[sdiy] The value of a Lowery "Piano Organ"... P'organ?

[anthony]

Hi all,

There's a nice gentleman who runs a little antiques/odds&ends store close to 
where I live. He has this Lowery Piano-organ that he won't sell yet because 
he's trying to research how much it's worth. I guess he had a guy come work 
on it, because  he told me the thing has 75 tubes in it. And a whole piano 
to boot! It doesn't look like it has very many features and there aren't 
many stops.

I gave him my off-the-cuff estimate that it would cost more to move it than 
it was worth. That is if you care about the piano part. Piano moving is 
serious business and if you're a serious piano owner (like me), you'll do 
the right thing and pay real piano movers to move it - even if it's a 
relatively crappy spinet.

But me, I don't care about the piano part in this thing much, except maybe 
to strap the sustain pedal down and make a "piano reverb" for it. (Almost 
like the VST plug-in I have that emulates one. Of course the real thing is a 
little less versatile, but what the hay...). If I bought it, I'd take it 
apart and take it home it pieces. I can see not being very interested in 
restoring a piece like this. The piano sounds like it hasn't been tuned 
since 1972. It just seems like I'd have more fun with the oscillator & amp 
guts.

But this proprietor seems to think it might have some collector value. I 
couldn't get close enough to any part that might show a model number. But it 
looks like an old spinet piano with some switches (not very many) above the 
keyboard. There may have been other switches that I may have overlooked, but 
I don't think so. Other Lowery organs may have some collector value, but I 
think this thing is close to built-in-tape-recorder territory.

Still, there's those 75 tubes. I'd guess it's pretty old.

But I don't want to be the one to give him the low value report. I wish he'd 
just take my low-ball offer, because this guy could use the space. He tried 
to pawn off a console stereo unit to me: A slide-out Fisher Philharmonic 
receiver with a BSR turntable built-in on top. "It's a tube unit," he says. 
I have him drag it out to look at the tube chart on back because this thing 
was too small to be a tube unit. I could just tell. Well there WAS a chart 
on back but it just showed the location of the transformers, some caps and 
the TRANSISTORS. (Weird, but helpful...) I told him it was a solid state 
unit even before he drug it out, but he was certain. He said he'd just 
donate it to Goodwill then. Some shmoe will get a good stereo that they 
won't even appreciate. It was tempting, but I don't have room for a console 
that big. The speakers in it might have been worth it, but the damping 
factor would probably have been all wrong for the tube amps I make. I dunno. 
I do keep my eyes peeled for consoles though because people throw them out 
all the time, not knowing the treasures that lie underneath. I still wanna 
know what happened to my Gramma's stereo...

But I digress... (what else is new?)

Anybody have a guess? An independent guestimate appraisal? Looking up Lowery 
Piano Organs on the web yielded up SQUAT. Or dweebs who just happened to be 
named Lowery.

Cheers,
Anthony