Virtual Music Festival Review

[abacus]

Allen's Music virtual exhibition finished yesterday and all the videos from the festival are now available on their YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/c/LowreyUK/videos including all the live streams and an additional video from their Patreon channel.

Overall in spite of some of the video and sound problems I thought it was quite reasonable for a first attempt, (Although I do think they need to script it better rather than just do the same as if they were at an actual physical festival) with the Ringway organs being the stand out for me, Lowrey was featured and was up to the usual Allen's Music standard, also featured were Estey, Orla & Wersi as well as pre-owned instruments, (An additional Wersi video was added from their Patreon channel due to sound problems on the live one) so well worth a listen if you missed the actual virtual festival.

Its timing on Tuesday was quite good if you listened live, as when it finished it gave enough time to have a bite to eat before moving on the Apple's live event.

Bill

[musicmaker84]

Great idea, a pity I didn't know about it beforehand. Would have been fun to watch it live as it happened. Still, plenty of material to cherry pick from afterwards. Thanks for sharing.

[seamaster]

I see the curse of Wersi being unable to give a decent demo continued, the sound was awful in that one. Pity. I thought it was otherwise a useful introduction to the user interface for older punters who may be afeared of it.

Was the elephant in the room of Lowrey being brown bread ever addressed? I scanned the Q&A but didn't hear it if it was. It is hard to understand why a bunch of old Lowreys got such a lot of airtime unless they're desperate to shift their remaining stock. Given that everyone must surely know they're now yet another name in the organ industry book of remembrance, they're hardly offering fire sale prices on them.

The Ringways gave a decent account of themselves, but the value proposition has been completely torpedoed now that Allens have the franchise. The margins on those must be obscene. Ditto those daft little Esteys, which are awful at any price.

[gregp]

The picture quality and sound on the pre recorded videos is excellent, but some of the live stuff is a bit hit and miss.

The Ringway A2000 sounds good but they seem to be very reluctant to show the accompaniments in any great detail. They refer to the RS760 as a good instrument for somebody who perhaps wants to return to the organ from a keyboard, but again don't show the accompaniments. I'm sure anyone changing from a keyboard would want to hear them. The prices do seem high compared to the previous models at Musictraders, but I guess it's all down to part exchange deals.

Lucy the teacher's video talking about changing the sounds in a style is good info for Lowrey owners. She seems really enthusiastic.

Thought the live Wersi presentation was not so good sadly, but the other Wersi sound layering pre-recorded video is informative for potential owners.
Pleasantly surprised by the sound of the Orla Grand.
The Esteys......
Where is the market for that product, except with the people who are part of a Lowrey learning program, which was designed to make people keep trading up to a bigger model.
With such a vast range of used instrumets for very little money these days, there are much better organs available. No idea what the organ sells for in the UK, but it has no reverb and only 18 styles.

Despite any criticism, they should be commended for their efforts in keeping home organ retail going in the UK almost single handedly, and coming up with different ways of presenting their product in these strange times.

[musicmaker84]

Perhaps they aren't keen to admit that the styles only have two variations?

[abacus]

Yes, but styles are of secondary importance for most organ players (If you listen to most organ players it's pretty much drums only with the occasional style track) however if you come from an arranger keyboard (Which as it only has 1 manual with split needs to rely more on the styles) then it can be a bit of a shock until you get used to getting both hands and feet swinging along. (More expensive instruments do tend to have multiple variations and fills etc.)

Bill

[seamaster]

Styles weren't “of secondary importance” to their Lowrey punters!

[seamaster]

Despite any criticism, they should be commended for their efforts in keeping home organ retail going in the UK almost single handedly, and coming up with different ways of presenting their product in these strange times.

That is fair comment.

[Herbert]

There is only one thing Allens are interested in... Money. Money. Money

Every company needs to make a profit but their margins are obscene. I bought from them a couple of years ago. Never again. Once you have the instrument they couldn't care less. Once is goes wrong they are not interested. Take months to sort anything and thats after persuading, cajoling threatening etc. My advice is don't buy from Allens

[seamaster]

The Esteys... Where is the market for that product, except with the people who are part of a Lowrey learning program, which was designed to make people keep trading up to a bigger model. With such a vast range of used instrumets for very little money these days, there are much better organs available. No idea what the organ sells for in the UK, but it has no reverb and only 18 styles.

One thing I hoped to learn but didn't: do these woefully spec-ed Chinese "Esteys" come with a wretched "FAKE IT!" button?

[auronoxe]

On the lastest video the Estey Freedom III has reverb. Maybe a firmware upgrade? Sounds a lot better.

They are definitely too expensive. But I can imagine some organ players are just overwhelmed by the hundreds of buttons and countless on screen menus of other modern organs (be it Lowrey, Roland, Wersi, Böhm, Ringway ... or older Yamahas, Technics, ...). So I can see a value in a simple to operate instrument with a decent sound - if the price is right ;-)
My AT-500 has so many styles... I will never use them all. I also don‘ really need urgently10 different strings. Just 2 or 3 that sound really well. Also one good grand piano would be enough.

Maybe compare it to simple smartphones designed for senior users?

They never demostrated a Fake It feature, so I don‘t think it has one. But it has a HOME button, that resets the organ immediately. THIS is a typical feature for users that are „afraid“ that they can „damage“ the organ when pressing the wrong button. I really can imagine the group of players that like that rescue button :-)

[gregp]

On the lastest video the Estey Freedom III has reverb. Maybe a firmware upgrade? Sounds a lot better.

They are definitely too expensive. But I can imagine some organ players are just overwhelmed by the hundreds of buttons and countless on screen menus of other modern organs (be it Lowrey, Roland, Wersi, Böhm, Ringway ... or older Yamahas, Technics, ...). So I can see a value in a simple to operate instrument with a decent sound - if the price is right ;-)
My AT-500 has so many styles... I will never use them all. I also don‘ really need urgently10 different strings. Just 2 or 3 that sound really well. Also one good grand piano would be enough.

I seem to remember, someone on here from the USA quoted a price of $5995 for the Estey Freedom III. There's no way that organ is worth anything like £4600 or €5100. Surely it sells for much less here. I notice there is no advertised price on Allen's website.
It's designed to be an instrument for the Lowrey lesson program, where many of the American dealers (not that there are many left now) offer 'free' or very cheap lessons to encourage customers to trade up...and up.....and up!
The customers are buying into a club that enables them to have a social meeting place and make friends with people with the same interest whilst leaning to play the organ. But many pay or have paid a fortune for the privilege. The ridiculous prices for Lowrey organs were set by the dealers and not by Lowrey except on a few models models where they suggested a selling price, despite what the dealers may have said.

Don't get me wrong, many of our customers and students traded up when I was in retail, but most were learning to play properly (chords and/or LH notation and bass pedals) and learning how to use the features of their instrument, before they bought another.

We could argue that most instruments produced in the last 25 years offer too much choice, but people have different musical tastes and use different sounds and styles, so choice is good. The grand piano sound you like may not be the sound somebody else likes. Same applies to styles. The reason the Esteys have so few styles and a limited range of sounds is to get the customers trading up to a larger instrument, and that's the sole reason.

Let's not mention fake it.....hopefully it will never ever grace an Estey instrument.

[seamaster]

I see the first “Estey” has appeared on the ‘Bay, with the usual Lowrey-style backstory. Currently failing to find friends at £1K starting bid and a BIN price of twice that.

[seamaster]

I see the first “Estey” has appeared on the ‘Bay, with the usual Lowrey-style backstory. Currently failing to find friends at £1K starting bid and a BIN price of twice that.

Relisted at £750 and no takers. Is this going to be the quickest ever journey an organ has taken from the factory gate to the tip?

[andyg]

One on at a starting price of £675 now.

[seamaster]

Still too salty when there are Ringways on the ‘Bay south of a monkey.

[musicmaker84]

Let's see for how much the Ringway Maestro will sell once made available.

[seamaster]

Somewhere between the Ringway Metro and the Ringway Montego, I imagine.

[John_Joe_Jr]

seamaster comment of the year!

[seamaster]

One on at a starting price of £675 now.

Relisted again at £600.

I'm reminded of the Farfisa F300 with the snapped-off pedal that was listed and relisted for years.