Allen 301B 1974 offered for free to me.

[John Vanderlee]

It's been offered for free to me. At the same time there's a chapel in a senior citizen's home that needs an organ, they have a failing Hammond H100.
I'm on the fence about it. MOS1 I believe. They said it has 4 speakers, what type might they be?
I don't want to saddle them with a white elephant. How large is the console?
Any thoughts on it?

John

[myorgan]

John,

The organ will probably last longer than the residents will, however, I can't vouch for the sound. Senior citizen's homes are generally heavily carpeted with low ceilings to keep the sound down.

The speakers for that organ could possibly be HC-10, Monitor II's, or HC-12 speakers. The HC-12 speakers are the better of the lot, but are very directional, and most senior citizens homes would not have the room or inclination to keep speakers unless they are made attractive in some way.

Does the chapel have good acoustics or elevated ceilings?

Michael

[m&m's]

You would only need two of those speakers in a small chapel. The console could be the contemporary model that many of the smaller MOS 1's were in, or it could be the B console, which still is not huge. The 301 did have a celeste on each manual, which the old folks might like, as well as two 32's on the pedals, which they probably would not be able to hear.

[beel m]

I play one every Sunday. Great service history and build quality, and a sound I've grown to appreciate. Lots of parts on Ebay- I gradually assembled a full set of spares. Grab it!!

[davidecasteel]

If it's free and functional, and the Hammon is failing, what do you (and they) have to lose? MOS instruments are pretty sturdy and (like all Allens) are reparable. I suspect the facility inhabitants would appreciate having a decent organ in place.

David

[jbird604]

Ditto what others are saying about the longevity and parts. A MOS organ ought to last forever, and parts are widely available at low cost if you watch ebay, etc.

The "four" speakers could be any of several types. It's a simple two-channel organ, so you only need two decent full-range cabinets to make it work. Two HC-12's or HC-10's would be perfect, if available. But in 1974 Allen was shipping MOS organs with a variety of speaker setups. Some were still being shipped with gyros, even though those cabinets had been officially retired about 1973. Many were being shipped with the "two-piece" set called the 32A/B on the flute/pedal channel and a one-piece model 16 cabinet on the main channel. A few got shipped with a 32A/B pair plus a model 16 plus a separate bass-boost cabinet with its own amp. And some were probably going out the door with HC-10's. So you'd just have to see it to find out what the "four" speakers really are.

[John Vanderlee]

Thanks all for this info! Curious, what does the B stand for?

[myorgan]

Thanks all for this info! Curious, what does the B stand for?

It stands for the B console. That means it is NOT the contemporary console, but like this one: https://organforum.com/gallery/displ...um=36&pid=1136

Michael

[beel m]

It's a very beautiful console- same as the TC-4 had. IIRC in 1973 or so it cost $315 more than the standard "contemporary" console of the '70s, and most churches with traditional interiors opted to spend that. Ours looks gorgeous-it's up front in full view, and harmonizes with the typical beautiful carved-wood "Episcopal" choir pews. If the console's in nice shape it'll be a stunner!

[Larrytow]

I agree with everyone - grab it up !! The B console is very elegant, and like all Allens, extremely well built. I had one come though here back in 2012 or so, and added a Nanoverb to it, and found it a new home - the lady is still very pleased with it. Ive got photos of it if you want.

If this one has the analog celestes, they really sound wonderful. And they blend nicely with the digital main organ stops too.

[beel m]

Your last sentence is spot-on. And one can experiment. I have found that the Dulciana celeste (analog) on the Great works well with a tonecard that has 8+4 soft flutes. Gorgeous sound.

[John Vanderlee]

I went to see it yesterday. Formerly a Lutheran church, it is now occupied by the "Saints Basiliosgregorios Orthodox Church". I could not figure out what kind of branch they are. It was a No Shoes church. The church person was East Indian. He said they never used it.

Anyhow, It was not playable as no speakers were connected. He showed me 2 very large cabinets (Hammond cabinet size!) both with rotating speakers but one had 2 15" drivers separately in it.

I inspected the inside and it does have the analog celeste built in, besides the one computer board. Apparently some one had done some rewiring on the 3 amplifiers in it, based on extra wires and taped connections. He said there was another small speaker that they got rid of. The cabinet is a very dark washed oak with some minor damage on the top.

Somehow the whole thing did not thrill me, and I could not decide, which I told him. My feeling is I'm going to decline as for a little money I can probably find something newer and more attractive. Yet, I feel bad for the church as they really want it gone. I'm going to list it in the classifieds as Free to do them a favor. If anyone has an interest PM me here.

[Larrytow]

If it has 3 amps in it, they may have been using the 3rd one for an additional bass channel. I set the one up that I had that way. The missing speaker was probably for that channel. I've never heard a MOS 1 organ through Gyro speakers - I'll bet the analog celeste sounds nice through them.

[beel m]

Larrytow, the original S200 and S300 organs had gyros, vintage 1971. They were dropped after a year or so because 1. Allen added the "random motion" board (which really made a difference) and 2. We all suspected at that time that the factory finally "ran out of the gyros which were left over from the analog organ days". So, they switched over to 16 and 32A/B open back cabinets, and later HC-10s.

[jbird604]

The small speaker that they got rid of was probably an HC-20, a simple sealed enclosure with a 15" foam-surround woofer -- Allen's first "subwoofer," which preceded the B-40, B-20, and more elaborate designs. There is a big MOS-1 model 600 here that I have serviced, and it has gyros on all four channels, plus an extra amp and HC-20 on one of the flute channels.

BTW, Bill, weren't the gyros on MOS-1 organs single-speed slow-motion units? I have seen a few like that, but don't recall if I ever saw one that had a fast speed to produce tremulant. The only reason for the gyros was to keep the sound from being sterile, as the MOS system had "perfect" tuning, in contrast to the random imperfections in the tuning on analogs, which people had found so sweet.

[beel m]

Right, John... single speed. As you know, one could order the "32V" cabinet and get theatre vibrato on the flute channel, even after the RMW MOS-1 organs came out and the slow gyros were dropped. I dedicated a 601 something like 45 years ago with 2- 16 cabinets, and 2- 32V gyros and their bass cabinet. Great for Gospel music!