Article by: Lee Jones
Buying my first Lowrey at the age of 59 was really an impulse buy, and one I only made back in 2017.
The Organ I decided to buy was the Lowrey Stardust, which was advertised on the Gumtree website. I contacted the seller about making an appointment to come and view/collect the organ. Initially I thought that I would kill two birds with one stone and make just the one journey to view it, and if all was well and as expected, I would pay & take it away at the same time.
It soon became apparent that the actual owner had passed away just 3 months previous, and one of the Daughters was dealing with the task of selling it, as it was no longer wanted. She said could play herself, but did not have any experience with the Lowrey Stardust and with no room in her house, selling was the only option.
After just 2 days of emailing back and fourth, I decided it would probably be better to have a look first to see if it was as good as it looked, and the following day travelled north up the A1M for 100 miles to a place called Spondon in Derby to check it out. I thought it would also be prudent to take some photos of the exit points, doorways etc. and of course testing out the weight.
The weight, well this was something I was not expecting, it was heavy, in fact very heavy !!!, and soon realised this was something that at least four stout men would be required to just lift it, let alone moving it. I told the seller both myself and son would come to collect it and the seller offered that her partner and father in Law would be able to help on the day of the move –
The story of how the move went, can be read here
Well, I was impressed to say the least, and completely overwhelmed by all the buttons, lights and functions, for which I had no previous experience, so it was really like the blind leading the blind.
After approx. an hour of trying out as much of the functionality I could, making sure everything turned on and off and the LED / lights bulbs were all working. I was pleased to leave a deposit of £50 to secure the sale and return home to make all the necessary arrangements to collect it with the final balance payment.
Upon returning home, I needed to make arrangements for a suitable Van to be
hired for the day as my son’s Van may have caused difficulties in lifting it in, so I hired for the day a Ford Luton type of van from our local hire company and made sure that it also had a tail lift, a necessity for something that needed to be lifted above 1 foot in height and weighing in excess of 500lbs ( 227 kilo) . . . . The cost £99.60 for the day (plus fuel) the company i used was Vincent Van Hire in Letchworth
In between the time I was to return , pay and collect the organ, I new I would need to provide some serious means of moving this beast in one piece, I was aware that these UK Organs can be separated into two parts, but as the exit points allowed sufficient room i decided to move it in one piece to save a lot of dismantling of the internal parts.
So some substantial equipment would be required to move it . . . Click Here to read how this was achieved.
Something else I learnt upon returning home was that the previous owner was a well respected person on many of the Organ Forums and on you-tube, his name . . . . . Bill Dickson or Dixon Hawk on Youtube and Dickson363 on Yahoo – here is a link to Bill playing this Lowrey Stardust –
If you are interested in the Lowrey Stardust you can download the brochures from here
Lowrey Stardust SU530 – Wide Brochure
Lowrey Stardust SU530 – Owners Manual
Lowrey Stardust SU530 – Service Manual