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A new project! This girl was rescued from a church quite a few years ago and spent some of that time in a storage shed. She's missing the preamp and the phenolic cam for the swell box. I already laid out a circuit board to fit her with a solid state preamp which I will build and install Monday. I think I can cobble up a cam from a piece of acrylic. The organ was kept well oiled. The start and run switches need to be replaced but I 'hot wired' it to get it running. Both generators spun right up and purr like kittens. Lots of missing tones, key contacts and/or busbars understandably dirty 8) A half dozen tones were missing from the generator. The cause was something I hadn't seen until now, several generator capacitors failed from fatigue cracking of their leads. I re-capped the generator this evening and proceeded to "exercise" the key contacts. After hitting them a few *thousand* times the tones are slowly coming back 8) I'm particularly pleased that the generator tones are nice and clean, no fluttering! The main thing I'm puzzling over is if I should just pull the manuals and clean the busbars, this would be my first time doing that. Oklahoma heat has caused a lot (most?) of the lacquer to flake off, so not sure what to do about that. As always, tips and comments greatly appreciated! Here are some pics 8)
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Tom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720 -
Attached FilesTom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720 -
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Amazing how an 81 year old piece of technology can still essentially fire up and function almost perfectly with little or no maintenance in years!
Name any other device with such a good designCurrent:
1971 T-202 with Carsten Meyer mods: Remove key click filters, single-trigger percussion, UM 16' drawbar volume correction. Lower Manual bass foldback.
Korg CX3 (original 1980's analogue model).
1967 Leslie 122 with custom inbuilt preamp on back panel for 1/4" line-level inputs, bass & treble controls. Horn diffusers intact.
2009 Marshall 2061x HW Plexi head into Marshall 4x12 cabinet.
Former:
1964 C3
196x M-102
197x X5
197x Leslie 825Comment
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My friend who rescued it 12 years ago also maintained it when it was in regular church duty for many years, but it has not been oiled since going into storage after rescue. 12 years of Oklahoma summer heat did not phase the mechanics, testimony to excellent design and staying power of Hammond oil! I can't think of other apparatus that holds up like this, perhaps things like milling machines, lathes, firearms and sewing machines, but look how few individual parts they all have in comparison 8) I think the Hammond organ is probably one of the most sophisticated electrical/mechanical designs ever! After hearing how well the TG sounded I decided to clean the busbars to bring the manuals fully up to snuff. We shall be doing that next week after I certify her new preamp 8)Tom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720Comment
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I actually have a R114 compressor out of a 1926 Frigidaire that I use as a vacuum pump. Almost 100 years old and still pulls about 1500 micron vacuum!Tom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720Comment
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She got her new preamp this evening!Tom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720Comment
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Nice work Tom! It certainly frees up some real estate too!Hammond A100, M102, X5, XB3, XB5, TTR-100,
Lowrey DSO-1, H25-3, Yamaha E70, RA-100,
Farfisa Compact Duo MK2, Vox Continental 300,
Korg BX3 MK1, Leslie 145, 122.Comment
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Thanks Dave! Besides driving the Leslie, I included a line out jack to drive the mixer and DC300 8) It's 2.5 x 3.8 inches in sizeTom in Tulsa
Fooling with: 1969 E100, 1955 M3, 1963 M100, Leslie 720Comment
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