Lowry Organo -for parts?

[Phil_S]

On the build of that organ, at first glance I thought it was quite a well executed build. I've been taking it apart, a little bit at a time and my first impression is pretty well confirmed.

The old school waxed thread ties on the wire bundles were truly a work of art. I felt really bad cutting them, but it couldn't be avoided. This is a lost art. I'm must have harvested at least 100' of wire. Lengths run from 4" to 4'. Most of it can and will be recycled in future projects. The colors, especially on the white with stripes, are marvelous.

The placement of wire in each of the modules, the way it was fanned out, the lead dress -- that was also a work of art.

The placement of components, so uniform in orientation, use of naked buss wire, etc., was well done.

The only criticism I might level, and I'm not sure I'm right about it, is that some components had what seemed to be an excessive amount of solder.

I've got 4 of the 12 tone modules stripped. It will probably be months until I finish the job. It is a painfully slow process. I do it when I feel agitated or bored. It takes my mind off of things. Honestly, it's not worth the effort, except for reasons I don't fully comprehend, it seems to hold some entertainment value for me.

I'm going to be left with empty module boards, with nice turrets and useable tube sockets. I will figure out how to insert one of these into an amp build at some point. The noval sockets are cheap wafer sockets, but they are in good condition. The 7-pin sockets (1 per board) are nice black phenolic (?).

The PA is still intact. Not sure what I'll do with it, so I'm leaving as is until I have a plan.

[bcmatt]

Hey, I had a 1962 Lowrey Festival for about 6 months. Crazy, with about 100 tubes in it. It worked great though, so I could not bring myself to steal anything from it before I sold it for $250 to a guy that was really into playing different vintage organs.
I am blown away by the workmanship that went into these things and it is sad that they are probably worth more in parts than what you could get for a perfectly good working one. This particular one was the same Garth Hudson used with The Band and actually had a little gain switch down on the amp as a result of his preferences.
Anyways, I didn't have the space at the time, even if I did want to tear it apart. Makes me wonder what all was in it. I see it had an old Alnico Jensen. That might have been nice in a Tweed Deluxe build... Anyways, I feel I did my good deed keeping it alive and all intact. I actually invested about $4 into it to replace a tube on the F# note generator. Since I got it for free, I guess I'm not so noble seeing as I made $246 off of it. That's my payment for not defiling it I guess.
No judgement on you though; yours was likely not to be running again.

Hmm, maybe I should have at least tried out those EL84s in my Liverpool...