I am looking into getting a Baldwin 640 for $300. Does the organ have a good sound? How old is it? I once played a Baldwin 645 and it sounded nice. I am not fond of Baldwin organs but for the size and price, there is not a lot to do! I would like anyones opinion on this organ and your thoughts about it!
Here it is: the case is very nice and it has wood keys!
I played one of these once, briefly. It is a nice console, but the pedalboard appeared to be not-quite AGO. If does not sound like a pipe organ. But it is hard to go wrong for $300. One must consider how far it is from you and how much effort, time and money it will take to retrieve it.
the pedals should be ago. It is in MI and i am in Nebraska. I will pay for shipping. Anything is better than my Hammond CV. Did you think the sound is good for that era and is it a good practice organ?
We will need John Bird and/or Arie to help with this. When I played one of these the pedalboard felt not quite AGO; close, but not quite. I would say that the sound was typical analog sound for the era. If it is only for practice, then the AGO pedalboard is the more significant issue rather than the sound. If the pedalboard is genuine AGO, then this console should be nice enough to perhaps sometime in the future convert to a digital tonal system.
Wish I could be more helpful; but I would rather be vague than give you overly-optimistic advice that might cause disappointment.
Let's hope that our more knowledgeable members chime in.
At the time that these were produced, they were very good organs. Definitely AGO pedalboard. I played one in North Carolina that had the optional audio fifteen channel setup, in a medium size church, and it really was quite effective. Standard audio was six channel (one for the32' pedal stop alone), and sounded good with that configuration. The sound may be quite dated by today's digital standard, but it sure beat the first generation Allen digitals, and was more than equal to what Rodgers was putting out at the time.
Mike
My home organ is a Theatre III with an MDS II MIDI Expander.
Eventually this will make it over to the electronic section.
The console is definitely AGO; it may be a Klann. It may also be difficult to get it through standard doorways.
These used six IC frequency divider generators with stretched octaves: Gt Diapason, GtFlute, Sw Diapason/String, Sw Flute, Reed, Celeste. To my ear it sounded much like a large Allen analog without the electronic air sound. There was optional tuned air sound, but not on the one I played. The 32' was an option, too.
If it is ingood working order you would have a perfectly goodpractice organ. It's fully AGO and certainly better than most old Baldwin organs. When I playsome old Baldwins I get the feeling that the pedal travel is a bit shallow, but the spacing is correct, so you won't have trouble practicing your pedal lines properly on it.
It is older than the 645 you mentioned and of an earlier technology. I'd say it predates the 645 by 5 years. The capture action is moving knobs rather than lights, which might be better for you. However, the mechanical knob actions can have mechanical troubles in time.
As mentioned above, it can have a bunch of audio channels in the expanded setup. That may be nice, but is not essential and takes a huge amount of space to set up. It will play just fine through the standard Baldwin 5-channel audio (plus a separate channel for the 32' if present).
At $300 you can't go wrong really. The only red flag would be if it has a lot of problems. There is good factory-type support for all the older Baldwins form MusicElectronics in Springdale Arkansas. They can probably recommend a technician in your area if one is needed. They have all the parts, even the big circuit boards, so you won't ever have to junk if for lack of repair parts.
And, as you say, anything beats your CV!
John
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!
Acc to the service manual, it is 38 1/4" deep at the arms. However, it will go through a 36" door. You have to angle the first arm through the door, slide the main part in, then angle it for the trailing arm. So you need some wiggle room inside and outside the door.
Also, it weighs about 700 pounds, so some real manpower is needed to wrestle it around.
Does this one have the 5-channel audio or the 15-channel (with the pipe speakers)?
John
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!
[quote user="Brandon Tuomikoski"]There is no speakers or amps with it. I will connect some new Viscount speakers to it. Well the moving will be hard[/quote]
Brandon,
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? Why would you do that? Has that been recommended by someone? Just remember, this organ has only limited voicing capabilities, and analog organs tended to regard the speakers as the final filter. Newer or higher resolution speakers could really make an organ like this sound a lot worse than it could be be the amps and speakers that were designed for this organ.
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