Getting the "Bill Beer" tone

[kziss]

PART 1 OF 2
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Hi everyone.

Boyan Hristov wrote:
>Since BB changed the amplification tube circuits with transistor ones, the >path of getting that sound starts there. The organ will then sound >differently and I would recalibrate the tone generator to the levels at amp >output as in the B3 service manual which is readily available.

A member of the Hammond Zeni forum who used to own a red mylar capped Bill Beer chop organ until it died, and who still has the Bill Beer high power Leslies told me that he spoke to Bill Beer and Bill Beer told him that his goal with the solid state organ preamp and his high power solid state biamped Leslies with the JBL E140 bass speaker and the JBL 2482 treble driver was to create the sound of a good sounding organ and the tonality of a stock Leslie 122 but at much higher volume levels.

Bill Beer connected a frequency response meter near the Leslie, and he then set the TG recalibration to produce a similar response through the high power solid state Leslie as what was produced through a stock Leslie 122.

Bill Beer also said that he did not like a too trebly sound, instead he preferred a warmer sounding tonality.

Of course in reality the Bill Beer organs and Leslies do not actually sound identical to a stock organ and Leslie 122, instead they have a particular different tonality with a thicker sounding midrange which is a distinctive tonal characteristic of the JBL 2482 driver, for example Jim Pugh's red mylar capped Bill Beer chop organ and Bill Beer Leslie in this youtube clip of the Robert Cray band performing "The one in the middle"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frA3W6_Nxic


Wes wrote:
>Boyan - interesting hypothesis - that may be, in fact, how Bill arrived at >his calibration scheme. Or he may have created his own version of the >chart, by measuring an organ he felt was particularly balls.

Bill Beer mentioned in a 1991 Keyboard magazine interview that he measured the TG output curves of "six hot bitchin B3's" and that he used this as the basis for his "fat and ballsy" sounding TG output curve.
Bill Beer also mentioned that some of the later era Hammond organs did not sound as good because of their TG calibration which produced a more shrill sound.

Interestingly, as can be seen in my TG data spreadsheet which contains the measured TG output levels of over one hundred Hammond tone wheel organs spanning from all decades of production, the tonewheel generators of the pre 1956 Hammond organs were calibrated with noticeably higher output levels for the complex waveform pedal bass TG notes 1 to 12, and that the sine wave TG notes 13 to approximately 40 were calibrated slightly louder than that of the post 1956 organs.

The Hammond chief engineer Alan Young mentioned that the TG output curve was changed in 1956 "for the convenience of our test procedures".
The measured TG output curves of the pre 1956 and the post 1956 organs verify that there was a reduction to the output levels of the low frequency TG notes introduced in 1956.

Without actually having access to Bill Beer's TG output curves of the "six hot bitchin B3's", the following is my pure speculation, but with all this in mind, my speculation is that the "six hot bitchin B3s" that Bill Beer measured might possibly have been pre 1956 organs with the stronger output levels of the low frequency TG notes.

The only measured Bill Beer TG output curve in my TG data spreadsheet is that of a wax capped post 1956 B3 or C3 chop organ which was once owned by the Progressive Rock band Kansas.
In this Bill Beer organ, there are slightly louder than normal levels in the TG notes 13 to 31 range, but the rest of the output curve looks like that of a normal typical post 1956 to 1964 wax capped organ.

Here below is a comparison between the more normal output levels of the TG notes 13 to 30, and the slightly louder levels in this region of the Bill Beer "Kansas" organ:

TG Note Normal Bill Beer "Kansas" organ
mVpp mVpp
13 15 15.55
14 14.6 17.53
15 14.3 16.40
16 14 17.53
17 13.6 16.97
18 13.3 15.84
19 13 15.55
20 12.6 13.29
21 12.3 11.88
22 12 12.44
23 11.6 11.03
24 11.3 14.71
25 11 12.44
26 11 13.29
27 11 13.57
28 11 11.31
29 11 13.29
30 11 11.03
31 11 13.01

The slightly louder levels of these TG notes in the Bill Beer "Kansas" organ might be audible enough to produce a somewhat more "ballsy" sound on the lowest two octaves of the keyboard and with more bottom end "growl" when overdriving the Leslie.
These louder than normal output levels are uneven instead of following a smoothly tapered curve so therefore this suggests the possibility that Bill Beer might have recalibrated these particular TG notes by ear whilst listening to the organ instead of trying to create a precise smoothly tapered curve.

Incidentally, I wonder if this Bill Beer "Kansas" chop organ is the same C3 organ that Steve Walsh used on the 1976 Kansas "Leftoverture" album which especially with the full drawbar settings on "Miracles out of nowhere" sounds to me more like a wax capped organ instead of a red mylar capped organ.

The Bill Beer "Kansas" organ is owned by Sam Gilman, the organist of the band "Otis Grove" and you can see and hear this organ played through a stock Leslie 145 on several Otis Grove youtube clips.


Papus wrote:
>In my experience some of those types of characters are one-trick ponies, >and the trick usually turns out to be rather mundane when finally revealed.

I would not be surprised if this is the case with the secret Bill Beer circuits.
I am purely speculating here, but I think that it would not be as necessary to hide a truly complicated or eccentric circuit because the complexity or eccentricness of the circuit would possibly dissuade others from copying it, whilst it would be much easier to copy a simple circuit thus prompting the designer to want to paranoidly hide or obfuscate the simple circuit.

As well as that, a uniquely different or innovative circuit can be patented thus legally hindering other business competitors from copying it.

Anyone who has a suitable voltage meter and who knows how to recalibrate a TG could easily measure a Bill Beer TG output curve both directly from the TG note terminal strip and also from the output of the Bill Beer solid state organ preamp, and to then recreate the Bill Beer TG output curve on another organ.


Myth wrote:
>I read it somewhere that indeed, Bill Beer had taken the best few organs, >and made notes on their TG setup. I'd too be really interested in seeing >how the TG differed with his modifications!

Many years ago Al Goff mentioned that Bill Beer recalibrated the "generator mid section" to produce "huskier mids" to complement the frequency response of Bill Beer's solid state organ preamp. Al Goff also mentioned that there were different Bill Beer output curves. He did not provide any further information.

This raises the possibility that Bill Beer might have had different output curves for different applications, for example a particular output curve intended to produce the "hot bitchin fat and ballsy" sound through a stock AO28 organ preamp, and different output curves intended to produce a similar overall sound for his solid state organ preamps, and also other different particular non standard customized TG output curves for specific organists.

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END OF PART 1 OF 2

[kziss]

PART 2 OF 2
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Myth wrote:
>Thank you Wes for keeping an eye out. This auction says it is for a mid >driver. Does the leslie need a high frequency or treble driver, or does the >mid driver work the same?

The JBL 2482 is technically a midrange driver, but it works well in the Leslie application for Hammond organs.

The JBL 2482 has a noticeably thicker sounding midrange response and it has a particular mid "honk" compared to the stock Jensen V21 which has a more hollow or scooped sounding midrange response as well as a somewhat brighter treble response than the JBL 2482.


>Is there a comparable Atlas?

My recommendation is the 100 watt RMS rated Selenium D405 with the phenolic diaphragm. The Selenium D405ti with a titanium diaphragm also sounds good, with a slightly higher top end response than the phenolic diaphragm. The titanium diaphragm version which allows slightly more key click and slightly more very high frequency "sizzle" when using the overdrive sound, but the overall sound is still smooth instead of being shrill or unpleasant.

Both the phenolic and the titanium diaphragm versions of the Selenium D405 sound much better and more natural and "vintage" than the Atlas drivers and the Hammond Suzuki 100 watt ferro fluid driver and other modern treble drivers that I have tried out.

The Selenium D405 has a 4 inch ( 100 millimetre) diameter diaphragm just like the JBL 2482 as opposed to the 2 inch ( 50 millimetre) diaphragms of the Atlas and the Hammond Suzuki and other modern drivers used in Leslies.
The 4 inch diameter diaphragms would contribute to the fatter and more natural "vintage" sounding quality of the JBL 2482 and the Selenium D405 drivers.

The Selenium D405 sounds like a cross between the JBL 2482 and the Jensen V21 with the thick midrange sound of the JBL 2482 but with the brighter treble of the Jensen V21 thus making it a very good sounding high power driver.
As well as that, the Selenium D405 is smoother sounding than the JBL 2482 without the particular middy "honk" that the JBL 2482 has.

I have an Atlas PD-60 driver, but it does not sound like a JBL 2482. The Atlas PD-60 produces a more shrill upper midrange and treble response.

I have never tried out an Atlas PDV-5H, but others have written that it sounds more like a brighter sounding version of the Jensen V21.

I have never tried out the Atlas SA-1232 "top hat" driver used in Leslies during the 1990's, but I have been told that it is similar to the Atlas PD-60, but with less shrillness.

Paul Shaeffer's Leslie 145 used with the B3 organ on the "Late Show With David Letterman" has an Atlas SA-1232, and you can hear the Atlas tonality.

I have a Hammond Suzuki 100 watt ferro fluid driver, and this produces an unpleasant sterile "plasticky" tonality with a shrill upper midrange.

The P-Audio PAD-50 (BT-75) driver also produces a sterile plasticky sound.

The Selenium D250X more or less sounds similar to the Hammond Suzuki 100 watt ferro fluid driver thus making it a much cheaper priced substitute for those who actually like the tonality of the expensive Hammond Suzuki 100 watt ferro fluid driver.


Analog wrote:
>The 2482 is part of the tone. Also the generator curve and the tonality of >the Bill Beer preamp in the organ. Nothing matches the bell-like 2482.

Yes the JBL 2482 is definitely an important part of the Bill Beer sound, however the JBL 2482 is way long out of production and it is now practically "unobtanium" with matching "unobtanium" extremely expensive prices, and it's very heavy 11 kilograms weight results in more expensive shipping costs.

The Selenium D405 is a very good alternative to the JBL 2482, and the Selenium D405 is not as heavy as the JBL 2482.
As well as that, the Selenium D405 is simpler to implement in the Leslie application because you can use a metal 4 inch to 2 inch throat adapter to mount it to the Leslie, but the JBL 2482 requires a custom machined conical throat reducer to be inserted inside the throat in order to properly acoustically match it to the Leslie treble horn spindle.

However a metal 4 inch to 2 inch throat adapter might possibly work with the JBL 2482, but I have not tried this out, and there also is the problem of the extra space taken up with this set up, especially if this was to be done to a Leslie 142 / 145 with the shorter cabinet which means that the very thick JBL 2482 might possibly not fit with the 4 inch to 2 inch throat adaptor because of the bass speaker being in the way.


Wes wrote:
>I would expect the JBL 2842 to sound pretty bad in a stock organ and >Leslie. The Atlas PD-60 will probably sound almost as bad. Both these >drivers are far more powerful with better high-end reproduction than the >stock drivers.

The JBL 2482 and the Selenium D405 sound good in a stock Leslie, however the volume levels of the JBL 2482, the Selenium D405 and also the Atlas PD-60 are all noticeably louder than the stock Jensen V21 thus throwing off the proper volume level balance between the bass speaker and the treble horn.

However I have easily solved this problem in my own Leslie 147 by installing a 100 watt RMS rated 16 ohms speaker volume control L-pad which I bought from Parts Express, and I have wired this as a regular volume control potentiometer directly before the treble driver.
I set this L-pad speaker volume control to the mid way ("5") position thus producing a similar volume level balance as the bass speaker and the stock Jensen V21.
This simple set up with the L-pad speaker volume control works very well to set the volume level of the treble horn and there is no need to alter any of the crossover components.

All the best.
Kon.

END OF PART 2 OF 2
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[kziss]

Hi everyone.
The comparison readings of the TG notes 13 to 31 of normal organ and the Bill Beer "Kansas" chop organ got garbled up in the displayed post so therefore I am re-posting these here below, along with the background information about these readings.
Hopefully this will work well this time.
All the best.
Kon.
============================================

Here below is a comparison between the more normal output levels of the TG notes 13 to 30, and the slightly louder levels in this region of the Bill Beer "Kansas" organ:

TG Note Normal organ
mVpp
13 - 15
14 - 14.6
15 - 14.3
16 - 14
17 - 13.6
18 - 13.3
19 - 13
20 - 12.6
21 - 12.3
22 - 12
23 - 11.6
24 - 11.3
25 - 11
26 - 11
27 - 11
28 - 11
29 - 11
30 - 11
31 - 11


TG Note Bill Beer "Kansas" organ
mVpp
13 - 15.55
14 - 17.53
15 - 16.40
16 - 17.53
17 - 16.97
18 - 15.84
19 - 15.55
20 - 13.29
21 - 11.88
22 - 12.44
23 - 11.03
24 - 14.71
25 - 12.44
26 - 13.29
27 - 13.57
28 - 11.31
29 - 13.29
30 - 11.03
31 - 13.01

The slightly louder levels of these TG notes in the Bill Beer "Kansas" organ might be audible enough to produce a somewhat more "ballsy" sound on the lowest two octaves of the keyboard and with more bottom end "growl" when overdriving the Leslie.
These louder than normal output levels are uneven instead of following a smoothly tapered curve so therefore this suggests the possibility that Bill Beer might have recalibrated these particular TG notes by ear whilst listening to the organ instead of trying to create a precise smoothly tapered curve.

Incidentally, I wonder if this Bill Beer "Kansas" chop organ is the same C3 organ that Steve Walsh used on the 1976 Kansas "Leftoverture" album which especially with the full drawbar settings on "Miracles out of nowhere" sounds to me more like a wax capped organ instead of a red mylar capped organ.

The Bill Beer "Kansas" organ is owned by Sam Gilman, the organist of the band "Otis Grove" and you can see and hear this organ played through a stock Leslie 145 on several Otis Grove youtube clips.
================================================== =======

[MihevicB3]

I think mine is from 2013. :)

I have not tried it yet, but I will be trying the following soon:

1 - Measure TG's current calibration
2 - Take mean (average value) of tones 13-35 in mVpp Call this M.
3 - use S = M/10.58 -- this should be very close to 1 unless your meter is way out
4 - set tones 13 through along the curve you select from my math or Kon's drawings. Multiply the value you use from the graph by S. The purpose of S is to normalize measurements across meters. As I said, it should be very close to 1, so shouldn't really be necessary
5 - my math is taken by analyzing a variety of red-cap organs and eliminating those with weird curves, as well as eggregious outliers, then normalizing them so that tones 13-35 all had the same mean. My curve is f(x)=25.930256292489823-1.205076082033713x+0.02761832185972664x^2-0.00016949175642351404x^3 where x is the tone number. So Sf(x) would be what I would set the tone to. . .

Thanks Wes--I'm going to check my TG curve to see how close it is when I get a chance. That is some equation you created.

John M.

[SteelBreeze]

Very informative and interesting thread. Otis Grove have nice stuff, and the "Kansas" C3 sounds neay.
Great to find so much info in Bill Beers, after a lifetime spent without knowing what are those amazing B3s played by my favorite Musicians.
Maybe I'll even own one some day.
Cheers, Ronen.

[Wes]

Kon -- great of you to drop by! Fantastic info as always, we appreciate you sharing it with us. It seems like the Bill Beer curve has about a 1.5dB boost in that region. It would be subtle, but I think perceivable. Sometimes I think it might be fun to add a line-level insert on an organ preamp to play with curves; I have a dbx 31ch equalizer that has 6dB on 50mm faders, an adjustment as subtle as 1.5dB would be achievable.

John -- the equation is just a 3rd order polynomial, it's just that there are lots of decimal places in the coefficients. I had computerized help determining the best-fit curve through the sea of black dots.

Wes

[Wes]

John: I took the liberty of plotting your organ from the data in Kon's spreadsheet. It's wonderful that you were able to submit data from 1972.

I'm guessing from your curve that your organ is from before the calibration curve changed. We know this happened in 1956, and I am pretty sure it happened in June, when the new factory opened in Melrose Park.



Wes

[MihevicB3]

Wes,

Thanks for plotting my data. However, I believe the curves are labeled wrong. The Orange curve (highest output should be with the Goff Caps), the Green curve should be the readings taken in 1972, and the purple curve should be the “More recent wax cap curve” (these were the same old wax caps, but I took the readings in 2006 just before I did the Goff Recap). The Green curve is interesting since it is a nice compare between the same TG/Caps from 1972 and 2006. It shows more degradation in output through the years. Yes, my B3 is before the factory calibration curve changed. I wasn’t sure if mine was a late ’55 or early ’56. From a Forum post,I believe “nonreverb”, using my TG letters it was made in the fall of ’55.

A little history on why I plotted my B3 TG in 1972. Where I worked, a fellow found a C3 with a PR-40 from a surplus list. It came from a military base in Arizona. Somehow in the transit, it was dropped off a truck, the console wood side was split, all the tubes were out of the sockets and the AO28 power transformer was dangling from the wires--it was torn completely off of the four side brackets, so you know the organ took a good hit. The folks knew I had a B3, so they asked me to take a look at it. I repaired the case, replaced broken tubes with new ones, made new mounting brackets, re-soldered wires on the power transformer, powered it up and the organ sounded great. I noticed then, that the C3 sounded better to me (brighter) than my B3 and the percussion had a nice bite to it. I borrowed a RMS millivoltmeter from our instrument lab and recorded the C3 TG output to compare to my B3. That’s when I could really tell the difference. The pedal frequencies (1-12) were a lot higher on my B3. The frequencies from 13-48 were about the same, even a little higher on my B3. Then, starting with Freq. 49-91 is where my B3 really dropped off.

I don’t believe I gave Kon the readings for the C3. In case you or Kon are interested, I have them below. These are also 1972 RMS readings. Another point of interest is how stable the frequencies are over 34 years for Freq. 1-48. Also, the comparison of the lab meter from 1972 to the Fluke I used in 2006.

John M.

C3 1959 Serial# 79421; Output Measured in 1972

Freq# mV RMS
1 10.00
2 9.80
3 9.80
4 10.00
5 10.20
6 10.00
7 10.40
8 10.00
9 10.00
10 10.00
11 10.80
12 10.80
13 4.90
14 4.90
15 4.60
16 4.60
17 4.20
18 4.30
19 4.10
20 4.20
21 4.00
22 3.90
23 3.80
24 3.90
25 3.80
26 3.80
27 3.80
28 3.70
29 3.70
30 3.80
31 3.70
32 3.70
33 3.80
34 3.70
35 3.80
36 3.80
37 3.90
38 3.80
39 3.80
40 3.90
41 3.90
42 4.40
43 4.40
44 4.20
45 4.10
46 4.30
47 4.50
48 4.40
49 4.10
50 4.20
51 4.70
52 4.70
53 4.80
54 5.00
55 5.50
56 5.20
57 5.00
58 5.00
59 5.50
60 5.60
61 5.60
62 8.80
63 6.00
64 6.80
65 6.00
66 6.20
67 7.20
68 5.80
69 6.60
70 6.60
71 6.80
72 7.20
73 9.50
74 7.40
75 6.00
76 7.60
77 6.00
78 6.00
79 6.90
80 6.80
81 6.60
82 6.20
83 7.80
84 6.20
85 7.10
86 8.60
87 7.60
88 9.00
89 8.60
90 7.40
91 7.80

[kziss]

John Mihevic wrote:

>I don’t believe I gave Kon the readings for the C3. In case you or Kon are interested, I have them below. These are also 1972 RMS readings.

Hi John.
Yes, several years ago you did send me the 1972 readings of the wax capped 1959 C3 along with the 1972 and the 2006 readings of your wax capped 1956 B3 along with the recapped and subsequent re-recapped readings of this B3, and all these are in the TG data spreadsheet.

The 1972 readings of the 1959 C3 and your 1956 B3 are quite interesting because the output levels of the wax capped TG notes 49 to 91 of the 1959 C3 appear to be like that of a "new" organ even though the C3 was thirteen years old, whilst the output levels of the wax capped TG notes of your 1956 had clearly dropped down due to the wax capacitor deterioration.

Some late 1960's recordings featuring B3 and C3 organs do sound to me like the wax paper capacitors had already to some degree drifted off spec. Even though these BC and C3 organs were not old at that time, they definitely did have particular tonal characteristics of organs with aged wax capacitors for example Mark Stein's B3 ( Vanilla Fudge) and Jon Lord's (Deep Purple) first C3 that he used from 1968 to 1971 which was a wax capped C3 built I think either in 1963 or 1964 because it had the oiling instructions sticker instead of the metal plate, (my recapped 1962 C3 has the metal oiling instructions plate whilst my red mylar capped 1965 C3 has the oiling instructions sticker).

Many years ago there used to be a wax capped 1960 RT3 organ and a Leslie 122 in a local church, and this RT3 sounded similar to Jon Lord's first C3, especially as heard on the 1969 live Deep Purple album "Deep Purple Concerto for Group and Orchestra".

All the best.
Kon.

[Papus]

John Mihevic wrote:

>I don’t believe I gave Kon the readings for the C3. In case you or Kon are interested, I have them below. These are also 1972 RMS readings.

Hi John.
Yes, several years ago you did send me the 1972 readings of the wax capped 1959 C3 along with the 1972 and the 2006 readings of your wax capped 1956 B3 along with the recapped and subsequent re-recapped readings of this B3, and all these are in the TG data spreadsheet.

The 1972 readings of the 1959 C3 and your 1956 B3 are quite interesting because the output levels of the wax capped TG notes 49 to 91 of the 1959 C3 appear to be like that of a "new" organ even though the C3 was thirteen years old, whilst the output levels of the wax capped TG notes of your 1956 had clearly dropped down due to the wax capacitor deterioration.

Some late 1960's recordings featuring B3 and C3 organs do sound to me like the wax paper capacitors had already to some degree drifted off spec. Even though these BC and C3 organs were not old at that time, they definitely did have particular tonal characteristics of organs with aged wax capacitors for example Mark Stein's B3 ( Vanilla Fudge) and Jon Lord's (Deep Purple) first C3 that he used from 1968 to 1971 which was a wax capped C3 built I think either in 1963 or 1964 because it had the oiling instructions sticker instead of the metal plate, (my recapped 1962 C3 has the metal oiling instructions plate whilst my red mylar capped 1965 C3 has the oiling instructions sticker).

Many years ago there used to be a wax capped 1960 RT3 organ and a Leslie 122 in a local church, and this RT3 sounded similar to Jon Lord's first C3, especially as heard on the 1969 live Deep Purple album "Deep Purple Concerto for Group and Orchestra".

All the best.
Kon.

Thanks for the valuable insight into Jon Lord's C3's.
I'd love a full history of his gear, from the Artwoods to his final solo career before he passed.
A wonderful local Hammond player opened for the Artwoods on two occasions in the 1960's, he said Lord was the perfect gentleman and had the rare ability to play a very complicated piece and conduct a serious conversation simultaneously!

[Brendon Wright]

Didn't Jon start with an M100 back in the Artwoods days?

Artwoods is a great album. Love it!

[thetrader]

Thanks everyone for this great information. I have always wondered about the Selenium D405, thanks for the insight!

[kziss]

PART 1 OF 2
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Hi Papus.
>Thanks for the valuable insight into Jon Lord's C3's.
>I'd love a full history of his gear, from the Artwoods to his final solo >career before he passed.

As a huge Jon Lord fan, I have been doing a lot of reading about his Hammond organ and Leslie equipment over the years.

One very good website with information about Jon Lord's and Richie Blackmore's and Roger Glover's as well as Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) and others equipment was the forum section of the late John "Dawk" Stillwell. At the present time this website seems to be under some kind of archiving or repair process.

Jon Lord used a Lowrey organ in The Artwoods before upgrading to an L-100 organ, and his Leslie was a single rotor Leslie ( perhaps the Leslie 120 ) with only the wood rotor but no treble horn.

After leaving The Artwoods in 1967, Jon Lord got involved with Art Wood's brother Ronnie wood ( The Birds, The Faces and the Rolling Stones) in a short lived group called "Santa Barbara Machine Head", and they recorded a few songs, and these sound like Jon is playing an L-100 organ through a regular Leslie 147.

When Deep Purple formed in 1968, Jon Lord upgraded to a 1963 or 64 wax capped C3 organ and the Leslie 147 or 122. I read somewhere that this C3 was modified to have the "bass all the way down" on the lowest octave of the manuals with the 16 ft drawbar. It also had a Fisher Space Expander valve reverb unit installed, and Jon created the reverb spring explosion noises by lifting up and then slamming down the top lid of the organ.

This C3 was the one with the traditional American C3 type cabinet

I have read that this C3 organ died in 1971 and Jon Lord then replaced it with the white portable chop organ which he used on the 1971 Machine Head album and on tours and on the German "Beat Club" live music TV show.

The Vibrato Chorus knob on this white chop organ was the earlier smooth rounded type thus indicating that this organ was a pre 1961 B3 or C3 organ so therefore it would have been a wax capped organ.

I have read somewhere that this white chop organ somehow ended up under the Hudson River.

Jon Lord then replaced the white chop organ in 1972 with Christine McVie's ( Fleetwood Mac) red mylar capped C3 organ which had the stamped drawbars thus indicating that it was built no earlier than 1969.

This C3 was the one with the simpler modernized English / European C3 type cabinet.

This Christine McVie C3 remained with Jon Lord for the rest of his time with Deep Purple and with Paice Ashton Lord (PAL), and with the reformed Deep Purple, and after Jon retired from Deep Purple, Don Airey continued to use this C3 for a while until he replaced it with the portable organ built by John Haburay (The Hammond Store).

Jon's Christine McVie C3 had been extensively modified by Jon's technicians including Mike Phillips and John "Dawk" Stillwell, and some of the modifications included having a Fisher Space Expander valve reverb unit, and also an RMI electric piano installed into the organ and activated by the organ keyboards, and the lower manual was modified to activate a Moog synthesizer.

When looking at the front of this C3 organ, the music rack wood panel has been replaced with a metal panel which I think might possibly be part of the RMI electric piano circuit.

John "Dawk" Stillwell modified the C3 with various switches and controls to activate other special features such as the harmonic percussion effect for all nine drawbar footages, and a "Lush" switch that sent the percussion effect and the line in signals through the Vibrato Chorus circuit, and also a "Solo Boost" setting which I suspect was a level boost, perhaps created by switching out of circuit one or more the feedback capacitors in the AO28 preamp circuit.

At some time in the early 1970's, for some unexplained reason, wooden beams were attached on to the sides of this C3 organ, and I suspect that these beams might possibly have been attached to the organ sides in order to allow the organ to be picked up by a fork lift.

As well as that, a wooden base was built under the C3 organ, but this base did not cover the back bottom edge of the organ, and this allowed Jon Lord to more easily rock the organ forward and then let it bounce back thus causing the reverb unit springs to create the explosion sounds.

Sometime during the later 1970's, this road trashed C3 was painted black.`

Later on I think that a Midi function was wired up into this C3 organ.

Photos from the 1990's and 2000's show an extensive effects unit pedalboard on the bottom of the C3 organ.

For many years Jon Lord had a Gibson Maestro ring modulator unit connected to the C3 which created those swooping jet engine and other interesting "freaky" sounds as heard on the into to "Lazy" on the live 1972 "Deep Purple Made in Japan" album.

Jon Lord used the Christine Mcvie C3 for the main bulk of Deep Purple recordings and concerts from 1972 onwards, however for the 1984 Deep Purple "Perfect Strangers" album and also the 1993 live Deep Purple "Come hell or high water" album and video Jon Lord used Ritchie Blackmore's red mylar capped black chop organ which was used on the late 1970's Blackmore's Rainbow albums. This chopped B3 organ is a late 60's or early 70's B3 organ with the stamped drawbars and apparently it has a solid state preamp in it.

As well as that, Jon Lord had a Hammond Suzuki XB2 clonewheel keyboard on top of Richie Blackmore's black chop organ as a back up as well as for other non organ sounds.

I do not know what has become of the Christine McVie C3 after Don Airey retired it and replaced it with the John Haburay (The Hammond Store) chop organ which Don Airey said sounds better as well as being much more reliable than the road weary trashed Christine McVie C3 organ.

I remember when I saw Deep Purple in 2001, that the black Christine McVie C3 sounded like it had intermittent key contacts which I assume was caused either by worn out busbars and key contacts, or by black foam damaged resistance wires, or both.

Jon Lord's final studio album was the new recording of Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Joe Bonamassa on guitar, and this album was recorded in the Abbey Road Studio using the studio Hammond RT3 organ which I assume is the same RT3 organ used by The Beatles and Pink Floyd and many others.

==========================================
END OF PART 1 OF 2

[kziss]

PART 2 OF 2
=================================
Jon Lord used a regular Leslie 147 or 122 between 1968 and 69, but by early 1970 he had stopped using the Leslie and he changed over to using the more powerful 200 watt Marshall Major 1968 model amplifier with the Marshall PA speaker cabinets which had a 15 inch bass speaker and a treble horn. This Marshall set up allowed Jon to compete with Richie Blackmore's 200 watt Marshall Major stack.

Jon Lord used the Marshall Major amplifier and cabinets from 1970 until the very early era of the Deep Purple Mark 3 line up in 1973.

In 1973 Jon Lord went back to using Leslies in the studio, but for live concerts his technician Mike Phillips built very high powered Leslies with the 300 watt solid state Crown DC300A power amplifier and a 200 watt 4 ohms Gauss 5840 15 inch bass speaker and a JBL 2482 treble driver.

There was an active crossover at 800 Hz with 18 decibel octave roll off used with the Crown DC300A amplifiers to separate the bass and treble frequencies for the Leslies as well as to protect the JBL 2482 treble drivers at such extreme high volume levels.

These high power solid state Leslies had a particular distinctive sound as can be heard on the live Deep Purple albums and footage from 1973 to 1976 and also live Paice Ashton Lord (PAL) recordings and footage.

Jon Lord also used the high power solid state Leslies into the 1980's, but by the 1990's he eventually went back to using Leslie 147's.

Interestingly, Jon Lord used a Marshall JCM800 amplifier whose output signal was sent into a Leslie cabinet on the 1984 Deep Purple "Perfect Strangers" album.

Judging by the sound, Jon Lord's Leslie 147's might have continued to have the JBL 2482 treble driver in them up until sometime in the 1990's, including the time that the 1996 live album "Deep Purple Live at the Olympia 96" was recorded, however by the late 1990's and the early 2000's including I got to see Deep Purple in concert three times here in Melbourne, Australia, Jon Lord's white Leslies had a different and noticeably more "squeaky" or brittle sounding treble driver which did not sound as good or as fat as the JBL 2482.

I do not know what this sterile sounding treble driver was, but it can be heard on live Deep Purple recordings and footage from the late 1990's and early 2000's.

Interestingly, judging by the sound of Jon Lord's replacement organist Don Airey's black Leslies that he uses with the John Haburay (The Hammond Store) black chop organ, it is possible that there is the JBL 2482 treble driver in Don Airey's Leslies.

Some interesting information from Jon Lord's early 1970's tech Mike Phillips was that in order to allow Jon Lord's C3 to work properly around the world, Mike Phillips built a stabilized 240 volt AC voltage power supply and he also built a 50Hz line frequency stabilizer by sending the 50Hz sine wave signal coming from a crystal oscillator circuit into the input of a Crown DC300A power amplifier, and the amplified 50 Hz sine wave signal coming from the speaker output of the crown DC300A amplifier was then sent directly to the start and run motors of Jon Lord's C3 organ thus providing the proper 50 Hz AC frequency at the appropriate voltage regardless of the AC line voltage or the AC frequency where Deep Purple were performing.

This voltage and frequency stabilizer could work with AC voltages of 100 volts to 250 volts, and AC frequencies of 30 Hz to 100 Hz.

In 1999 and in 2001 I briefly met and was photographed with Jon Lord at the foyer of the Melbourne Grand Hyatt Hotel as the band were leaving and later on returning from the concert, but unfortunately in the rushed situation of the brief meeting, I did not get to ask him about what kind of speakers were in his Leslies or what modifications were done to his C3, but I did ask him what he thought of the then new Hammond Suzuki XC3 organ which had a C3 style cabinet, and Jon replied that Hammond Suzuki had sent him an XC3 organ in the hope that Jon would use and promote it, but Jon said that he tried it out for two days but because he "could not stand it" he sent it back to Hammond Suzuki.

Later on Jon Lord did promote and use the Hammond Suzuki New B3 Portable organ which is a more accurate sounding clonewheel organ than the 1990's technology XC3 organ.

When I met him, Jon Lord an aura of aristocratic authority about him and he was gentlemanly as so many other people who met him have attested.

Along with the Hammond organs and Leslies, Jon Lord had an RMI electric piano on stage in the early 1970's until the RMI electric piano was actually rebuilt inside Jon's C3 organ, and from 1973 onwards Jon added synthesizers and other keyboards to his set up including ARP Odyssey and Mini Moog synthesizers and an ARP String Ensemble and a Fender Rhoads electric piano, and in the 1980's he added a Yamaha electric grand piano and in the 1980's, 90's and 2000's he used various digital synthesizers and sequencers as well as a grand piano.

All the best.
Kon.
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END OF PART 2 OF 2

[picothinker]

Thanks Kon, for the great history lesson! I too have always been a fan of Deep Purple, now I have to go back and listen again...