Tuning a Hammond Organ??

[jmather]

Hello out there. I recently aquired an old Hammond organ. The thing is great, but it's out of tune. It's perfectly in tune with itself, but it's almost a 1/2 step flat...how do measure, cents?? Anyway, any idea if you can adjust the tuning on these things? I took the back cover off and looked around quite a bit, found little blue dials all over the place. They seems to adjust certain volumes, but none seemed to affect the tuning. any input would be great!thanksJustin

[steveha2865]

I would first Google "Hammond organ tuning" and see what pops up. There are a lot of sites on the net that cover the Hammond organ.Also, I once played a gig on a small cruise boat that circled the San Francisco bay. It had twin diesel engines that (appeared to be) powering the generator. Everytime the boat turned, a manuver where one engine is slowed down and the other is sped up, my B-3 would drop a quarter tone. It was the only time that my Hammond acted that way. I assume that it was due to the line voltage sagging during the turns. You should have seen the panicked look on the guitar player's face whenever this occured!

[jmather]

thanks Steve - I googled it and found very little. I think it may be the voltage thing. Anyway, I can always just tune to it...

[sgs4u]

sucks having to tune to it...What MODEL of hammond is it?Quote:thanks Steve - I googled it and found very little. I think it may be the voltage thing. Anyway, I can always just tune to it...

[mazz]

I've never done it but an old trick to do pitch bends on a Hammond was to turn it off and then turn it back on immediately. You'll get a little dip in pitch because the motors that spin the tone wheels turn off for a second or so and then spin back up.Chances are the power supply that controls the motors that spin the tone wheels is weak or is not putting out the correct frequency.WARNING: These things use tubes for amplifiers, etc. and the voltages that keep tubes warm in these old circuits run at about 450V which will kill you dead really fast. Unless you know what you're doing, don't mess with this thing when it's on!!!! There's still people out there that work on these things so get a qualified person to work on this unless you've got experience working on high voltage tube circuits.Be safe,Mazz

[ernstinen]

Quote:I've never done it but an old trick to do pitch bends on a Hammond was to turn it off and then turn it back on immediately. You'll get a little dip in pitch because the motors that spin the tone wheels turn off for a second or so and then spin back up.I've done that trick --- it sounds pretty cool!When I was in high school, my band opened up for a #1 act from Chicago (can't remember their name --- they were probably a one-hit wonder). Since we didn't have time to set up our own gear, I played their B3. It was cool, EXCEPT that I was playing left-hand bass ala Ray Manzarek. This organ had black and white keys at the bottom of the lower keyboard, opposite of the norm. What I didn't know is they turned off the stops or the keyboard or something. If I got too low on the keyboard, I would hit these keys and completely turn off the lower keyboard! The bass would disappear. The headlining band got a good laugh at watching me totally screw up. I wasn't very happy with my performance! Ern

[jmather]

Steve - I don't know what model, there's no writing anywhere on it. All it says is...Hammond. Helpful huh? I have a feeling it's a low end, living room type organ. It has the built in speaker and also a built in Leslie, which is pretty cool. Though both speakers sound like crap and vibrate the wood and other parts of the organ - but i did some simple wiring and bypassed the speaker to a nice JBL. Now I can move the speaker around the room or isolate it to get a nice clean sound. Mazz - thanks for the SHOCKING tip. I should probably stop feeling around back there while it's on. justin

[sgs4u]

Does it have any coloured plastic switches on it? Does it hve some reverse color keys on the bottom manual? Are their 2 keyboards(manuals, they're called)?And are both of the manuals the same shape, or are they offset?Does it have full length foot pedals, or only an octave or 2?Does it look like this beauty? aah, jes look at at. You can here the sustain already!Quote:Steve - I don't know what model, there's no writing anywhere on it. All it says is...Hammond. Helpful huh? I have a feeling it's a low end, living room type organ. It has the built in speaker and also a built in Leslie, which is pretty cool. Though both speakers sound like crap and vibrate the wood and other parts of the organ - but i did some simple wiring and bypassed the speaker to a nice JBL. Now I can move the speaker around the room or isolate it to get a nice clean sound. Mazz - thanks for the SHOCKING tip. I should probably stop feeling around back there while it's on. justin

[mazz]

Quote:Mazz - thanks for the SHOCKING tip. I should probably stop feeling around back there while it's on. justinMake sure it's unplugged too! The input to the power supply from the power cord is still hot if it's plugged in. I work around power from 24VDC up to 480VAC (Yikes!!) at my day job and so I'm hyper aware of the dangers, even normal household current is dangerous.Don't play your electric guitar in the shower!! Mazz

[jmather]

Thanks Mazz! Steve - check it out - two manuels, offset, oh yeah, lots of colored switches...let's see upper organ has Tibia, String, Diapason, Horn. Lower has Cello, acordion harpiscord, piano, banjo. Most of these don't sound too good. I like the Tibias, and you can switch all three of them on and get three octaves which is pretty cool.The foot pedals - one octaveIt has "Auto-Vari Rhythm" Yee Haa!!AND, if that's not enough, it has the SS1 Sound Simulator, this is why I got it. Kidding. All in all she's a beaut, she's just out of tune...and no, she looks nothing, I mean NOTHING like that one!!