Hello Jim,

Do it the way the original radio did it -- dynamotor. You can still find
them in the back room at a lot of military surplus electronics junk stores.


But then be prepared for some major restoration. The bearings of a lot
of these are nearly shot, mostly from sitting in an attic for decades.
It's like old pond pumps. They run fine for a few weeks and then the
racket increases, some weird noises appear, things get hot and they
seize up.

I restored an old Hammond organ. These generate the tones in a similar
manner. A motor (plus a start motor) and over a hundred pickup coils on
the long secondary shaft. 20 hours of hard work got it going again but
we have accepted the fact that some of the bearings are pretty much over
the hill. So it needs 2-3 starts to coax it to run without that mild
screeching in the background. Getting spare parts from a company that
went out of business 30 years ago just isn't going to happen.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 18:59:56 +0000, Joerg wrote:
Hello Jim,

Do it the way the original radio did it -- dynamotor. You can still find
them in the back room at a lot of military surplus electronics junk stores.

But then be prepared for some major restoration. The bearings of a lot
of these are nearly shot, mostly from sitting in an attic for decades.
It's like old pond pumps. They run fine for a few weeks and then the
racket increases, some weird noises appear, things get hot and they
seize up.

I restored an old Hammond organ. These generate the tones in a similar
manner. A motor (plus a start motor) and over a hundred pickup coils on
the long secondary shaft. 20 hours of hard work got it going again but
we have accepted the fact that some of the bearings are pretty much over
the hill. So it needs 2-3 starts to coax it to run without that mild
screeching in the background. Getting spare parts from a company that
went out of business 30 years ago just isn't going to happen.

So, put the cam thingie on some sort of spindle, with some kind of
depth gauge thingie, (maybe a slide pot and a stick), and map the
disks, and just make the same waveform from ROM?

Good Luck!
Rich

Hello Rich,

I restored an old Hammond organ. These generate the tones in a similar
manner. A motor (plus a start motor) and over a hundred pickup coils on
the long secondary shaft. 20 hours of hard work got it going again but
we have accepted the fact that some of the bearings are pretty much over
the hill. So it needs 2-3 starts to coax it to run without that mild
screeching in the background. Getting spare parts from a company that
went out of business 30 years ago just isn't going to happen.

So, put the cam thingie on some sort of spindle, with some kind of
depth gauge thingie, (maybe a slide pot and a stick), and map the
disks, and just make the same waveform from ROM?


That has been tried many times. Several rather expensive electronic
organs have come out claiming to emulate a Hammond. So far the real
enthusiasts do anything to get their hands on the real thing, knowing
that there will come a day when the last one croaks. IIRC it was Paul
Shaffer (the guy who makes the music at david Letterman's show) who
spent the equivalent of a luxury car to have one restored.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 21:27:31 +0000, Joerg wrote:

Hello Rich,

I restored an old Hammond organ. These generate the tones in a similar
manner. A motor (plus a start motor) and over a hundred pickup coils on
the long secondary shaft. 20 hours of hard work got it going again but
we have accepted the fact that some of the bearings are pretty much over
the hill. So it needs 2-3 starts to coax it to run without that mild
screeching in the background. Getting spare parts from a company that
went out of business 30 years ago just isn't going to happen.

So, put the cam thingie on some sort of spindle, with some kind of
depth gauge thingie, (maybe a slide pot and a stick), and map the
disks, and just make the same waveform from ROM?


That has been tried many times. Several rather expensive electronic
organs have come out claiming to emulate a Hammond. So far the real
enthusiasts do anything to get their hands on the real thing, knowing
that there will come a day when the last one croaks. IIRC it was Paul
Shaffer (the guy who makes the music at david Letterman's show) who
spent the equivalent of a luxury car to have one restored.


Well, tastes vary, but really! Who wants a music box that makes it
sound like you're at a skating rink? ;-P

cheers!
Rich

Hello Rich,

Well, tastes vary, but really! Who wants a music box that makes it
sound like you're at a skating rink? ;-P


Ok, I am not much of an expert on instruments or music in general. But a
Hammond organ can fill a living room with a sound that, with the eyes
closed, you'd think you are sitting in a cathedral. And lots of rock
bands wouldn't use anything else. That is why a lot of Hammonds have
been "sawed in halves" so they can be transported to the next gig. You
could even buy split versions built into professional transport cases.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Joerg wrote:

Hello Rich,

Well, tastes vary, but really! Who wants a music box that makes it
sound like you're at a skating rink? ;-P


Ok, I am not much of an expert on instruments or music in general. But a
Hammond organ can fill a living room with a sound that, with the eyes
closed, you'd think you are sitting in a cathedral. And lots of rock
bands wouldn't use anything else. That is why a lot of Hammonds have
been "sawed in halves" so they can be transported to the next gig. You
could even buy split versions built into professional transport cases.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com


They have a Hammond B3 at my church, with the Leslie speaker. There
is another model Hammond in storage that needs a lot of work. Someone
had it on their screened in porch and the finish is ruined, but it still
plays.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Hello Michael,

They have a Hammond B3 at my church, with the Leslie speaker. There
is another model Hammond in storage that needs a lot of work. Someone
had it on their screened in porch and the finish is ruined, but it still
plays.


Just make sure that the oiling intervals are religiously kept. If the
other one still plays be grateful for that. If it's the same model or
nearly the same keep it. Even if the finish is beyond repair some day
you might be really thankful to be able to scavenge its tone generator
once the TG on the other Hammond goes.

A bad finish is often easy to fix compared to taking the whole machinery
apart. Ours has a superb finish condition but it had been run dry for
more than a decade before it was given to us. So the TG is quite worn :-(

Actually it was so bad that when I was done it gulped almost two cans of
Hammond oil.

Some words of caution: The rectifier tube of the amp in the bottom is
located pretty close to the back and it gets freaking hot. I would take
care that the organ is never placed against a curtain or other flammable
material and that nobody stores any stuff behind it. The power cord on
ours almost crumbled in my hands and when attemting to swap it I
discovered that this instrument did not have a single fuse. So I made a
nice box with fuse and IEC connector.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

"Rich Grise, but drunk" wrote:

Well, tastes vary, but really! Who wants a music box that makes it
sound like you're at a skating rink? ;-P

cheers!
Rich


People like the old Hammond organs like the B3 because the can't go
out of tune. The mechanical tone generator makes sure of that. They
only sound like a skating rink in, get this, A SKATING RINK!

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 01:34:30 +0000, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
"Rich Grise, but drunk" wrote:

Well, tastes vary, but really! Who wants a music box that makes it
sound like you're at a skating rink? ;-P

People like the old Hammond organs like the B3 because the can't go
out of tune. The mechanical tone generator makes sure of that. They
only sound like a skating rink in, get this, A SKATING RINK!

Well, being the insufferabley pedantic researcher that I am, I came
up with a page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_organ

that about a third of the way down, says:
"... Accurate imitation of the Hammond sound with simple electronic
circuitry was difficult, because the subtly-changing phase relationships
between tonewheels could not be easily replicated...."

OK, fair enough. :-)

I guess a piano is even harder - they don't even reproduce well from a
live recording! :-)

Cheers!
Rich

Hello Rich,

that about a third of the way down, says:
"... Accurate imitation of the Hammond sound with simple electronic
circuitry was difficult, because the subtly-changing phase relationships
between tonewheels could not be easily replicated...."

OK, fair enough. :-)


Even with complicated electronics it wasn't. IIRC it was Suzuki-Hammond
which came out with the XK2 and then the XK3. Those are pretty elaborate
synthesizer organs. But according to the experts it just ain't the same.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com