Allen MDS-5 Organ Questions

[uwmartin]

Hello,

I have the opportunity to purchase an Allen MDS-5 Organ at a local thrift shop and had a few questions for you guys. They say it came from a local church and is in good working condition. It's a bit of a risk without testing it, but they are looking to move it quickly to open up floor space so the price seems decent. It looks immaculate, but I'm not familiar with electronic organs and what to look for.

Questions:

1. From the pictures can you guys see any obvious missing parts? I'm seeing the main organ, the bench, and the foot pedals.
2. Any idea of the value if in good working condition?
3. Are parts readily available for this early 1990's model?

Thanks for your time!

David

[michaelhoddy]

$199.00?!?!

Run, don't walk, and buy that thing now. That's a fabulous price for a relatively recent model. Even if there were issues with it, it's still a fabulous price, and Allen does stock parts for the MDS series (and really everything they've ever built).

It looks to be in really good shape. I don't see the bench in your pictures, but that's the only thing unaccounted for.

[Horseshoe_or]

Have them plug it in and test a few stops on each manual. I once had a 5X. It was a wonderful instrument.

[toodles]

It's a basic stoplist but an Allen AGO console and that is a terrific bargain. Unless you had your sights on something much much bigger, grab it.

[jbird604]

Looks to be amazingly clean too. We can sell an organ like that out of our organ refurbishing shop for $2500 or more any day of the week, though of course our price includes a guarantee that it is in perfect working order, delivery, setup, and voicing in the new location. But for $199 you can't go wrong!

It may need the battery changed if that wasn't done in the past few years, and an organ of that age is overdue for a routine cable and pot maintenance (a procedure that has been described in detail over and over on this forum). If you are serious about it, you may want to pay a good Allen tech a few hundred dollars for a top to bottom maintenance and check-out. Or you may want to make a project of your own out of it or just play it like it is.

[davidecasteel]

$199.00?!?!

Run, don't walk, and buy that thing now. That's a fabulous price for a relatively recent model. Even if there were issues with it, it's still a fabulous price, and Allen does stock parts for the MDS series (and really everything they've ever built).

It looks to be in really good shape. I don't see the bench in your pictures, but that's the only thing unaccounted for.

The bench is in the first picture, tucked under the keydesk. The instrument does appear to be immaculate. I'd say to go for it!

David

[uwmartin]

I did this morning! It's in my trailer and I can't wait to set it up in my garage! The bench is there....

Thanks for the advice.

David

- - - Updated - - -

Great advice. I think I'll look into having an Allen technician in the Seattle area go through it all once it's set up. I was told at the store that it was donated by a church, and that they claimed it was in good working condition. I plugged it in at the store and was able to test most of the keys and what not. Sounded great!

Thanks,

David

[myorgan]

Nice price for a newer instrument than any of mine. It may even be MIDI compatible. I concur with the rest of the posts here. Few of my organs came that cheaply!

Michael

P.S. You ducky luck! Please share more photos (& recordings) once you have it set up. Congratulations!

[Larrytow]

You got yourself one sweet deal there - congratulations ! I second the photos and recordings request.

The thrift shops around my part of the country only ever get in toy organs. Never an Allen.

[toodles]

Be sure to download the free Instruction Manual from here: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/share...g.pdf?lang=eng

If you get it from the Allen site, they charge $10.00.

This model has full MIDI implementation.