A friend says a family member is going to be getting rid of his organ and thinks it's an Allen ADC 4600. Doing a search I haven't found much information on that model. Can anyone tell me anything about this model? Good/bad? Any known things to look out for? One place said there where four options, but didn't say what they were.
As with any organ that's 30+ years old, you could have a few things to fix up. Specifically the midrange speaker cone surrounds and, if any of the woofers have foam surrounds, they will need to be fixed or replaced as well. Also, if it has batteries on the capture board or on the Alterable Voice board they will need to be changed. If the batteries have never been moved off the boards and into remote packs, they may have damaged the boards, which could lead to some serious repair problems, but you can face that issue if and when it comes.
Allens from the ADC era have lots of little mini-pots that are used to adjust the tone and level of all the voice groups. These are on the tone generator boards in the cage. These little pots get "dead spots" where they sit, and need some "exercising" to clean off the corrosion, dust, and dead spots from the carbon tracks so they will pass signal reliably and not cause distortion or noise. There is plenty of advice on the forum about doing that. The RCA cables throughout the system need their plugs and jacks cleaned up as well, as do the various plug-on connectors and socketed components on boards and in the cages. Sounds like more of a job than it is. We do a thorough clean up on a mid-size ADC organ in two or three hours. Might take you longer when you're new at it and working by yourself, but it's not a terrible job.
Other than that, just be aware that it could be quite worn in some ways, like any older piece of equipment. Fortunately, most Allen assemblies are heavy duty, such as the pedal boards, which rarely need re-felting the way other brands do. Keyboards tend to last for decades unless abused. The good thing about an Allen organ of course is that they can always be fixed. All the parts are readily available from Allen, and many parts are available from internet sources too. A very nice model and well worth picking up, even if you have to do some work on it.
John
---------- *** Please post your questions about technical service or repair matters ON THE FORUM. Do not send your questions to me or another member by private message. Information shared is for the benefit of the entire organ community, but other folks will not be helped by information we exchange in private messages!
Thank you jbird for your reply. Just have to wait and see if they are getting rid of it. I'll just keep searching till I find one that says buy me.
The cleaning of connections and such, I have no problem with. Started doing that to my Hammond Concorde, had it since new, 2 or 3 weeks ago and finished it. Also changed one board on the upper manual. But when almost everything was working right I seem to get set backs with the more I play it. Time to find something to replace it.
I had a 4600. It is a theater organ with second voicing to allow it to play more classical selections. It works very well as a "dual" instrument. The options available were Piano, Card Reader, MIDI In/Out/Thru, and I've forgotten the fourth option. The MIDI option is simply note on/off it does not include expression or stop changes.
Get it, it's one of the nicer ADC Theater organs. Wished I could find another!
Can't play an note but love all things "organ" Responsible for 2/10 Wurli pipe organ, Allen 3160(wife's), Allen LL324, Allen GW319EX, ADC4600, many others. E-organ shop to fund free organ lessons for kids.
Can't play an note but love all things "organ" Responsible for 2/10 Wurli pipe organ, Allen 3160(wife's), Allen LL324, Allen GW319EX, ADC4600, many others. E-organ shop to fund free organ lessons for kids.
Can't play an note but love all things "organ" Responsible for 2/10 Wurli pipe organ, Allen 3160(wife's), Allen LL324, Allen GW319EX, ADC4600, many others. E-organ shop to fund free organ lessons for kids.
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