Recently Allen Organ in Macungie Pennsylvania posted a few videos how they assemble their instruments. I've embedded two of them here. The reason I did is because I not only fully support local companies, but encourage people to buy American whenever possible.
It's been many decades since I once worked at Allen Organ right after high school in the 'final inspections' department. A few impressions I left with were the following. (1) Although the company isn't the highest payer it was a company that maintained the highest skilled employees around. (2) They were patient and took whatever time was necessary to fully train employees. (3) The same applied to the organs. Not a single one left that plant (no matter long it took) until every single one left without a scratch or single note was left out of order. (4) When I was employed we did several expensive special orders for well known celebrities who they've kept in confidence. (5) A lot of what they taught me about integrity, doing things right and not compromising has stuck with me for years. Not bad for a kid just out of high school who they've risked giving a chance to learn these values.
I'm thrilled to see (by these videos) much of those same values and local opportunities still remain today. Anyone looking into purchasing one of these instruments will be hard pressed to find the same quality of genuine hardwood cabinetry still being used today along with extremely well designed electronics inside.
One more thing I want to add. I can't speak to today's employees, but when I worked there I never met a finer group of people. These were great times for me. Some hosted picnics for each and other. A group of us also went outside working hours together for bowling and other activities. My second checker overseeing me belonged to the Allentown band. So many memories. A kid couldn't ask better for his first job. I'm very pleased to see after all these years Allen Organ is still thriving and remaining an important part in this Lehigh Valley industry.
When did you work there? I worked there at end of my senior year from Votech,cabinetmaking, and worked in various depts, speaker, even working with Mussy, and Grant delivering and installing. Back in 81-85
ReplyDeleteIt would have been around 1966-1969, right after they converted from tubes to transistors. Bob Fahy worked on gyros. Hoppy & Billy did final inspection cabinet touch ups. Randy Kriebel was my boss. Terry, Harry, Tom and I did everything from the model T12's down.
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