Clarion
New member
Clarion, You said you had an organ from Classic Organ. How was their pricing for building either a digital or pipe organ by them, when compared to an out-of-the-box type of organs from, say, Phoenix? I recently read about the Classic Organ Works technology. Supposedly they would use their inventions to build their organs. They look quite impressive, talking about optical keyboards and ingenious computers. Are their works quite widely installed in Canada? Felix
Felix,
I bought my Classic Organ way back in 1984! :smirk: At that time CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Co. used to have A real neat two hour daily classical music progam, and since the host was an organ fan, every Thursday was devoted to organ music. :clap: Then one day he announced that he was going to do something different; he was going to feature an electronic organ recorded at St. Mark's in Ottawa. After hearing that program performed on a Classic Organ, I figured: I really have to get one of those! It sounded really wonderful compared to my horrible Hammond H100!
So I got one! Classic was a new company then, and my instrument was Opus 53; pretty much the last of their analog organs.
When you refer to out-of-the-box type of organs from, say, Phoenix?; then you have not been listening!
1. Phoenix does not have any such thing as out-out-the-box type of organs!;
2. EACH and EVERY Phoenix is custom built to exacting customer specifications.
3. Each and every Phoenix installation is individually voiced to perfection accomplished organists who actually know what they are doing.
I think that the the primary differentiation between the two companies, is that:
1. Phoenix organs are designed and built primarily by organists, who also electronic engineers; whereas
2. Classic organs are built by electronic engineers who are not organists!
And the difference is readily evident.
I really don't consider Classic Organ as remotely significant as an organ builder. Their heyday has long passed, and they are now pretty much reduced to selling Hauptwerk parts and off-the-shelf-organs like Hammond-Suzuki and Ahlborn-Galanti who went bankrupt a year ago. 'Course they don't mentiion that on their website.
Although a couple years ago, when I attempted to buy a a new organ from them as a first-choice vendor; not realizing how far they has descend from the last time I dealt with them. They were totally hopeless to deal with. :nut: Unless I actually came into their showroom, they weren't prepared to give me the time of day. They never responded to my query as to how they deal with potential customers from Texas! So . . . all in all, a very inept and badly run organanization which has a predictably limited future.
When you ask: Are their works quite widely installed in Canada? Nope! Take a look at their non-existent list of recent installations; and then compare it to the North American installation list:
http://phoenixorgans.com/featuredInstallations.php
As for price comparisons: Phoenix prices for far superor custom organs, beat out the prices for off-the-shelf Classic Ahlborn-Galanti bankrupt stock by an enormously wide margin! :clap:
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