OK, I should be in bed right now, but in reality, this blog should have been started oh, 10 years ago, or at the very very latest, 1 month ago when the search really became earnest. For the last three days my free time has been more or less obsessed with my latest project, the Allen ADC-4900. For years I have toyed with the idea of putting together a MIDI pedal board and keyboard for practice purposes, but setting it up seemed daunting. Feature creep set in and pretty soon I was looking a full 2 manual, hardwood console, factory made electronic organs. Drove many miles to see a $500 2 manual 1960's era Allen organ a few weeks ago.
But then I found this 3 manual beauty advertised online. Drove to LA (7 hrs) and discovered it had repair issues, but was playable. After some agonizing, I decided to go for it. It was delivered Monday at 7am sharp and both before and after that time I have been obsessed with finding a way to make it fully functional without going bankrupt. Once functioning, I plan to expand it using the onboard MIDI, which may or may not include expression (volume). Today's challenge was sorting out my options for technicians, parts, and service information, all of which appear to be highly guarded information for a 20 year old organ. Hopefully the effort will all be worth it in the end.
Depending on how much repairs are estimated to be for the current modules, I may be further ahead to scrap the internal guts and recycle the console as either a Phoenix rebuild or a Hauptwerks or jOrgan console. Either one will have superior sound, but using the current amplifiers may or may not be complicated given I do not have schematics etc.
Now that I have it and it does not play it is simply the most expensive piece of furniture in my home.
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