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I have a 1924 C. Franklin Legge (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) "Art Craft" pipe organ console with foot pedals and bench. Taking too much space in our living room, so would like to sell it to a good home. Any idea of a reasonable asking price? No pipes, does not play, but in good shape. Have a picture, but not sure how to include as I'm new to Organ Forum.
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I have a 1924 C. Franklin Legge (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) "Art Craft" pipe organ console with foot pedals and bench. Taking too much space in our living room, so would like to sell it to a good home. Any idea of a reasonable asking price? No pipes, does not play, but in good shape. Have a picture, but not sure how to include as I'm new to Organ Forum.
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Re: Help with Asking Price
Hi KC,
If I may beg your indulgence, I will make some general comments regarding used pipe organ consoles. Generally speaking, they are worth very little (there are, of course, exceptions); but here is why:
Moving, refinishing, mechanically refurbishing, reconnecting, etc. is VERY expensive for any pipe organ console. A few years back, we purchased a 30-year-old pipe organ console for our church that had not been used a great deal and had not been abused. We paid $1500 for it. We spent another $50,000 doing what I mentioned at the begininng of this paragraph. Granted, the result is a nice $100,000 console for our church for about half price - but that did not make it more valuable for the seller.
I am currently considering purchasing a relatively newer small used console for my residence organ. It will require only minimal work to install, yet I expect to spend at least $10,000 on said minimal work and transportation. I will probably end up giving away my fully functional, partially refurbished and updated console either for free or for a very low price, just to get it out of my way. Why, because it just cost too darn much $$$ to deal with used consoles and make them work for the new owner's organ.
May I be so bold as to suggest that you forget about how much you may get for your console and rather find someone who will respect and care for it?
Good luck and God bless! -
Re: Help with Asking Price
[quote user="Menschenstimme"]I am currently considering purchasing a relatively newer small used console for my residence organ.[/quote]If that doesn't work out, I know where youcan get a 1924 "Art Craft" console -it's in good shape too! [:)] [Y]
Welcome to the Forum, KC. I wish you luck with selling that console; it might take a while, but you never know...Comment
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Re: Help with Asking Price
I am curious as to what was done to the console that cost $50,000 to rebuild (I presume that it was a large console, 3 manuals or more? with tons of drawknobs) did your rebuilder gut the console completely? (new keyboards, new pdealboard...new everything?) did this cost include parts of the job that are in the chambers as part of a new control system?
I recently finished a 3-manual drawknob console with new control system (combo action and solid state coupling), new manuals, new draknob units, rebuilt the pedalboard (for reference, there were 67 dk units and 21 coupler tabs) for considerably less than the $50,000 your cost, - I did not refinish the shell but did clean it up and deal with a few scratches, and replaced a few missing trim pieces.
of course, location, and who did the work will affect the price somewhat.
Rick in VA
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Re: Help with Asking Price
Hi Rick,
This is our stop-key chancel console, configured as a twin to our drawknob loft console. After purchasing the console, we discovered that we could save only the music rack, the pedalboard, and the shell. But even the shell was custom reworked to reduce its size. New custom-built, adjustable bench, to exactly match thebench for the loft console, new Peterson MSP-1000, all thumb and toe pistons positioned to match the loft console (lots of pistons and studs). 100 new SAMs and stopkeys. System custom-engineered to be compatible with the Peterson Orgaplex in the loft. Lots of new woodwork, lots of planning and engineering, etc. The $50,000 figure included installation.
We were quoted $100,000 (installed) for the same console new by more than one source.
We are in southern California. Bob Turner has passed on now - but ask around what his 3-manual drawknob consoles used to cost. I think that his larger, 4-manual, draw-knobs consoles could cost $250,000 installed. I believe that David Harris' consoles are not far behind Turner's pricing.
When one shops for pedalboards, benches, tracker-touch keyboards of bone and ebony, solid-state combination actions, solid-state coupler relays, drawknobs (including the eletro-magnetic mechanism), one discovers that all of these components are very expensive and they add up. Then there is skilled labor ($50-$100 per hour) to put it all together. And a console is essentially a solid-hardwood piece of custom furniture. What does custom furniture cost these days? Give Stickley a call. It all ads up to a lot of money.
SIGH!Comment
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Re: Help with Asking Price
I am aware of the costs, being in the business. Being in Southern California, I can easily see the cost you quoted, since CA is one of the most expensive areas in the country to operate any business. No doubt the custom modifications to the case of the console amounts to a fair bit of the price, and you pretty much DID gut the shell, so I would expect that the price was not out of line...but from time to time I see churches ge tquoted/charged costs that are simply way out of line with the work actually performed (which often results in a pipe organ being silenced or removed/replaced with digital, etc). thanks for your informative reply.
Rick in VA
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