AboutThomas Britanyak Expertise I am an organ/piano technician who has been actively involved with the design, building, repair, maintenance and installation of organs and pianos for 35 years. I began as a keyboard instrument apprentice and hold degrees in music and electronics.
If you need a piano's date of manufacture, please go to http://www.pianoexchange.com/howold.htm or http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/pianoage.html
I am happy to answer musical or technical questions, however, I CANNOT offer appraisals on pianos or organs. Please do not ask what an instrument is worth. For this service please contact an experienced local appraiser or try the following links:
https://mmm1100.verio-web.com/blueb1/appraisal.html or http://www.57piano.com/questions.htm
Question My grandmother recently passed away and we are now in the process of liquidating her estate. She owned a Thomas Trianon Organ, and we have no idea of the value of this item or even how to find out what the value is. It's quite large, in excellent condition, and is made from ornately carved dark wood. It comes with a bench, but that will need to be redone. Can you reccomend a person in the State of Washington who might be able to assist us? Thank you.
Answer Hello! Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, organs are not like pianos when it comes to appraisals. For the most part, a piano has one function and similar mechanics to do the job. Electronic organs on the other hand have aggressive age factors affecting them, unique electronic technologies that disappear with the manufacturer and all kinds of shapes, sizes, options and features that make them either more or less desirable. Pricing this seemingly endless array of variables becomes a daunting task and, of course, we assume everything still works perfectly which is not so often the case with a 30+ year old instrument. Because of proprietary parts that were used to build many of these instruments, the process of locating replacement parts can become a formidable task at times.
Your 1972, Model 606 instrument is unusual because it features three nonstandard keyboards and 13 pedals. Even though the instrument is large, it still could be placed in the category of a spinet, albeit a very large spinet. Therefore it is impossible for me to suggest a value because I have only seen three in the past 20 years. One was given away, another was sold for $500 and the other unknown.
I suggest perusing various websites for similar instruments such as in:
to see what similar instruments are selling for either by dealers or private parties. If the field of organs wasn't so esoteric, appraisals would be as straight forward as pianos.
An alternative is to list the organ for, say, $1500 and see if it sells (assuming it is in perfect working order and you are OK with this price and your location typically sees these kinds of purchases). If not, then try dropping the price or waiting for a few weeks to try again. The key is to be advertising a product at the same time someone has chosen to search for that very product.
