The 1958 Church Organ Report

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Fun Reading!!

But no matter what they said....Which of these organs do you still see in great numbers being used....HAMMOND!!!! I know of 1 Allen from the 50s still in use, We had a Wurlitzer in the Church I grew up in that was bought in 1946, it had such a bad delay in the action, no one would even attempt to play it except our organist who started playing it when it was new...and she was 13 years old, she grew up with it and was used to it, it was replaced when I was a small child with a Rogers.,
 
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Very interesting, thanks for posting it Robert. I have over the years played all of the organs shown at one time or another, including the very early Wurlitzer with electronically amplified reeds. That thing was a mess. The Baldwin Model 10 was an average workhorse for service playing. And, as Hans pointed out, there were (and still are) Hammonds all over the place. You can't kill one if you try.

It reminds me of how far pipeless organs have come. Back in that time, the only people who couldn't tell the difference between pipe and pipeless organs were the salesmen who sold the pipeless ones! Today, some pipeless organs are so good that even top organists can't tell that they're not pipe organs. The best installations combine pipe voices with pipeless voices.
 
Re Baldwin...

The old Baldwins sound like a bunch of wasps buzzing thru an amplifier!!LOL
 
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Well, Hans, a Baldwin organ properly installed in a room with excellent acoustics and played by a master genius can sound pretty good. While the organ in this recording (Model 11) is not as good as a modern digital instrument, for its time period (1966) it sounds astonishingly good and gave Allen and Rodgers a pretty good run for their money. (Also take into account the relatively primitive recording equipment available at that time.)

In the late 1960s, my mom was the choir director for a Baptist church in Gloucester, Virginia that had the same identical Baldwin organ as the one in the YouTube recording. However, the sanctuary -- upholstered from front to back and top to bottom with carpeting, pew padding, velvet draperies, acoustical tile etc. etc. etc. -- could not have been a worse room for an electronic organ (or any organ, for that matter) and it sounded just ghastly -- yes, like wasps buzzing in a tin can!!

 
I am partial to

A Rogers for the "High Church" sound, after the Wurlitzer gave up at my home church, they got a fairly high dollar Rogers which served until the 80s when lightning got it, then an Allen in 83 or so, I always liked the Rogers better.
 
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I've played very good, and very bad, of both brands. Two =HUGE= factors are the acoustics and the installation technique. Too often, electronic salesmen of both brands cut corners by installing the minimum amount of audio equipment, in some cases even less than minimum.

I played for a while in a church in Hollywood that got a new Rodgers in the late 1980s. It just sounded like garbage. A little investigation revealed the reason -- on one side, they had hooked the amps up to a bank of eight old 10" speakers from an ancient Baldwin organ, mounted right into the wall behind a small grillwork tone opening. The cones were all hard and dried out and had no bass whatsoever. On the other side, they stuck the speakers inside an old pipe organ chamber with the speaker boxes way back in the corner where the sound came out all buried and muffled. What a mess! The salesman wanted to cut costs on speakers and he ended up shooting himself in the foot when the church heard how awful it sounded.

OTOH I am currently playing at a second church, a small Lutheran church near my other church, that has a fairly new Allen - put in around 2005 to replace a horrible old Conn. It sounds wonderful! It's not at all large, just a basic two-manual organ. But it has a very full and rich sound with bass notes that really shake the place. And it has a bunch of MIDI stuff that's fun to use. I really like it and would love to have a model like it for a home organ if I had the room and $$$ for one.
 
My Episcopal parish has an Allen, about 10 years old. Mind you, I do not play the organ, but as parishioner I think it sounds great. The sanctuary has an arched ceiling and an 80 year old wood flooring. Our organist's husband sold and installed it, and will occasionally perform as a guest organist. So not Allens are bad!
 
I have a 1981 Allen Digital Computer Organ (System 705-D) in my living room for practice. For its age, it sounds INCREDIBLE. You can feel the bass shaking the house. It has 8 full range speaker cabinets and a separate 15" subwoofer for the Pedal division.

At my most recent church job that I just left, I had a custom specification 2 manual Allen installed in 2012. I fooled a couple pipe purists with it! The sound was just out of the realm of verbal description.

poconovacman-2014091619443705741_1.jpg

poconovacman-2014091619443705741_2.jpg
 
I am somewhat surprised that so many of us are organists. I am unable to enjoy it of late due to arthritis and degenerative nerve issues, but I played for many Churches for just short of 30 years. I still play for the local Baptist and Lutheran congregations when they are in a bind. It's just one more reason I love this place. BTW both congregations and the local Mormon church all have Rogers instruments and all are very nice.
 
Re Allen...

One of the oldest Allens I know of is also in my hometown, In First Advent Christian Church, is the original blonde 1958 Allen with 2 Gyrophonic speakers...now it sounds leagues ahead of the one my home Church has, the one at Lower Crrek Baptist, my home church, has a bunch of cards you use for different settings...but that old Allen in FA, sounds good...as does the 1958 blonde Wurlitzer piano!.....but none of them are a Hammond....once I heard a Hammond, I was hooked!!LOL
 
Re organ preferences..

A Hammond is LOUSY for liturgical type Church music,,but unexcelled for all other music...Gospel,jazz,rock,soul,etc...but especially real old fashioned Gospel...which is my favorite type of Church music, I grew up in a very formal Southern Baptist Church..nothing was played for prelude or postlude but classical type stuff, the first time I went to a Church that had a Hammond organ, and used the old "Red Back" hymnal...I was hooked on the happy uplifting sound....but for what I call" High Church" a Hammond is pretty bad!!!One of the big Churches in Winston Salem NC ,Centenary United Methodist, has a Austin organ installed when the building was built in the early 30s,..now its some kind of fantastic, as is St Pauls Lutheran in WS, they have a old Aeolian Skinner thats pretty fabulous...I would love to hear Charles Lester play either of them...if you all didnt know, he is an outstanding organist on a pipe organ or a Hammond!
 
When done right!

It sure sounds good, this is an old 1938 Hammond and a really ancient piano!

 
I was honored

To get to hear Stann Kann play the Mighty Wurlitzer at his church in Los Angeles in 1995, Charles and I really enjoyed that concert!...Now THAT is something that would sound good in a big church!
 
1945 Wurlitzer

This is almost exactly like the organ my home Church had for many years...I imagine there were many curse words thought by visiting organists for weddings etc..According to our organist, it played with a terrible delay..she said you were always a note or two ahead of what was coming out of the speakers..the late 60s Rogers was a definite improvement..

 
Even a Lowrey

Can sound good...if Sandy Payton is playing it, and its hooked up to a good old Leslie!

 
And here she is...45 years later..

Her voice has broken some, but still one of the outstanding Gospel organists of all time..

 

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