Hammond RT3 - turning on, but no sound!

[Jacob Polansky]

I recently picked up a big ol' Hammond RT3 with a JR-20 tone cabinet. When I went to check it out, it produced sound, but it was very faint, even at full volume. When I got it home, it sat in my garage untouched for around two months until I could make some space in my studio (in Texas - no extreme conditions this time of year). I now can't get any sound out of the thing. It starts and runs with little noise. All the tubes in the organ are lighting up. All but one 6v6 tube (the first after the rectifier tube, which looks to be one of two of the bass output tubes) in the tone cabinet are lighting up. I've tried a few different 6v6s in this postition and none of them seem to be working.

Any ideas on where I should start in diagnostics? Or does anyone have any recommendations for Hammond repairmen in Texas (between Dallas and Austin)?

Thanks for your attention!

[Admin]

If no 6V6 tubes light up when in this socket, it's likely the socket is bad. With the organ off, you could try removing the tube and spraying the socket with a contact cleaner such as DeOxit.

Forum member and contributor geoelectro is in Houston if I'm not mistaken.

[Alek Z]

Cleaning for the contacts would definitely be a good idea, if that doesn't work I would guess it's probably a resistor. I had a similar problem in an M3 of mine, the volume was very faint and then eventually decayed into no sound. I took out the amp, and one othe resistors nearly had a hole burned in it! Replaced this guy and it worked just fine, hopefully your fix is as simple as cleaning, or finding a burned resistor. If it comes to an amp disgnostic, first check resistors closest to that tube in the circuit as it is more likely to be one of those. Good luck!

[Drawbar Dave]

You can clip headphones to g and ground on the RT3's preamp. Make sure you have the volume soft tab on. This will reveal whether the problem is in the organ or the tone cab