Need some info on Allen ADC420C

[John Vanderlee]

It's been noted elsewhere the this organ is on *Bay minus bench, pedals. What I 'd like to know is, does this use princess or standard pedals? Are Stoptabs movable? What type of memory does it have, is it settable?
Also, is there anything special on that model, or not?

I'm contemplating bidding on it since it hasn't moved from the $99.00 opening. I have a bench, I'd need to find pedals. I don't think the seller is an a hurry as I told him that listing by the Model# is far better than by the s/n. ;-)
He has not changed the ad.
But then it's a 5.5 hr. drive.... :( maybe.....

[myorgan]

When the Gallery is up, I believe there is a brochure there, which will answer most of the questions you have.

Hope that helps. The Gallery is down right now.

Michael

[jbird604]

The ADC420 is a full-size AGO model. This was the cheapest true AGO instrument in the lineup when I was selling Allens back in the 80's. The pedal boards used on Allen organs have changed very little over the years, and I wouldn't be surprised if you could pick up a pedal board off an old MOS organ for nearly nothing and have it work on that console. There's a chance you might need to do a little custom carpentry to make the ends of the pedals line up perfectly with the switches, but it surely wouldn't be brain surgery.

The stop tabs are standard Allen movable tabs, same as used in the MOS era -- a central "tongue" goes down when the tab is depressed, making contact with a "leaf" that is wired to the harness that runs to the stop interface board (MADC CM-1 in this model). These tabs however do NOT move in response to the pistons, as they don't contain the electromagnets that are in the moving tabs of the more expensive models.

So the piston system is simply a "blind" system. The only indication that a piston is active is that a number from 1 - 7 shows in the LED display window to the right of the upper keyboard. You have to know what stops are associated with each piston because there is no physical indication that the stops are engaged.

While the standard model had a set of piston registrations in ROM and they could not be changed, SOME of the 420's were sold with a user-settable piston system. The Mormons bought a ton of these for all their smaller chapels, and they specified the settable pistons. With the settable pistons, you turn on the stops you want to save, hold in the SET piston and tap the numbered piston to which you wish to assign that registration, just as with any other Allen organ.

"This is all fun and games until somebody loses an eye." -- That sounds like a perfectly fine capture system, even though it's blind. But one drawback is that, if you're like me, you'll sometimes forget that the stop rail doesn't reflect what's actually drawn, and you'll simply add one stop to a registration you like, hit SET and another piston. And voila -- you've just wiped out a memory, replacing it with the single stop that you just "added" to the other registration, UNLESS you were smart enough to put down ALL the stops you were copying into the second piston, along with the ONE stop you wanted to add to it! Can be quite frustrating to an organist, until they get used to it.

Also, depending on how a certain wire jumper (which I forget the location of) is set, the stop rail may or may not add to piston registrations. If the jumper is set so that the stop rail adds, then you can quickly throw on a mixture or reed to build up the piston you're using. But then, you can't have a hand-registered combination at the ready, to bring on with the Zero piston. So I sort of preferred the "not adding" setting. Just can't remember how you make that happen, but it's simple.

Piston memories are saved by a rechargeable battery pack, which could in fact still be mounted right on the memory board, and which could have leaked and damaged that board. Be prepared for the possibility that the board is damaged, though it could be salvageable.

Very nice little organ. I had one here at home for a year or two, and it was actually one of my favorites. Just didn't sound good in headphones ;-)

[Hiawatha]

I was also thinking of this as I do have at least one extra MOS pedal board and bench and I think maybe one or two princess pedal boards (with wire connectors) and a wood music desk in the barn. The console looks the same as many MOS organs so I figured why not. The shipping.. "aye.. there's the rub."

[John Vanderlee]

It all depends. Where is your barn?

[davidecasteel]

Is it certain that the instrument is otherwise functional?

David

[John Vanderlee]

For $99, who cares? But seriously, the keyboards alone would be worth it. Or unless lightning destroyed everything, but even then...!