole complaint about the ADC smaller models (MADC, really, like the 3100/3160 & related products) is that the attack on the manual voices is grouped for all the voices--i.e., the 16' flute speaks at the same speed as the 16' reed, and all the other voices. This is most noticeable in the lower octaves. That is not very pipe-like. Reeds should speak faster, higher pitches speak faster than lower pitches, etc. This is, I realize, being very picky.

On the ADC 720 (and likely others) it is even worse in the pedals. The "Mixture" has a slow attack that screams electronic.

[rbartdoc]

Does anyone know the original (c.1998) price of a Renaissance R350? Thanks.

[michaelhoddy]

Around $85,000 to 90,000 was the number I remember seeing, with standard 8 channel audio- 6 HC14, 1 festival trumpet channel, 1 subwoofer.

[myorgan]

Frankly, it was whatever the dealer charged. Some could get more in their sales area, while others could get less. Then, it also depended on the speaker package, customizations, etc. for a negotiated price.

Sorry I couldn't provide a better answer.

Michael

[John Vanderlee]

You do not identify your area, and including that in your profile will let others here help you find a decent value on a used organ.

I have to echo the comment about not identifying your area. There's no away I could give you a reasonable answer, All kinds of organs pop up in my area.

John

[Admin]

Location is now a required field in one's profile. Any changes to your profile will require this field to be filled in if it isn't already. It's also a required field for new registrations. Unfortunately, I do not currently have a way of making this requirement retroactive for users who registered prior to the software supporting this requirement.

I've seen some users attempting to circumvent the location requirement by entering such things as "The Universe", "Planet Earth" or punctuation marks. Users taking this route will be demoted to a moderated status until a useful location is entered.

I understand concerns for privacy, but this Forum does not require the use of your real name so there should be no concerns about a general location exposing a security risk. The purpose of this requirement is to help others help you in locating the information you seek. If you're outside the US or Canada, your country is usually sufficient, but due to the geographical area covered by the US and Canada, users in those countries should consider using their state at a minimum.

[myorgan]

Keep in mind, though, this is an old posting (2018). I'm not sure rbartdoc revived the thread, but the answer hasn't changed.

Michael

[rbartdoc]

Thanks for the response re: price. I know it's not possible to be precise; a ballpark figure was all I was hoping for.