Picking up A102, tools required to detach pedals?

[tpappano]

Road trip! Do the pedals simply lift up and out like an E100, or might there be screws or bolts?

Thanks All!

[enor]

All of the 25-note Hammond pedalboards attach/detach in the same manner on all organ models.

[tpappano]

Thanks Enor, just arrived at destination to load her up!

[Drawbar Dave]

Congrats on the A100 Tom!

[David Anderson]

On all A100s, for goodness sake, LOCK DOWN THE TONE GENERATOR!!

Something about the harness/TG arrangement on A100s breaks harness wires like crazy if you transport them without locking.

[tpappano]

Thanks, guys! I did lock it down, for sure 8) Just got it unloaded at my shop a little bit ago and did a quick smoke test. All the tones seem to be present, drawbars work, key contacts seem ok, the various function switches and presets seem to work, or at least they all 'do something'. So apparently no broken wires but tlc definitely needed. When I fired it up and played some notes, my '55 M3 just started rolling on the floor laughing, saying "You can *not* be serious!"

Some preliminary issues:

A broken key that I think I can fix from the top with some super glue.
The church must not have liked reverb, the reverb speaker has been "plucked out"
Leslie stuck on fast, but it does speak
She is *painted black*, so henceforth she shall be known as "Painted Poodle"
It sounds absolutely pathetic! Just for starters I'll be doing a capacitor job on the tg and delay line!
Various level and distortion issues
According to the church it was 'regularly maintained', but it seems that just meant oiling

I'll post some more comments later tonight after I have some "alone time" with it 8)

[David Anderson]

What year is it from?

If an organ sounds bad, I would usually start with the preamp and power amp to make sure they're working properly.

The AO-39 power amps in A-100s usually need service these days, especially the EL84 cathode bypass capacitors.

[tpappano]

I pulled a tube and it had a ‘61 date code. I'm headed back to the shop now and will probe deeper!
Oh, the serial # is 22xxx.

[Sweet Pete]

22*** was an A102 prefix on all serial numbers for certain.
That limits this model to 999 so another prefix must have been used as well as 22.

On this A102,
Had the amp PS caps checked,found a few that needed replacing so replaced them all.
Glad I didn't shotgun the genn/vib line caps too! These do drift together so the 'personality' is there.
Easier to intercept the bypass cap on the preamp for more top end.Sounds great as is! Has the cardboard covered caps.
Both the manuals on the A102 play like new.
This organ was a chapel rehearsal organ that was sitting around for a few years when obtained.

Will call tunes 'Paint It Black'...finally a use for this oud sample,and 'Tulsa Time' tomorrow night.....congrats on your A102.

[tpappano]

Thanks Pete,

Actually I mis-remembered the SN it is really 20132 8)

The amps are:

AO-28-5
H-AO-39-1
H-AO-35-7

The center speaker is marked 220122 and AO23232
The caps on the tg and delay line are the cardboard tube style with hard wax end fill.

Curiously, they sprayed the thing black but applied a clear coat of what appears to be polyurethane on top. The poly peels right off cleanly with fingers, revealing a not bad looking finish with a soft, not quite shiny sheen.

I wiggled the tubes in their sockets and the sound cleaned up quite a bit. I will go through the amps first and see how that goes before doing the tg. The vibrato still has too much phase shift, though.

Thanks!

[Sweet Pete]

Thanks Tom,

Lots of serial #'s aren't 'consecutive' at Hammond but 2K lower seems about right for a '61 A102.
With an AO35 this can't have 'foam' manuals (from the factory at least).
This one is a '62 with an AO44 'verb amp.No foam here either.
That's great news.

Peel off that poly,get some cherry Howard Restore A Finish and 0000 steel wool.
Is it the dark or light cherry?They made two types.

[tpappano]

Had to call it a night and go home to feed 8) I installed a speaker for the reverb, but it is still dead. I will look into that and the Leslie speed switching issue tomorrow. Thanks all, and good night!

(Pete, take some "Tulsa Sound" and turn it up to 11!)

[David Anderson]

I rarely go by serial numbers; it's easy to read date codes from major components.

[tpappano]

A little update:

Disconnected C1 & C10 in the main amp to flatten response and recover some of the lost 'highs'

Found a weak 6BQ5 in the main amp causing premature and asymmetrical clipping. (the Leslie was tapped off the output, which was definitely not helping!)

Found an open 470k resistor in the front end of the reverb amp, which had it stopped cold

I replaced various electrolytics in the above amps, but I haven't opened up the AO28 yet, its output looks very clean. I tweaked the trimmer cap and the 'tone' control and got more signal and more highs

I reconnected the Leslie direct to the AO28 to give it a cleaner drive signal. Sounded better, but the Leslie seems to go into rather harsh sounding clipping (similar to a SS amp). I pulled the (147) amp and checked all the components, all were in tolerance. Someone had already replaced the filter caps, and I went ahead and replaced the cathode bypass. No change in sound. I measured the amp output voltage while driven with a single 440 Hz tone. With the amp just under the clipping threshold I only get 21 volts RMS, which into a 16 ohm load is only 30 watts, not 40 8) Should these amps do better? The 6550s are '97 vintage Russian.

Thanks All!

[Drawbar Dave]

Check it has a 12AU7 in the front end of the 147 amp and not a 12AX7