First time poster needing all help/info regarding Hammond Commodore organ

[Guest]

Three months ago I purchased a 1-owner Hammond Commodore organ from the estate of a doctor in Alabama and had the organ professionally moved to my home in middle Tennessee. The organ was obviously taken care of extremely well. It has no blemishes, scratches, etc. that are so common in organs of that age. I was immediately impressed with the rich, full, warm sound of the pedal bass. By far, they sounded far better than any Hammond organ I have ever seen or played. I was enjoying this practice organ until last week when suddenly the pedals stopped working. My first reaction was to turn the power button off. After leaving it off for several seconds, I turned it back on and the pedals began playing again. Obviously this was only a stop-gap measure because they continued to go off intermittently, but each time they came back on when I turned the switch off/on again. Then last Friday, the keyboards both stopped working, mid-hymn. Again, they came back on with the off/on switch routine. But last Saturday the organ refused to turn on, make any noise, etc. I have tried turning it on several times since, but nothing happens.

Let me preface this posts by saying I know absolutely NOTHING whatsoever about how any organ works, or how to do even the most simple repair, so please try to explain any issues as if you were giving instructions to a six-year old! I have done some reading about the Commodore and what I have learned doesn't seem to be good news. I gather this organ (1989?) was the first organ Hammond introduced that did not have the tone wheels, and that it is a solid-state organ. Sad to say, most of the things I read about this organ seemed to be rather negative.

I will deeply appreciate any and all constructive ideas, thoughts, and information the members of this forum can provide. Thank you for taking the time to read such a lengthy post.

[Bob411]

I have very little understanding of electronics. It won't turn on at all now - I'm guessing it blew a fuse. Don't know what the bigger problem is.

My early 70s Concorde is solid state, no tone wheel. What does work on it sounds great. Before I got it, free, I thought the only Hammond to have was a B3.

[PGR]

Being a forty year old solid state instrument from an estate sale my first guess and action step for you /me would be to get a can of spray..electronic contact cleaner, ( Harbour Freight has it) Pull the AC plug out and wait overnight until it dis charges any possible electrical charge then I would go into the back and remove plugs spray them and replace them one at a time when I replaced them ...work them in and out to assist in cleaning all the contacts. I think the commodore also has "computer boards" they have contacts too continue to remove spray and clean I am also guessing that down close to the where the A/C goes into the organ you might find a fuse holder Looks like a small black bottle cap - unscrew it and pull out the small fuse - looks like glass tube with metal cap on each end and inside the glass tube you should see a metal filament - it must be solid /not broken It needs to be replaced if broken and this is the time you call in your technician cause your not qualified to go any further. The cleaning however might just be enough to get you going. good luck