Ebay rarities

[seamaster]

How about a thread for interesting or special organs we spot, to balance the awful ones in the "bargains" (!) thread?

Spotted this today — I can't imagine many of these were released into the wild before Wersi went bust for the umpteenth time:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/used-Wersi-Apollo-/320695297652

Not many of these, either — Hammond UK's "Exceed" model, an M44 + Ketron lash-up:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/used-Hammond-Exceed-/320695296418

And how about a rare portable Technics U90 — Technics U90 Pro (relisted):
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Technics-U90-P...-/130516275774

[tobeycat2007]

Hows a bout this for a rarity, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hammond-organ-...item19c5514305 or maybe not, the U90 pro has been reduced considerably in price, but it is just a u90 with cabinets, think buy now price optimistic.
This seems rarity hammond E model, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT looks quite a beast.

[skippy]

First time I've come across a Leslie branded organ.

Skippy

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[andyg]

Well, of course it isn't, but that's the only name on it so the seller used that. It's a typical bit of Italian junk (in fact from the appearance it's probably worse than most) from the 70s. In those days, you could just walk into most of the smaller factories in Ancona and order a container load, and they'd put almost any name on it, so I guess that's what the importer did here. Ian may perhaps have come across it. Wizard was a name well used by Gem/Galanti but this doesn't look like one of theirs.

[skippy]

Aaaha. So they actually put a genuine Leslie unit into this thing to be able to prominently display the well known Leslie logo. So the brand name is "Wizard".

Found another one - sold for EU200????? Unlikely. But then - it's Ireland.
http://www.adverts.ie/keyboards-pian...20-organ/68644
This thing is listed as a GEM/Wizard!

[seamaster]

I'd be astonished if there was a genuine Leslie in there, although there was with some GEM models if memory serves. At that end of the market it's much more likely that the brand was licensed to describe electronic "animation" of the flutes.

[andyg]

No, it would be a real OEM Leslie unit. Many Italian organs had them, Gem, Viscount, Orla, Elka and Farfisa to name a few. Leslie never licensed the name for electronic tremolos (though Hammond Suzuki used the Leslie name on the XH and XT series organs' electronic trem - they owned the name by then!) I can remember getting rapped on the knuckles for calling one of ours an 'electronic leslie'. Those OEM units were dirt-cheap at the time, churned out in their thousands and supplied in kit form to the manufacturers to put their own speaker in. So all it was was basically a motor stack, belt, pulleys, foam rotor, a bit of chipboard and a three piece wire 'bracket' to hold things together.

[tobeycat2007]

Probably why built in leslies sounded so poor, it was load of bits assembled however and stuck in whatever organ. This post seems to gone off topic, anymore ebay rarites, I see someone is asking for £300 for old holiday and calling it "timeless classic", by look of it I'd call it timeless piece of junk.

[andyg]

Staying off-topic for a second, another factor is that many organs didn't put in a side grille for them to speak through, my one T402 included, so the sound was often quite choppy.

On topic, an old Holiday in good nick is not a bad old thing, but £30 might be nearer the mark. It's not a Heritage!

[toasterDude]

Here's a definite Ebay rarity, another Lowrey:



Ebay (U.S.) auction #280672346073

Notice the seller says, "It was apparently made in Florida." (!) I assume that's in reference to the "FL" on the ID plate...