Hammond H-395, H-262 and H112

[Gavin Brown]

Hi, I am thinking about getting a Hammond H-395 organ along with H-262. I have heard many great things about these organs and also degrading things. Experienced repairman told me that both of these organ are great and have little problems. Many technicians often get confused in the reliability of the organ because of the early model H-100's that gave problems. A friend of mine owns a Hammond H-262 with new 971 leslie speaker at his church. It sounds amazing and he said that they have had it for the last 13 years with no major problems. He said that the only major repair was the leslie model 122 speaker that needed replacing and that's why they got the 971. The 971 brings out the nuances of the organ and in many gospel, Jazz , theater and classical organist who have played it, said that it was more then what they expected and can do things and sound better then the Hammond B-3. I told them what some experienced technicians have said that they started trading in their Hammond B-3's for the H-100 series with leslie speakers. One guy told me that B-3 is the king of Hammond organs but from the literature that has been printed, The Hammond B-3 is a home organ first and was intented for that reason. The Hammond C-3 organ is a church organ the H-100 series can be used for both church and home. what are your thoughts.

[Gavin Brown]

Please tell me your thoughts memebers.

[indianajo]

I love mine. I would have been satisfied by a B/C3 but after a 30 year seach found the affordable H182 first, and after I restored it, was thrilled with it. It has way more sounds than a B3, and a commanding sound system, and great selection of vibrato options, plus reverb. With the stereo vibrato, I don't see the point of cluttering up my living room with a leslie that, in non-functioning missing parts condition, would cost three times what my h182 and TC10 cost together.
It uses 186 electrolytic capacitors, whereas a B3 uses six. (there are some in the Leslie or tone cabinet). there are aluminum cans full of slime sealed with rubber, which doesn't last 30 years. I changed 71 of them in my first H100 and am thrilled at the difference between before and after sound. 115 of the caps have to do with the sustain on the upper manual B key, I can do with degraded performance on that. Actually, for some things I like the shorter sustain better. One organ has new sustain caps, and the sustain is too long for what I am doing. It cost me $200 in parts to do the 71 caps i the first organ, but the other ones will be cheaper because I have discovered how to use long life radial lead capacitors. In the first one I used three FP tall cans at $35 each.
The other design fault is the use of copper wirewrap and spring clips on 10 low level connections to the preamps. These were all soldered by service on one organ, and four of them were soldered on my first organ. A cheap, easy repair. I found it possible to replace the e-caps on the peramps without undoing the wirewrap connections.
At 30 years, all mine need a new power cord, and one needed a new motor capacitor (also electrolytic) at 29 years because the wiring harness was burnt before the new cap was installed in 97. Read and heed, these two items are first priority.
H100 under serial #12000? can have some loose tube sockets that need to be shaken occasionally to maintain contact. My #9574 has two of these sockets. My #11211 has reliable tube sockets.
It is possible to rewire an H100 to have 2nd and 3rd harmonic percussion like a B3. 8 wires. Two people on here have done it. It is possible to rewire an H100 to have upper octave foldback of undertones like a B3. 18 wires. Nobody has done it yet that I know of. One person has reshaped the filter inflection points of an H100 to sound more like a B3, keyboard-partners.de . I didn't to that as that cuts off the wonderful high frequencies of the H100 permanently. I use the high frequencies to make a sort of meloditron like the Ventures or Del Shannon, and also use them with the glock percussion to make a simulated electronic (rhodes?) piano sound.
Some very strangely trained organists do glissando with their palms on the B#, and find the "diving board" keys of an H100 objectionable. i do glissandos with my fingernails and think those palm gliss sounds are weird. Brandons reverb spring crash control is more to the point if you like that sort of thing.
H300 has an additional rhythm unit on top. H200 has the preset panel rewired to have sounds less like a theatre organ and more like a funeral parlor organ. I heard one, didn't like it. Simple moving around of 100 wires under screws to correct it to H100 specs. The suffixes like 82, 95, 56,12 etc are furniture styles, and make it hard to find them as that is what is on the dataplate.
So hope you join the H100 club.

[Gavin Brown]

When replacing the capcitors, Should I do this with my organ once i get them. Do you have a video on youtube to tell me how to replace capacitors and make the power supply last along with amplification system. One problem that I know my friend said that he has every once in a while is that their is a some static in the leslie. He has it connected to a 971 new leslie and sometimes you hear crackling in the leslie. Is this the organ or the Leslie?

What are all the electronic problems known on the H-100 series and have you any idear on how to correct them?

Have you tried connect the H-182,H-112 to a leslie speaker along with your Wurlizer 4500"

Why do some people run from the Hammond H-100 when they sound a little better then the B-3

[Bobmann]

I don't know who you are talking to, but you will not hear many people on this forum who would trade a B3 for any H.
Most technicians that I know will not touch any H because they are pretty complex and extremely difficult to work on; there is a 100% chance that there will be a call-back.
As soon as the tech walks in the customer's door, the repair bill is more than the organ is worth, so a person really has to like the H to spend the money.

The H series has the dubious distinction of having the most TSBs written for it.
The organs with serial higher than 15000 will have had all the improvements that were covered in the TSBs incorporated in them.
Hammond's intent was for the H to replace the B3...we all know that never happened.
I have gotten more of these given to me than I could handle. Last spring I had 3 of them sitting in the garage and tried to give them away, and never got a response. I ended up parting them out, as I simply did not have the room.

That being said, I am a fan of the H series...I think it is a lot of organ for the $...especially if you pick them up for nothing...;)
Speaking of picking up...these beasts are pretty weighty.
It has a great sound on it's own that is slightly different than the traditional A,B,C,D sounds like. It is good for church, pop, theater type music, IMO.
I do have an H385 that I an slowly reworking...as Indianajo said...lots of caps in there. I also had one that I did extensive work on and sold, and the new owners are still happy several years later.
I also had one that gave me nothing but problems...fix one thing, play for a week, fix something else. I never did get that one working properly.

Look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSasW...3RGykbnKR9rRSA
It has all the features of the H300 and how they work. This was one that I sold.
There are also videos on that page that deal with the H series, if you are interested.

Bob

[Bobmann]

We appear to have posted at the same time.

To replace all the caps is not a job for faint of heart. You need to have a little experience with electronics and soldering. There are many components that have no modern equivalent, so you need to be comfortable scoping out a close replacement.
I am not aware of any Youtube videos showing cap replacement.

Static is common...can be a loose/dirty tube socket, bad resistor or cap somewhere, or loose/dirty connection. I had one that had that problem and it turned out to be a dirty pot on one of the circuit boards.

There is a Leslie kit that is a plug-and-play for a 122 series Leslie to an H. I have one here that I would sell for what I paid if you are interested.

There are people that will argue that the H is not close to an older console, and would not even consider owning one. The most common thread for new H series owners is "How do I make my H sound like a B3?"

It is really a personal preference. I really like the sound of all Hammonds, for different reasons.

If you like the H, I would go for it.

Bob

[Gavin Brown]

You mentioned that you are in North Carolina, I live in South Carolina and I am about to Get a couple of Hammond's. I'm about to get Hammond H-395, H-324, H-262. How much would either of you charge to recap all the capsitor and make changes that are neccesary to warrant longevity

[Jim Dep]

Hey Bobman and Indy, I don't have a H, but I want to say you guys are great being so giving with knowledge and time. Thanks and big thumbs up for both of you.

[indianajo]

Pops and bangs can be, as discussed above 1. loose tube in socket 2. loose connection between tone generator and preamp, ie clips and wirewraps losing contact 3. trimpots. I haven't had any pops and bangs from 2 and 3, but the previous owner perhaps did causing the repair I mentioned. I did have a dropout due to a dirty pot, which I sprayed and wiggled clean. In 3 organs I've found no popping or noisy resistors, but two in the power amp of each organ that were limiting volume due to being burned and high value. (hammond should have installed a 1 watt resistor instead of a 1/2 watt, which I did when I replaced it.
I've found tall can capacitors sold in 1968 to last about 8 year in my stereo amp at 30 hours per week of use, 52 weeks a year. They sell radial lead capacitors now rated for 3000 to 10000 hours service life at 105 deg C. We'll see if those last longer. the old ones i don't know the rating, but rubber can be bought better now than was available in 1968.
In electrolytic capacitors, due to the change of the numbering system of what they sell, I just round up. New ones are +- 20% tolerance or better, old ones are +80-20%, unless marked tighter tolerance, so a new one of higher value should replace an old one of slightly lower nominal value. The harp sustain caps were +-10% 15 uf, which is why they are so expensive now and I didn't replace them.
We're going into winter when I stay indoors a lot, may talk to you about re-e-capping amp, power chassis, pedal chassis which can be unplugged and mailed. the Preamp boards have another dozen or so caps that need replaced where the organ is, as has to be done the soldering of the wirewrap pins (signals only) and clips.
As far as TSB's, most of what is out there now is survivors that weren't giving any trouble. Clarion loves to tell about the lemon he was sold that Hammond, nearing bankruptcy, refused to fix. That one probably went in the dump decades ago. The rest just declined gently into a bass less, treble less, percussionless senility as the caps changed the sound over the years. One of mine was played twice or thrice weekly for 42 years in a church until I bought it the day before the bobcats came to knock down the building. 11211 had 3 new tubes changed by some sleezy serviceman that wouldn't take time to replace a cap for more power. There weren't any new e-caps at all. One of the TSB's involves changing the vibrato drums from square to reound, and IMHO, I like the old ones. Hugh of Middletown likes the old ones better, too. he told me last week on the phone.
Bob's video recording capability is way ahead of mine, since I quit doing VHS tapes of the kitten with a black and white security camara. But the sound capabiites of the H are way broader than I saw on his video, the one time I saw it. I had one day of u-tube access two years ago, and I found the Hamburg hammond society recordings of the HX100 to be very tame, also.. Mambo Kurt video of "Smells like teen spirit" looks to have been done with an H, but as he was using a festival sound system, I don't know how purely hammond his system was.

[Gavin Brown]

How much and how long will it take you to recap all the capacitors in the power supply, amp and pedal unit.

[indianajo]

How much and how long will it take you to recap all the capacitors in the power supply, amp and pedal unit.

You don't seem to own an H100 yet so you don't know what problems the one you bought has, either. Other than the subdued flabby sound nearly all of them have with old electrolytic capacitors. Only one of the three I own had any replacement e-caps in the sound production and amplification areas. (two total new ones).

I'm not really in business although I have some free time in the fall/winter as I don't work.

[Gavin Brown]

I understand what you are saying, I just what to make sure that when i get them, They will be working and sounding as best as possible for a long period of time. I plan on performing with these instruments and making some demonstration videos with them along with the Hammond Elegante 340100, Hammond Concorde 2300, Thomas Celebrity 871, Thomas Trinaon 606, Gulbransen 600KM, Wurlizter 804, Conn Trianon 554 and Conn Theaterette 870, Yamaha FX-20, Yamaha E-70, Kawai DX-1900 and Kawai SR-7. I'm am going to get a connection for them to run on 11 pin but don't know if all of them are set up for 11 pin. I was told it you connect the Gulbransen, Thomas and Conn to a 122 or 710 leslie, It would sound like a B-3. What's your thoughts on both question.

[indianajo]

Having heard leslies installed in the front wall of the church in a niche over the baptismal font, I view Leslies as a sort of 1950's vibrato device. People that have worked with them on stage have a different opinion. On a stage the leslie tends to bounce high frequencies off the brick back wall in a manner people find attractive. I find the vibrato built into the h100 to be an entirely adequate simulation of the leslie built into the front wall. The one feature it doesn't do is the gradual fast/slow coastdown, and rather clutter up my music room with a non-functioning leslie, (Nashville gets all the good ones around here) I would install a separate motor on the vibrato drum drive and program a motor drive I have to do the speed up and coast down. Programmable coastdown is a standard feature on VFD's (variable frequency drive) for driving conveyors.
However, many B3s on record were recorded through a leslie. Recordings made before the two speed leslie was available should be duplicable from the H100 as is, without external leslie. Leslies heard on monophonic or stereophonic media are reproduced in two dimensions, which the H100 does entirely adequately. Only Leslie recordings made in quadrophonic or 5.1 surround sound could reproduce a leslie bounced against a wall in three dimensions. I don't know of any such recordings.
The two other parts of the "B3 sound" are the percussion modificaion to enable twos/threes alone, as discussed in post 3, and the undertone foldback modification, also discussed in post 3. If you don't play the top octave and a fifth of the H100, it should sound exactly similar as a B3 if the upper frequencies are not turned on with the upper drawbars. Actually, as delivered the H100 has more bass than a standard fifties/sixties tone cabinet designed for the B3, which is one of the reasons people bought leslies instead of tone cabinets IMHO. The TC10 tone cabinet designed for the H100 also has very commanding bass. The TC10 tone cabinet also has stereo vibrato relayed out from the H100.
I don't have opinions about Thomas, Gulbransen, nor Conn,with or without Leslie. I've never heard any of them live, and the only leslies I've heard were two 122's in a niche above the baptismal font connected to Hammond C's. There weren't a lot of high culture toys out here in the flyover country, and being low church culturally provides no exposure either. The Federated department store used to sell organs, but In 1965 I was in the record department dropping my lawn mowing money on Mercury Living Presence LP's. At least the clerks would look at me there. My parents never looked at organs; the richest they would dream was an FM radio that would tune to the classical station. I couldn't dream of owning an organ until my thirties, based on the LP's of Biggs, and I didn't achieve organ ownership until the prices crashed in my sixties.