1962 A-102

[Guest]

I just went and picked up an A-102 which dates to 1962 I believe per the S/N. I was pretty disappointed to find it outfitted with ratchet drawbars, I thought these were only on early Hammonds?? I have ratchets on my early 50's C-2 and was really hoping for smooth. But on an up note $500 for a living room kept A-102 owned by a little old lady aint too bad of a day, and we didn't even break a front leg!!

[dwagar]

Re: 1962 A-102

$500? wow, you scored. Nice find.

[geoelectro]

Re: 1962 A-102



No A-100's were made with ratchet drawbars. Smooth drawbars came out prior to the B-3/C-3 release in 1955. Some late model C-2/B-2 have smooth drawbars. A-100's came out in 1959, well after the smooth drawbar was the norm.</p>

Looks like you do not have original parts in there.</p>

Geoelectro
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[toasterDude]

Re: 1962 A-102

[quote user="geoelectro"]


No A-100's were made with ratchet drawbars. [...]</P>


Looks like you do not have original parts in there.
</P>


[/quote]</P>


That's what I was going to say at first, too... my first thought was that somebody had done an A102 - BV swap to yield a Franken-B3; then the leftover BV parts would've gone into the A102 case. A102s are probably the prime candidate for this procedure, since the curvy French Provincial case is the most fragile and unsuited for gigging anyway.But thenI re-read the original post and WMDF said it was a living-room/little-old-lady situation - which would make it very unlikely to be a swapper organ.</P>


The way to tell will be: does it have the percussion tabs at the upper right? Obviously if it's original, it will; if it's a swap from a B2, it won't; if it's a swap from a BV or BC it won't have percussion or vibrato select tabs.</P>


What I actually suspect is: you're just expecting smooth drawbars to be smoother than they really are! Even with the smooth ones, there's still a little click at each increment. I can't remember exactly since it's been over a year since I owned a CV, but as I recall the clicking is quite prominent on those. And actually IIRC, the amplitude change isn't continuous... that is to say, on my A100 you can hold down a chord and pull drawbars out, and it'll give a gradual crescendo. But (again IIRC) on like a CV with ratchet drawbars, the sound cuts out in between settings. Can anybody with a pre-3 series confirm this? anyway hope this helps-</P>


Scott</P>

[Model E & Me]

Re: 1962 A-102



[quote user="toasterDude"]…I can't remember exactly since it's been over a year since I owned a CV, but as I recall the clicking is quite prominent on those. And actually IIRC, the amplitude change isn't continuous... that is to say, on my A100 you can hold down a chord and pull drawbars out, and it'll give a gradual crescendo. But (again IIRC) on like a CV with ratchet drawbars, the sound cuts out in between settings. Can anybody with a pre-3 series confirm this?[/quote]</P>


The clicking is quite noticeable on the earlier consoles - by sound and by touch - and there is a slight dead spot between each increment.</P>


The actionon later consoles is gradual with no dead spots, but not exactly continuous. The smooth action was obtained by adding a second contact on the drawbar sliders, so that one contact or the other is always in contact with a busbar (there was no ratchet action per se, the sound and feel was caused by the drawbar contact riding up onto the busbar or down into the valley between). The two contacts are connected by a resistance so that adjacent busbars are never shorted out, but if you have sensitive hearing you can deect the loudness changes as the drawbars are pulled out.</P>

[Guest]

Re: 1962 A-102

This sure is strange. The organ does have the perc switches on the upper right just like it's supposed to. I am 100% certain it's an original "lil' old lady organ" because as I was loading it up and the family was going through the stuff in the bench they found the original invoice/regisration whatever that had the dads name on it and they got all choked up and kept it. The drawbars are definately ratchet, very positive clicks, it's even more noticeable than my ratcher bar equipped C-2. I am going to dig deeper tonight and see what I can see in there. They are VERY noisy and dirty too, I'm going to blast them with deoxit to see if that helps.

[redoctoberff]

Re: 1962 A-102

I think the important question is, are there silences between the numbers? That seems to be the one really distinctive difference. I can't really be doubting you as a) you have a C2 with ratchets and b) you have the organ in front of you, but it seems likely to me the noise might just be from dirt--or maybe the contact thats supposed to be connected at all times is loose or dirty? As I was checking out my M for the first time my first thought was that the drawbars definitely weren't "smooth"--before I remembered smooth drawbars were first put on the spinets because they didn't have presets and couldn't otherwise be "smoothly" changed.

[Guest]

Re: 1962 A-102

Yep, they click and cut out at each notch. I looked closer last night and they are definately 100% certain ratchets drawbars, I can see the notches on the bottom of the bars and when you slide them in and out it sounds like...well...a big loud ratchet, very very strange indeed. I aslo see zero evidence of anybody ever being in there but who knows I guess? The only people who may know are decaesed so I guess it will remain a mystery.

[toasterDude]

Re: 1962 A-102



Boy that's weird! Maybe there was a problem with the drawbar assembly at some point, and a service man swapped in a set of ratchet drawbars he happened to have on hand? But you're right, you'd think there would be some trace that somebody had been in there before.</P>


I assume all four sets are like that? (well, five I guess, if you count the two pedal DBs)</P>


Old Hammonds are kinda like baseball... no matter how many years you've been a fan, every year you still see something you've never seen before. That's part of the fun after all! [:)]</P>


Scott</P>

[bootchman]

Re: 1962 A-102

On older ratchet models I have played, the ratchet drawbars were like solid chrome finish. They did have definite clicks and dead spots, as already stated. The drawbars on both the B3 and A-102 I have now have a brushed aluminum border on each side of a black field with brushed aluminum numbers.

Side note, when I was 12, my first organ lessons were on a Model A - serial number in the 40's (with ratchet drawbars). About 20 years ago, the church where I grew up replaced the "dead" model A and 122 Leslie for a new Rodgers. 2 weeks ago I was called upon to work on a a piano in a church downstate, and guess what -- I got to play the old model A that I started on (verified the instrument with the music store). Amazing -- it wasn't DEAD at all!

[Model E & Me]

Re: 1962 A-102



The drawbars on my Model E, plus the Ds and BVs I have played, all have white numerals on a black background with metallic edges, and they were all "ratchet". As I indicated in an earlier post, they didn't have ratchets per se, and I am at a losstounderstand the comment "I can see the notches on the bottom of the bars" since the bars themselves on the ones I am familiar with were smooth.</P>