A little Elvis Tune...

[danorob1]

Hi All - It has been a while since I posted anything... I have been going through a lot of loss lately and just have not had any time... Our Cousin Sherrill is in her last days of an 8-year battle with Colon Cancer and asked me to do and Elvis song for her...

I hope it bought a smile to her face....

Hope you all enjoy the tune...

 

[countryguy]

Great job Dan...sorry to hear about your cousin. What happened to the Rhapsody....trade it for a Stardust?

Gary

 

[danorob1]

Hi Gary - Yupper... I had the Rhapsody for a little shy of three years... Got a Roland Atelier and absolutely hated it... He took it back after a week and I got the Rhapsody back...
I was then holding out for a Prestige, but he never got one in that was flawless like the Rhapsody was...
He called me two weeks ago, and said he got a flawless Stardust in - I went to check it out, and it was like the day it came out of the crate... So I figured if I could not get a Clean Prestige right now, I would get the Stardust and keep it for two years... Hopefully by then he can find me a Prestige... I also like the dark cherry of the Stardust much better then the oak of the Rhapsody...

 

[countryguy]

The Stardust is a great organ....I had one before I got the Prestige. Why didn't you like the Atelier? which model did you have? I've never played one but from what I have seen it has a lot more features than the Lowreys but is not quite as user friendly. I just came back from Lowreys HOH in Kansas City. I thoroughly enjoyed all the concert artists showing off their skills on the Marquee.

Gary

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[danorob1]

I purchased an AT90S - Certain voices were better then on the lowrey, but not all, an over all the accompaniments sounded terrible - Like they were loaded straight from the late 70's... And I found it to be VERY complicated to find things and set up... And I consider myself very computer savvy... And NONE of the Roland Organs have the ported base speaker that most of the high end lowrey's have - And you could tell right away... No Punch at all !!! all treble, no base... It was just not for me...

 

[danorob1]

Sorry about that Gary - It was an AT80S - It had the short pedals - The 90S had the long radius pedals...

 

[countryguy]

I wonder if the new Atelier 800 and 900 have better bass speakers?

 

[danorob1]

Hi Gary - Sadly they Don't - He had an almost new AT800 - sound was no better to me - Software was almost the same - Actually he has several almost new Roland's, and In the end I did not care for the sound of any of them...

I think the other thing that should not have mattered, but played on my mind was the fact that the Biggest Roland still looked like a toy next to any of Elite Cabinet Lowrey's... They Roland's are more compact organs...

The owner is more partial to Roland, but the sales staff if partial to Lowrey...

One of the salesmen who know me told me that he told the owner that he knew I was going to hate the Roland and that it would be coming back -

Jeff the owner told me that the founder of Roland (and most of Japan) thought that americans played the organs way to loud - That is why a roland never really has the power and punch that a lowrey has... They were built for their home markets more then the USA...

 

[countryguy]

The Lowrey definitely is a nicer looking organ than the organ but as you say the Roland is more compact and would be easier to fit in tighter quarters. Have you seen/tried the new Wersi Sonic? I love the big 15" screen that it has and it seem to have a lot more sounds and styles than the Lowrey. It sounds good on youtube but have no idea what it would sound like in person. And it is a lot more reasonably priced than Lowrey.

 

[danorob1]

Hi Gary -
Yes - The new Wersi's look like great instruments - They are costly though from what little I can find on-line... There seems to be one importer in the USA - Digital Musical Organ Company, USA - The Louvre is about $53,000 USD according to their website...
My Dealer told me that a New Lowrey Marque runs about $43,000 USD - Of course he sells at a real price and not the exaggerated $80k-100k price you see in the stories on line...
But apparently from what I read the New Wersi's also use their own version of Arranger software so I wonder how much programming is involved just to get ready to play a song...

 

[countryguy]

I've spent a lot of time researching the Wersi and the Sonic 700 is about $26000 USD...that includes the full pedal board, and adjustable bench. There are lots of built in presets for each of the styles so it does not look complicated at all to set up...just pick a style, preset and play. $43,000 for a Marquee is still a lot but much better than the $150,000 figure I was hearing at the HOH from some of the attendees!

 

[danorob1]

$150,000 !!!! That is insane - There must be some real shyster dealers out there...
My Dealer (Jeff) wrote an article for the trade association some years ago titled something to the effect "There is no such thing as a $69,000 Organ"... There were several points he made in the article but one of the main points was how damaging selling at these astronomical prices was damaging the business.
I know it all a game but enough is enough - They buy it at $89,000 but get $75,000 on their trade - It's all just a huge joke...
He told me that If I wanted to buy new, an Inspire EY400 would be a little under $30K, and a Marquee would be about $43K - While high, they sound a little more reasonable the what these people all claim they paid for them...
Every listing on Craigslist or E-bay reads the same.. Mom or Dad Pail $50K, 60K, 80K, 100K - must sell as they passed away... Then they are lucky if they get 1/10 of what they were asking...
A Marquee in Florida on E-Bay went for $5500.00 a few months ago...

The Sonic looks nice, but it is hard to find any specs on line - Wattage, Size, Etc... This seems to be the case for any of the Wersi Organs...
I really do like the Three-Keyboard louvre - That to me is stunning...
I will still stick a Prestige or an imperial in 2-years... Not sure what I would want after that - Not fond of anything Lowrey made after the Imperial...

 

[countryguy]

Yes there are some real shyster dealers out there...one of them being Fletcher's which is mainly in FL and AZ. I have heard some real horror stories. Is your dealer Jeff Mazza in Toms River, NJ? He is a member on the yahoo Lowrey group. He caused quite a ruckus a few years back when he deleted some posts (he is a moderator of the group just as I am) that a member had posted discussing the outrageous pricing of organs. He deleted the posts before they even got posted publicly on the forum because he didn't like the negative comments. Needless to say neither I or the other moderators were happy and it even led to a couple of them leaving the group.

I've attached a link to a PDF file listing all the specs. for each of the Sonic models if you are interested.

http://wersiclubusa.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Wersi_Brochure_2016.pdf

 

[danorob1]

Hi Gary -
Yes - Your Jeff Mazza, is my Jeff Mazza - And yes, I had already heard the story (At least his side) about the pricing posts and the uproar it had caused... But nowadays with the internet, everyone can find almost anything, including a dealer that would leak out the price he paid for a new Lowrey, or any other instrument for that matter...

Trying to find a Lowrey all started with me finding Walter Hammel on Youtube - The song I found was his version of "over the rainbow" - At that time I had no idea what a Lowrey Organ was as I had the hammond since 1973...
I had started by looking on CraigsList and found a Rhapsody in DE - I did not want to buy sight unseen, and I was not sure if there price was good or not... So I joined the Lowrey Forum and asked the question about the price and age... I got a lot of reply (Including yours - Thank You !)...

I then looked up the Lowrey Dealers and found Jeff was the only one in NJ - My partner and I took a ride down - I saw a prestige and wanted it until one his sales people told me it was $22K -
I then saw the identical Rhapsody to the one I saw in DE - They gave me a price, and I told the sales person that was way more then I wanted to spend... When he went back to talk to Jeff, he came back and asked if my name was Dan - I said yes... Then Jeff came out and told me he saw my post on the Lowrey Forum, and that he was one of the administrators... We talked and I left with the Rhapsody at a price I was very happy with, especially since it was 100% flawless both functionally ad cosmetically. (Except for that little pedal issue!)

The rest is History - I don't really know what transpired on the Lowrey forum back in the day, but I can imagine it was similar to when a dealer on this forum was posting the dealer cost of several High End Vacuums on this forum - Or like when I made the post that the Aerus Dealer gave me a price of $1000.00 for the Guardian Platinum...

I look at it this way - He has been good to me, and I do consider him a friend now - The one issue I had with the Rhapsody he took care of right away... And I know he will stand behind the Stardust, as well as anything I purchase in the Future...

Now - Thank you for the Wersi Link - There is a lot of information that they should post on their website - At least the U.S. Distributor - The hard part would be trying to find one in person to see and play... I am not one to buy sight unseen - And I wonder if there is some sort of ported bass speaker inside the foot board console... Heavy bass is VERY important to me, and one of the things I HATED about the Roland...

Have you heard one in person yet?
Dan

 

[countryguy]

No I have not seen or heard a Wersi in person....just watched a lot of youtube videos. The website where the PDF is located, has a forum as well, so you could probably ask there about the speakers and the bass in particular. I know you can get the Sonic without the built in speakers and add external speakers.

You are fortunate to have a dealer close to where you live. The closet Lowrey dealer to me is in Detroit...which is 7 hours away. That is where I traded in my 3 Lowreys for the Prestige.

Gary