A while back I wrote a post about purchasing an Allen or Rodgers for our church and later added the Phoenix. We are about to place an order and I would like some final information.</P>
So these are somequestion for all the Phoenix owners:</P>
<LI>Would you buy another Phoenix</LI>
<LI>Have you been satisfied with the service</LI>
<LI>Are they good value for the dollar</LI>
<LI>How do you perceive the financial stability of the company,60% down is a fair chunk of change for anyone especially a church who rely's on fundraising and then don't receive the product for 90 days.</LI>
2) None needed (well. actually a felt or two came off on the pedals, but they "authorized" me to re-glue it! We're coming up to 4 years with our Phoenix now.</p>
3) Yes, based on our price of 4 years ago. The dollar is not as strong as it once was (I guess we can keep saying that almost every day now!). I guess all makers have had price changes, but we felt we could not have done better for the money we had. Rock solid construction, excellent sound that continues to delight us every week.
</p>
4) We trusted them completely.</p>
Have you been to Toronto and met with Don and Jim? They're good solid guys who are as good as their word, I think.
</p>
No I haven't met Don and Jim, but have met there rep in Calgary when we went view an installation. The organ committee was impressed.</P>
It is hard to go to Toronto to view an installation, would not have been able to get it in the budget. We are just a small parish in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and I have already stretched the budget beyond the original set forth. I just wanted to make sure this is the right decision, wouldn't want to get lynched.</P>
I am just coming up to thefirst anniversary(March 28th) of the installation of my Phoenix; and if for some reason I had to replace it, I would be at a total loss if there wasn't another Phoenix available to replace it. And that's one of the down-sides of a Phoenix: Once you have become accustomed/addicted to playing one of these instruments, there's just nothing else out there that can come close to filling the void.</P>
So . . . . the simple answer to that questionis YES!</P>
2. Have you been satisfied with the service</P>
Phoenix can be a tad annoying in that respect. About a month after installation, and my wife was out of the house, I decided to enjoy the repreive by openingup the organ and going fullblast! Can'tdo something like that when she's around, or she'll marchinto the living room and press <U>her</U>favourite button! I'm so fortunate that she has so many outside interests! [:)] Anyway, after a modest period of doing full organ,my organ emmitted a bit of a cracklingsound for a few seconds and then went away; never to return. I suppose that what ever was wrong, I managed to weldit all back together. [:)] In passing, I made the mistake of mentioning the episode to Phoenix. DonAnderson was knocking on my door before noon the next day!! [:S]</P>
Since there wasn't really anything to do, Don redeemed the time by loading the Phoenix Configuration and Voicing software ontomy laptop computer; and then showed me how to use it. The neat thing about the software is, that if you totally screw up, you can always revert back to a previous configuration.</P>
3.Are they good value for the dollar</P>
Absolutely! Compared to competitors like the now-defunct Galanti-Ahlborn stuff,Phoenix was able to easily beat them out by almost a full 50%. And when it comes to a comparative stuff like Allen or Rodgers,it's just nocontesteither with respect to cost or quality.</P>
4. How do you perceive the financial stability of the company,60% down is a fair chunk of change for anyone especially a church who rely's on fundraising and then don't receive the product for 90 days.</P>
Yeah, that's a bit of a sticky one. [:$] Neverthelessit brings back some fond memories of my adventure with Phoenix. Ittook place at the critical period after Phoenix had moved out of their old manufacturing facility, and were in the process of building their new factory on a ten acre site just east of Peterborough.</P>
When confronted with the inevitable 60% request,one winter day, we drove to Peterborough. The specified address was a vacant house, way out in the woods, with a "For Sale" sign on the front lawn! [:S] Behind that suspiciousvacant house was an awesome new manufacturing facility being built. The house just happened to be on the parcel of land they had just purchased, and for $300,000 (guessing) it was fisically expendable.</P>
Neverthless, considering their flawless decade old reputation and track record, we wrote one of thosebig honkin' 60% cheques for our new III/44. Understandably, at least some concerns might arise in such a venture.</P>
Then there is the whole other side of the venture. Whileplacing 60% up front might give rise to concern;it probably displaysthe fiscalintelligenceof an organ manufacturer who will still probably be in business next year! [:D]. Like it or not, churches have earned a somewhat less than stellar reputationfor actually living theirproclaimed beliefs. [6]</P>
There wasonce, a wonderful leading edge custom organ manufacturer inOakville, Ontario. After taking a new order in Good Faith, (like we are talking about the Church) orderingall the parts, and building the requested$80,000 organ (1960s dollars) the "church"summarily decidedthey didn't really want the organ, which brought an abrupt and sad end to that organ manufacturer! [6]</P>
Closer to home, with my previous organ (1983), I was arguably the benefactor ofyet anotherchurch in Barrie,Ontario, whosummarily backed out of their committmentat the last moment.</P>
Unfortunately, scuzzy/scandalous performance on the part of the'church' has made this measure necessary. Shame!</P>
Bottom line, having encountered and dealt withwith the Anderson boys, I couldn't be more impressed with their integrity. We're basically talking about a couple of Anglican Choir Boys. At St. John's, while Don plays the organ,Jim, anopera singer, offers his talents to the choir. [;)]</P>
Bottom Line: Nothing else out therecomes even close to Phoenix!</P>
Congratulations! I know you'll be happy with it. Can't wait to hear more about the instrument. When do they estimate that it will be built?</p>
Their spec list is more just sample points for churches to consider, as every instrument is custom designed and built, I think. If you have particular needs or ideas they are happy to work to make you a satisfied customer. I know one fellow who wanted the toe pistons arranged differently because he had short legs and a long torso and they did that for his console.</p>
Our Phoenix has landed. By the time we had it installed it was upgrade to a PT340. I did the speaker install under Phoenix's direction and saved a significant amount of money. </P>
It is a magnificant instrument, brings nothing but positive comments every Sunday. My hats of to Don and Jim and staff for a job well done. </P>
Again, I'd like to thank all of you for your feedback, it helped to make the decision and were grateful.</P>
Wooo hooo! Congratulations! I see from the Phoenix web site that you are getting a phantom sequencer... I've been using a little Lenovo netbook with OrganAssist and a cheap Edirol Midi cable to record the playing each week, and have been pretty happy with that. It doesn't take a lot of computer power to capture the midi. Does the Phantom also capture changes from one specification to another?</p>
Thanks for all the good comments. Sorry, haven't been on forum for awhile hence the lack of response to your comments.</p>
The install is perfect in our opinion and the Phantom Sequencer is very useful. There have been a couple of services where our organist was away and I sat at the console and played back all the service music she had recorded. Was able to change registration and even added the 32 foot pedal stop for some of the recessional hymn verses. Lots of positive feed back from the congregation. I also played a few Postlude pieces that Don Anderson had left on the memory card.</p>
We are very happy with the installation and would encourage any congregation or private individual to look at the Phoenix before you make your decision.</p>
I would greatly appreciate it if you would post the stoplist for your Phoenix. Did you receive 4 organs in 1 as is often advertized? If so, which one do you find yourself using most often.
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