I hoped I'd never see another one of these. This was the kind of organ I used in my first church. Mine had an early american cabinet. What model is this? Opinions? I'm not going to buy it but I'd sure help someone throw it away. </P>
Andy is right on this one. A brassy, buzzy old Baldwin indeed. I have the spinet version of it, model 54A. This one is about done for, and I got it from the shop where I worked just to thump on it for something different. Well, different it is, and if I had someone to move it out of here it would go to the landfill tomorrow. They are a poor excuse for an organ IMHO.</P>
We had a dealer here in town for years, and I played a lot of their organs when new. I just could not buy one since when I heard them in public I just hated the sound. I could tolerate their church versions much better, and the 48C I have does have a much better sound than the old line tube models. A tech told me that mine is a Thomas under the hood. The individual stops do have that "clarinety" sound. The Thomas I have is very much 'clarinety" on the individual stops for the most part.</P>
When I was in my teens I was a huge Hammond fan, but liked Wurlitzer very much. I think the old line organs tried to be as much as possible close to a good organ sound than the ones with all the extras other than sustain. I think the old line Gulbransen, Wurlitzer, and tube Conn organs had some great ideas. I hope the guy that has thearticle a ConnWeddingsoonposts some pics or gives us the model number of the small Conn he played. I am sure as gifted he is as well as the niceorgans he plays, he did find this small organ rather interesting. Hammond was just always Hammond and in a class of its own. I finally grew very tried of that sound after many years. I knew many church organists who never used the drawbars on the console models since the presets were so easy to use. I had rather have labeled stops any day.</P>
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James</P>
Baldwin Church Organ Model 48C
Baldwin Spinet 58R
Lowrey Spinet SCL
Wurlitzer 4100A
Crown Pump Organ by Geo. P. Bent, Chicago, Illinois
Organs I hope to obtain in the future:
Conn Tube Minuet or Caprice even a transistor Caprice with the color coded tabs
Gulbransen H3 or G3, or V.
Wurlitzer 44, 4410, 4420, ES Reed Models, 4300, 4500, Transistor Models
I'd always though that organ was an Orgasonic. My music director hollered at me to get rid of that clarinet sound but I couldn't. The organ was also louder out the left sideof the cabinet. The trouble was that the organ was placed with the left end facing the wall. That organ almost made me give up organ playing altogether. After we were gone from there they got a Kimball Swinger as the church organ when the Baldwin flew south. The Gulbransen I have nowwas their third organ. I'm hoping I can talk them into an Allen or Rodgers for the next organ. </P>
Orga-Sonic was the name given to the Baldwin spinet organs. The consoles always carried the name Baldwin out front where it could be seen. The dealer in town was good to let me play on the new organs on the showroom floor, and one time I asked her why Baldwin had to be printed on the right side in small letters Built by Baldwin. I told her that I wished they would switch the name tags so the name Baldwin could always been seen like other brands of organs. She said, "young man that is a good suggestion." Then she took a notebook and was writing something down in it. I was so surprised when just a couple of years later my very suggestion was reality. I have no clue as to what I said was mentioned at a sales meeting or to the company, but Mrs. G. was a great salesman for Baldwin.</P>
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She had told the Hammond Company she would out sell them in our area and make this a Baldwin strong hold. Hammond had refused her a dealership for her store when she started it in 1954. They already had a Hammond organ sales lady who had an agency in her home for a store out of OKC, OK. She had a nice showroom next to her living room, and people came there and took lessons as well as she would demonstrate the organs any time someone was interested.</P>
Their low end of pianoes were called Acrosonic. The name came out in the 50's when Hammond had the Hammond spinet, and the name spinet was theirs and no one else's at that time. Wurlitzer had the Spinette for their spinets, and Conn had the Minuets.</P>
At least your music director knew that it should have sounded better than a hooty hollow clarinet sound. Of all things a Kimball Swinger was not for a church at all. Gulbransen was more suited for church, and I would have preferred a Gulbransen over the church Hammond I played for a good number of years. I have heard some horrible sounds out of a church Hammond, and that was before any Leslie speakers were used with them. It is so percussive, non rich sounding, metallic, and just piercing on the ears IMHO. Those old Hammonds were not a good church organ at all, but theywere very popular with their vibrato sound. I just flat grew tired of them after being a very loyal fan at one time.</P>
I am sure you remember seeing the Kimball nameplate, then Swinger also located on the organ to be seen. Well, it was the same with the Baldwin spinets.My Wurlitzer has the name in nice bold letters on the left side with their noted emblem, and on the lower right cheek block there is another name plate which reads Percussion by Wurlitzer. They were the first to put Sustain on an organ.</P>
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Mrs. G. always had the Baldwin organs, but did take on Wurlitzer in the mid 70's when her store had been relocated. At first she took only their pianoes, then since people would ask about the organs including me she finally relented to sell them. She had the business for 30 years, and that was about the time organ sales began to go down hill quite a bit in the mid 80's. Baldwin had their firstOrgasonicorgans on the MKT in 1953. I remember some of the very early models.</P>
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I hope your church can have a nice Allen in the future. How is the Hammond doing these days?</P>
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James</P>
Baldwin Church Organ Model 48C
Baldwin Spinet 58R
Lowrey Spinet SCL
Wurlitzer 4100A
Crown Pump Organ by Geo. P. Bent, Chicago, Illinois
Organs I hope to obtain in the future:
Conn Tube Minuet or Caprice even a transistor Caprice with the color coded tabs
Gulbransen H3 or G3, or V.
Wurlitzer 44, 4410, 4420, ES Reed Models, 4300, 4500, Transistor Models
The Hammond is doing well. The worst glitch it has is with the transposer. When you power up you have to reset the transposer back to zero. It's always a whole step down fo some reason. The low g flat on the pedal dosen't work but that's a reed switch that just needs be be jiggled. I can live with these things. </P>
It dosen't sound as good as the Gulbransen but its much better than the KImball or the Baldwin. It's also much more powerful and has 32 pedals. It doesn't have the true TWG sound since its not a TWG organ. We were fortunate with this LSI Hammond in that it was serviced and delivered by a dealer. It has a nice cabinet that I might use for a digital organ someday when the church gets the Allen I'm hoping for. </P>
We've had a long country gospel tradition here but Its changing at last. Nowadays we are beginning to use more high church traditional hymns. This requires more out of me since they are more diffcult to play than the happy clappy three chord tunes. I think we are one of the few SBC churches our size in my area with organ and piano both. Wehave about 100 comingeachSunday. </P>
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