I am looking for a second hand practice organ (full radial pedal board, 2 manuals) for my son. Can anyone suggest any dealers etc in our area. We live in Suffolk.

Many thanks.

I don't know about your area, but there is a fellow who trades as Compton Organs who renovates instruments and sells them on.

Also, I understand that Makin Organs also often has several secondhand instruments on sale. And I believe that Viscount Organs sometimes do as well.

Googling any of the above should give you contact details.

It's worth remembering that often electronic manufacturers take in older organs in part-exchange for newer organs, and are happy to "relieve" themselves of these at a reasonable price, so it's worth enquiring.

Hope you're successful.

Here are some examples:

http://www.wyvernorgans.co.uk/seconds/index.asp
http://www.viscountorgans.net/preowned.htm
(this one includes a real two manual pipe organ)
http://www.allenorgans.webserverworld.co.u...re-owned-organs

Abinger organs, who are independent resellers near Guildford, also sell second hand ones. We bought one from there when the pipe organ was out of action for a year as it was cheaper than hiring.

PS: You would be surprised at what you might find on ebay. There are usually all sorts of bits and pieces under organs and they can take some finding, but if you rearrange the list in price order, highest first, the real organs usually appear at the top (along with a rather nice hammond B5 recently!)

I think I'd be tempted to negotiate.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I were in the market for two electronic instruments. We viewed several before we found models with which we were happy.

Ultimately, my friend decided on an organ we saw at a local dealer, and I decided on a three manual version of a two manual instrument which we saw at the local dealer's, but which he didn't stock. However, the manufacturer could supply that instrument, and also had one which was an ex-demo. So, my friend and I talked with the supplier and the local dealer and made them an offer considerably less than they had been asking for the new organ for my friend and for the ex-demo one for me. With a bit of negotiation, they agreed to our offer.

My friend received the organ that he saw at the local dealer's. I received not the ex-demo one, but a brand new version of the instrument I wanted at about £4,000 less than the usual price.

I understand that there is a large profit margin on electronic organs (at least in this country), and it is obviously well worth negotiating.

I almost bought an organ over eBay a couple of years ago, but was eventually persuaded not to by my family...

Absolutely. When one reflects that to change a 'standard' spec for something else can cost £500/stop, consider what you are actually paying for: (a) a different name on a stop knob and (b) a different set of sample/control data to be loaded into some memory somewhere. Hard to see the value there when it's effectively just a bunch of 0s and 1s....

Many thanks for all of you advice. I was very pleased with the links to some dealers.

I too have looked on ebay but am a little nervous as digital instruments can be hard to put right if there are problems.

Find someone localish who deals in repairs for electronic instruments. They will be able to tell you whether they support the machine you're about to buy and also might have some unnoffical 'off piste' pitfalls to avoid.