Since I read this thread-wanted to know more about Lowrey organs.So I looked up their site and several sites of dealers that sell them.One dealer was flat out honest about the pricing of these instruments.Like an organ that is priced at 60,000 new-but a few to several years later it is only worth a FRACTION of that 60K price.Watched a demo video of the Liberty organ.Very impressive-but NOT worth the 62 grand suggested price.Remember these organs were intended for the home hobbyist player.I asked myself-how many folks are going to pay almost 70 grand for a household organ?Were talking about the price of a higher end CAR here!That organ would be lots of fun to have-but the price is the turnoff.For that money-you could buy other professional instruments.Or you could buy a vintage band type organ that plays itself!!A friend of mine had an older Lowrey organ.It used tubes in its tone circuits.Replaced the tubes in it.Worked so much better-no more ciphers and funny strange noises!That fellow enjoyed not only using at as an organ-but playing his record player thru the organs amps and speakers!!Sounded really good! that organ doubled as a Hi-Fi console.The amps used 7591A tubes in push pull and each amp drove a 12 in speaker on the front of the organ. Post# 300909, Reply# 6 at 03:23 (2,616 days old) by danorob1 (Central New Jersey) The members on there have a wealth of information when it comes to all Lowrey models including prices as well as many other makes of organs. There is a yahoo group for Lowrey owners. On the Liberty the set top opens up so you have to get off the bench in order to get anything from inside. I do prefer the bench style of the Prestige as it has drawers on either side which can be opened while sitting on the bench.
change the background instruments, volume, balance, etc.) as well as the voices, it will keep you busy for the rest of your lifetime LOL The Liberty does have the double wide screen whereas the Prestige only has the single screen so more information can be displayed at one time on the Liberty. The Liberty has more rhythm styles and built in presets but with 216 styles on the Prestige and over 5000 presets, as well as the capability to edit any style (i.e. There are a few minor differences between the Prestige and the Liberty. Are they offering a warranty? There have been several elite models after the Prestige namely Imperial, Sterling, Patriot and the most current model the Liberty. The price your dealer is asking is a little high. There are LOTS of organs available on Ebay at great prices - all depends on how close you are to the seller and whether you want to pay shipping costs or pick it up yourself. I have been following Lowrey organ prices on Ebay for years. It all depends on what you are looking for. I traded 3 of them for the Prestige and paid only slightly more than what your dealer is asking. Previous to that I had purchased 4 used Lowreys on Ebay. Sadly, most of those things are more watching someone else than self-participation.I currently have a Prestige, as seen in my avatar - bought it new in 2012 from a dealer in MI. Other factors were the number of added things that people could do in their leisure time.
instead of the traditional piano and organ. Many non-liturgical and even some liturgical churches were focusing on guitar, keyboard, bass, drum, etc. At the same time, the rise of "contemporary" church music very significantly affected the sales of curch organs. The companies like Lowrey, Yamaha, Baldwin, even Hammond Suzuki all featured instruments that the primarily older home players could not play, and the learning curve was high enough that they were largely rejected. In a couple of years, what had provided a good livlihood for years dropped to the point that I left the field and went into computers. What should have resulted in extra features resulted in major changes to the interfaces - the instruments no longer were controlled like their predecessors. By the late 80's and early 90's - the major companies had started using microprocessors in their designs. I serviced electronic musical instruments for close to 30 years.