small Willis Pipe Organ on ebay

[dragonser]

Hi,
I just noticed that there is a small Pipe Organ on ebay with a detached console. Item number: 270686720430 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270686720430
located in I think Northwood Middlesex.

if only I had the space, time and money [ and skill to move it ]

regards Peter B

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

It looks like http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D03552 in which case it's one extended rank, plus 3 other stops on the manual (unless they're extended as well - but NPOR says not).  Shouldn't be too big an instrument (it doesn't look that large from the picture on e-bay.

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

It must be a gentle principal rank together with a gedekt for that specification . . . The "Dulciana" added to the Gedakt will give the Open type of sound.

Best wishes

David P

[NonPlayingAnorak]

You really, REALLY don't want to know. The Willis firm, post-war, was reduced to a bunch of mostly-incompetent charlatans. They didn't build a single good organ, and those they rebuilt they wrecked, and those they overhauled/restored are now only playable if since restored again. It was only when David Wyld took over the firm that they started to drag themselves right up from the bottom, and now rival Mander and Harrison for credibility and competitiveness.

As for this thing? Leave it. Bin it. Let it be destroyed. FINE.

[David Pinnegar]

As for this thing? Leave it. Bin it. Let it be destroyed. FINE.

Far from it, for a house organ, a practice instrument it provides a usefully versatile base which, being electric action in the first place could easily be adapted to give a MIDI output and provide opportunities for some modest hybridisation to good effect. It's possibly a great instrument for enthusiastic adaptation.

I note it hasn't sold - I'd have thought it £500 worth rather than £1500 . . .

On another post, Tony remarked:

The Walker "Positive" extension jobs - along with similar instruments by Compton and a few other firms really filled the market segment of the mid-range digitals these days - a basic instrument where space & finance are limited - and they last a heck of a lot longer than any electronic!

Best wishes

David p

[NonPlayingAnorak]

Well, I know a 3-rank Walker Positive, yeah it's lasted better than the average toaster, but it has about as much musical quality or ability to stir enthusiasm as a cold bowl of gruel. I've encountered much better toasters. These post-war Willises ain't much better, either - and, though my own experience of a 60s Willis (I think a rebuild of something older) was a rather bigger job, it was basically all bland choruses and screaming upperwork. The only good thing about it were the reeds - but then Matthew Copley was responsible for those, and I'm sure we all know what a superb voicer he is.