Hammond Organ for $75?

[mistermullens]

I don't know anything about Hammonds except they sound great. There is a non working one here in Atlanta if anyone is interested. Includes a Leslie Speaker, but he says its not a Rotary. Maybe someone here could fix it and get a great deal. Not affiliated.

Hammond on Craigslist

[TheGoodTexan]

When I was a kid, my church had an old Hammond organ that sat in the back of the sanctuary, in a closet for years and years. I asked about it once when I was about 12, and was told that it no longer worked.

I went and looked at it, and then asked if I could have it. It was given to me.

I have no idea what model it was.

I robbed all the tubes out of it, and converted the cabinet into a desk. There must have been 30 tubes in it.

There were also two speaker cabinets that were given to me. One was a rotating speaker (drum), the other was not. Each cabinet had a built in Altec amplifier, and one of them had an Altec stereo preamp. All of them were tube. I ripped all that out and played my jam box through the speakers.

All of the left over debris stayed in a storge shed behind my parents' house for years, till once day it dawn on me what some of that stuff was.... So I called my mom about it..."We threw all that stuff away years ago."

No telling what I destroyed.

[Tim Armstrong]

There are guys who fix up old Hammonds, they're VERY much a mechanical device and require service. They're also generally heavy as small automobiles!

Leslie speakers all rotate afaik, the Hammond Tone Cabinet speakers don't.

Here's the thing: unless you're really, really into Hammond organs (and that's certainly a very cool thing), there are a lot of cheap, very lightweight, toneful modern keyboards out there that'll take care of your keyboard needs.

Cheers, Tim

[BradKM]

Not all Hammonds are holy grails.

I've ripped apart two for speakers and parts in recent years, and have parts out of a third that I grabbed of the pile at the local recycling center.

The first was an S6 Chord organ that I paid $20 for. It yielded a bounty of tubes, two 10" Rola speakers, and a bunch of cool Bakelite knobs.

The speakers are now in a cab I use all the time.

The second was an early 70's unit with a very cheesy built in drum machine and cassette tape player. It was taking up room in my church's fellowship hall and they asked me to haul it away.

It was very sick, and a repairman had told them it wasn't fixable.

I pulled two 12" speakers (Rolas again) and a funky Leslie tremolo unit that consists of an 8" speaker firing into a rotating foam drum with a wedge shaped cutout.

I'm planning on building a cab for those 12"s this summer.

A week later I grabbed a second trem unit at the recycling center. The guy that was throwing it out was still there. He'd busted the rest of the organ up with an ax so he could fit it in his car.

At some point I'm going to build a cabinet for one of the trem units, but I'm betting it will be a novelty and not a really useful tone tool.

I felt bad about destroying the first organ, and only did so after researching a bit and finding out that model wasn't very valuable and was virtually impossible to play.

I didn't sweat the second. It was definitely dying, and was obviously a very basic budget model.

[casterway]

Has anyone ever built a tremolo unit for guitar out of a Leslie, or Baldwin rotating speaker? I have 2 that I can pick up from a local thrift store for $30 each.

[Tony Dz]

Originally Posted by BradKM

I pulled two 12" speakers (Rolas again) and a funky Leslie tremolo unit that consists of an 8" speaker firing into a rotating foam drum with a wedge shaped cutout.


At some point I'm going to build a cabinet for one of the trem units, but I'm betting it will be a novelty and not a really useful tone tool.

That foam drum and motor is exactly what's inside of a Vibratone cabinet, except Fender used a 10" speaker. It seemed to work pretty well for SRV. I pullled one from a Thomas organ and plan to build a cab for it.


http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/vibratone/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CF5mqU0NEc

[teleman65]

You'll see lots of Hammonds given away for nothing. Some models just don't the mojo that a B3, C3, A100 etc have

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by casterway

Has anyone ever built a tremolo unit for guitar out of a Leslie, or Baldwin rotating speaker? I have 2 that I can pick up from a local thrift store for $30 each.

GRAB THEM!!!!

My guitarist friend went on a Leslie kick recently, learning how they work and how to build them. He finally got parts for one, less the speaker, and got it working.

It's an AMAZING guitar sound. Very subtle and very gorgeous, and nothing like any pedal you've ever heard.

[casterway]

Originally Posted by beep.click

GRAB THEM!!!!

My guitarist friend went on a Leslie kick recently, learning how they work and how to build them. He finally got parts for one, less the speaker, and got it working.

It's an AMAZING guitar sound. Very subtle and very gorgeous, and nothing like any pedal you've ever heard.

Cool. That's what I thought. They seem to be parting out organs that get donated there. I have seen another speaker in the past there. Are there any wiring resources out there?

How do you use them once done? In an effects look? Do you switch them on and off with a foot pedal?

[BradKM]

That foam drum and motor is exactly what's inside of a Vibratone cabinet, except Fender used a 10" speaker. It seemed to work pretty well for SRV. I pullled one from a Thomas organ and plan to build a cab for it.

They're similar, but the set-up is different. I'm going to have a lot of wiring to figure out. I'm thinking about a rheostat to control the speed of the motor, but I'm also worried about noise.

That being said, the online pics I've seen of Vibratones are encouraging me.