Hammond Model A 1937/8 -- B3 Upgrades and Mechanical Restoration Done!

Standalone · #1 11-11-2008, 05:56 PM

Just came on a van from the shop to me. I rescued it several years ago and had never heard it until today. Upgraded to B3 specs, only the Model A enabled you to get all the pedal 16' tones on the lower manual with two sliders. The thing kicks through the 4x10 1x12 tone cabinet.

And for the tube guys...

SuperDuck · #2 11-11-2008, 06:09 PM

Wow, that is sexified. Outstanding - congratulations!

Chunk-O-Funk · #3 11-11-2008, 06:13 PM

Very cool. I know a keyboardist who would let you have your way with him for that.

When are the Leslie speakers coming?

Standalone · #4 11-11-2008, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chunk-O-Funk

Very cool. I know a keyboardist who would let you have your way with him for that.

When are the Leslie speakers coming?

That's what everyone's asking. Gotta start saving my pennies again. The restoration was paid for purely with gigging money.

kobass · #5 11-11-2008, 06:58 PM

Wow!

You just can't beat a B3. I gigged in a blues band back in the late 70's/early 80's. The keyboard player had one. It was a four/five man lift into the van, but man was it ever worth it.

Standalone · #6 11-11-2008, 07:06 PM

kobass, I tracked down the pedals for it in Boston, as a matter of fact. A little startup workshop in cambridge. Cool guy. I think the website was www.bossorgan.com

kobass · #7 11-11-2008, 07:12 PM

Cool! I don't care what anyone says, you just CAN"T duplicate that sound/tone/feel with "modern" technology.

Congrats and enjoy!

Cheers,
Kevin

**bassybill** · #8 11-12-2008, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kobass

Cool! I don't care what anyone says, you just CAN"T duplicate that sound/tone/feel with "modern" technology.

Maybe not, but I think you can get very, very close nowadays.

That doesn't mean there's no pleasure to be had in owning and playing the original, though. I think that applies to any real classic instrument. Congrats and enjoy, as Kevin said!

Philbiker · #9 11-12-2008, 07:25 AM

That is a work of art. Spinning speaker leslie is a must.

Nice dartboard.

Standalone · #10 11-12-2008, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philbiker

Nice dartboard.

I used to throw a lot more (not all that well, though), back when I hung out at my local pub in Queens. Then I caught this redhead checking me out from the bar while I was playing. Two years and one week later I married her. The days of pub darts are over for me!

Some jokester on another forum I posted that one pic was asking me if I was trying to double out!

That board has that nice sharp metal wire, but only around the bulls. The rest is regular wire. I used to have a board with better bristles, though, but this one is good enough I guess.

Standalone · #11 11-12-2008, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassybill

Maybe not, but I think you can get very, very close nowadays.

That doesn't mean there's no pleasure to be had in owning and playing the original, though. I think that applies to any real classic instrument. Congrats and enjoy, as Kevin said!

Yes. I'm a "feel" player, on any instrument. I don't really have any training on bass or anything else, so I need to imprvise, if that makes sense, off the feel and tone of an instrument, ranther than planning what I will play and making that happen.

Heck, I've never been one for planning. outside of getting a college degree or two, the aquiring of this instrument and the funding its rennovation has been the longest project I've ever undertaken.

There are a lot of things going on in the organ that would be hard to duplicate. For instance, the overtones come in from low to high as you press the key down, subtly changing the attack depending on the speed with which you press the key. Press slowly and only a little, and only the upper harmonic is heard....

It's practically alive. I can't wait to bring it to life even more fully with a Leslie.

There is very little that is "practical" about this instrument. Heck, there is not so much that is "practical" about me, either!

Bard2dbone · #12 11-12-2008, 08:19 AM

Seeing your Hammond makes me depressed. Several years back, a friend who was moving due to divorce offered to let me have her C3 and Leslie just because she knew I would properly appreciate them. I didn't have anywhere to put them and couldn't convince my wife to get rid of stuff to make room for it.

It went to someone else who let it deteriorate rapidly. I'm still depressed thinking about it. Hers had belonged to her families church. Her Granddad had donated it. And when the church got a new organ, they gave the C3 back to her family. It lived in her dad's house till he died. Then it lived at her house. Then she got a divorce and somehow it ended up in an insufficiently weather-proofed shed.

Crap.

Standalone · #13 11-12-2008, 09:03 AM

That's sad, Bard2.

This one's survived over 80 years. I found it in the boiler room of my large urban high school, constructed 1968. I think the story was that it belonged to a church that used the auditorium for services. At some point there was a fire in the auditorium(now all the seats are plastic and there is nothing to soak up the horrible reverberations and standing waves in there-- it's awful.) and the church folded. The inside is pristine. But there is some scratchiti and scrapes and such on the cabinet.

Anyway, it was relegated to the basement some time ago.

I discovered it one day scavenging for classroom furniture.

I went to the principal and offered to run an after school music club for free if I could take it home with me. Kids bring in their guitars and things and we hang out for an hour every week. I also scrounged up turntables and vinyl to play with since rock and roll is not as popular in this community.

I wonder how long it would have lasted. There was an M3 in another storage room that disappeared-- either thrown out or taken w/o permission.

I also have a Baldwin/Hamilton piano that they were throwing out (no budget for tuning/repair in a lot of school systems). I rolled it to my classroom where the music club uses it! The school even threw out three student model wurliTzers my first year here! Just stuck them in the hallway for Maintenance to cart away. I got one of those, too.

buzzbass · #14 11-12-2008, 09:22 AM

way cool, I love the way those things sound.

hbarcat · #15 11-12-2008, 05:44 PM

That's awesome. I never appreciated these genuine tonewheel organs until my father bought a Hammond M3 at an estate sale for $100 because my daughter wanted a keyboard for Christmas. We had it rebuilt for $150 and then she played it off and on for a couple of years until she gave it up to learn the bass.

So I "inherited" it from her (as part of the deal to buy her a Carvin bass) and playing the Hammond sort of brings me back into a different time.

I wish I had one of the B's like yours, rather than my M series. They're getting pretty rare these days and there is no way any company will ever be able to make anything like these again, commercially.

Fab_Superlative · #16 11-12-2008, 08:27 PM

Nice "saves" and great "scores"

There is alot of personal satisfaction,that can be had when mentoring the next generation of musicians.
So bravo! for not only rescuing some great vintage gear...but moreso for helping to preserve the continuance of the musical arts in live performance,through the students that you teach.

Great things from every direction.

PolkaHero · #17 11-12-2008, 09:20 PM

Nice vintage Hammond, one of the originals! Below are a couple pics of a 1961 A-100 that I'm "borrowing" from the church I play at. I practice on it to better develop my foot technique so I can play their digital Allen organ that replaced this one about 20 years ago. I expect they will eventually sell it to me, probably at a decent price. Right now I have it hooked up to a Leslie 825 solid state model that only has the bottom rotor. I hope to get at least a 760 model that has the upper horn rotor for that classic sound.

I also added a 1/4" line out box that I run through my BassPodXT for cool effects like overdrive and phase shifting. It gives me more of that Deep Purple Jon Lord sound without having to run the organ through a Marshall guitar stack, pretty cool!

Standalone · #18 11-12-2008, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fab_Superlative

Nice "saves" and great "scores"

There is alot of personal satisfaction,that can be had when mentoring the next generation of musicians.
So bravo! for not only rescuing some great vintage gear...but moreso for helping to preserve the continuance of the musical arts in live performance,through the students that you teach.

Great things from every direction.

Thanks Fab/Super. The thing is, I'm an English teacher, just running music club for fun and sharing my passion for music in an informal way. My geometry teacher did the same for us at my school back in the day.

I'm most excited for my son, who just turned four and figures tunes out on our piano, with chords! I don't want to push him hard in the direction of music, just to share it with him.

**Thor** · #19 11-12-2008, 09:36 PM

Aaarggg.

I mean: suscribe.

Yeah, i have been one of a 4 man team to move a Hammond to a gig back in the 70's.

The back was good back then. There was a story about one that flew off the truck. Yeah, don't ask.

Standalone · #20 11-12-2008, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PolkaHero

Nice vintage Hammond, one of the originals! Below are a couple pics of a 1961 A-100 that I'm "borrowing" from the church I play at. I practice on it to better develop my foot technique so I can play their digital Allen organ that replaced this one about 20 years ago. I expect they will eventually sell it to me, probably at a decent price. Right now I have it hooked up to a Leslie 825 solid state model that only has the bottom rotor. I hope to get at least a 760 model that has the upper horn rotor for that classic sound.

I also added a 1/4" line out box that I run through my BassPodXT for cool effects like overdrive and phase shifting. It gives me more of that Deep Purple Jon Lord sound without having to run the organ through a Marshall guitar stack, pretty cool!

Very nice! I discovered this organ with a random Allen (I think) pedalboard. Weird!

I ordered a line out with mine, but either they aren't used to doing it with an A or my amp took too many hours to work on, so they skipped it to keep from going over their estimate. I was really hoping for a send/return that would allow me to run effects through the tone cabinet!