Damn! I did it again. New A143 in the house

[Christine1953]

Hello,
Damn, if I didn't pick up another Hammond over the weekend. Found it near Traverse City MI. It's an odd looking thing, colonial maple with turned wood legs. Pretty darn ugly I'd say. Never heard of an A143 before... The S/N is 40908, and judging from the date codes on the Hammond tubes, it appears it was made in the latter part of 1964. The good news it's from a church and it's been sitting for the last 10 years. Plugged it in fired 'er up, and bingo works perfectly. Best part, it's all there, untouched, and FREE! I'll send out some pics tomorrow, just got home!
Best,
Christine

[Tim_at_Jonas]

Check to see if it has felt or foam manuals. http://www.padrick.net/HammondRivets.htm

[Christine1953]

Hello,
Going to check it out tomorrow. Planning on a disassembly/new cabinet anyway, so that's a good time to get into it if need be. It really sounds nice and bright as is, although that cabinet style is not my taste! Ew!
Stay tuned.
Best,
Chris

[KeithB]

Actually, it's supposed to be "warm" or "medium" cherry color. If the cabinet is in good shape it'd be a shame to tear it apart. I'm looking for an A100 series and I'm not that far from you if you'd rather sell...

Keith

[Jaim]

A143's were only made in 1964 and as 1964 was a transition year, you may have a mix of parts. The one I sold earlier this year had foam in one manual and felt in the other. The TWG had a mix of wax and mylar caps. Great sounding organ.

Jim

[cinnamonrolli]

And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust

[Christine1953]

A143's were only made in 1964 and as 1964 was a transition year, you may have a mix of parts. The one I sold earlier this year had foam in one manual and felt in the other. The TWG had a mix of wax and mylar caps. Great sounding organ.

Jim

Hello All,
I didn't know that... Since it's a single year issue, do you think I should keep as is and find it a good home? It's in good shape cosmetically, and I'm doing an assessment today on the electrical end. I'll post some pictures later.

Best,
Chris

[enor]

Hello All,
I didn't know that... Since it's a single year issue, do you think I should keep as is and find it a good home? It's in good shape cosmetically, and I'm doing an assessment today on the electrical end. I'll post some pictures later.

Best,
Chris

You should definitely keep it in stock form! That's a very rare A-100, and one of the best looking (methinks)

[muckelroy]

No one here can force you to do anything one way or another. If you have made up your mind that you are going to transplant this organ and re-case it, so be it.

But you might consider selling this "freebie" to someone else who will keep it intact, then using those funds towards something that suits your needs. The world doesn't need any more empty Hammond organ shells, or firewood.

[Christine1953]

Knowing that now I won't chop it. I didn't realize it was a one-off. Going to inspect it today, I'll post some pictures, and give a report. Let's take it from there.

All the best,
Chris

[Papus]

Not accusing the OP is this, but there’s a disturbing cavalier attitude towards irreplaceable Hammonds, especially in North America.
How many get chopped/transplanted/trashed/burnt annually in the name of greed, vanity, and convenience?
Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

[Christine1953]

Not accusing the OP is this, but there’s a disturbing cavalier attitude towards irreplaceable Hammonds, especially in North America.
How many get chopped/transplanted/trashed/burnt annually in the name of greed, vanity, and convenience?
Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Hi Everyone!
Let's take a deep breath and calm down. Thank you! And while I'm commenting, watch your grammar. It should be disturbingly. There I said it. LOL!

OK here's what I found, and I'm including some pics.
Really in good shape under the hood. Looks like it just came from the factory. I couldn't find one repair, add-on, or mod.
Everything works, except for the usual stuff from not being used, like dirty key contacts, noisy tube sockets, dirty drawbars and the like. Amps are quiet and sound good, and it looks like all the tubes are original.
Unfortunately, no rivets, hence the foam gaskets. Also, I found the contacts under the presets not making good connections, mostly affecting the upper drawbars. I think it needs some attention. What would you folks do?

All the best,
Christine

[Sweet Pete]

Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Steinway started using synthetic ivory in 1988. There are still some elephants in the world. Probably more Steinways......

[muckelroy]

That's a clean organ!

Oil the generator, it's probably thirsty.

Test every tone of every note, every key, checking for dead tones one drawbar out at a time. A dead tone in one manual but not in the other manual is a sign of potential foam damage. It gets humid in Michigan so it wouldn't surprise me to see that stuff starting to eat away at those resistance wires now or in the next few years. I'd remove the foam even if there are no dead tones, if this was my organ.

You can try shifting the bus bars to see if the preset keys behave then. If they don't, this could be a symptom of foam damage, too.

The rest is just cleaning and servicing, replace amp/preamp electrolytics, (if bad). Tube sockets are not often dirty, I find tube pins are. Use a pencil eraser and/or a bit of CRC QD on corroded tube pins. For some reason, I find that percussion 12AU7 tube (on far left of preamp) is often the cause of noise and most prone to crackle. It's almost always the only tube pin I have to clean pins in AO-28s I service.

[Christine1953]

It gets humid in Michigan so it wouldn't surprise me to see that stuff starting to eat away at those resistance wires now or in the next few years.

I kinda figured that from what I've learned here. Would someone be so kind as to point me to the definitive "How To Defoam" Thread?
Thanks so much,
Chris