with tape deck - seeking model # and year

[Julie G]

Hello

i have an old Hammond organ, bought 2nd hand in 1995 in Tasmania. Ex pub? - had key fitted!

It is failing now - after “popping“ a lot the keyboards have gone silent and today a grating sound :(

It has a tape deck! And lights in sheet music stand!

Seeking its model # and year. Also does it have a Leslie speaker in it ? (Think not)
*Tried to upload photo but it says “error”

Hoping anyone in Tasmania might want it and could fix it.
It sounded so beautiful back in the day.

Thanks for any advice / identification.

Julie
Hobart, Tasmania

[andyg]

This is a T500, from around 1972/73. It does have a two speed internal leslie. Absolutely nothing in there that cannot be fixed but you can reach the point where there's so much wrong that it's cheaper to find one that works. However, in Tasmania that may not be as easy as in the UK or USA! I hope you can find an engineer locally, as it's tricky to diagnose faults at long distance and give owners ideas on how to fix it.

[Papus]

Yes definitely a T500, well worth fixing!!!
It has an internal Leslie and the desirable scanner vibrato.
Given the scarcity of tonewheel Hammond organs in Australia, it is worth trying to find a loving home for this organ.
If you advertise it with the following key words in the ad, you can command a better price:

Tone Wheel Generator
Harmonic Percussion
Scanner Vibrato
Inbuilt Leslie rotary speaker
Easily modified to sound similar to a B3

If a potential buyer expresses interest but only to gut the organ or use it for parts, I suggest you decline their offer. Wait until an eager Hammond aficionado comes long, there's bound to be one sooner or later.

The grating sound is probably the tone wheel generator in need of Hammond oil, easily remedied but it takes a few days or weeks of patient repeated re-oiling.
DO NOT use any old oil. The tone wheel generator requires specialized Hammond brand oil. In a pinch you can use Singer sewing machine oil, but some experts disagree.
Hammond oil is available from the USA via the internet, you will be at the mercy of global postal services.
You could use Singer sewing machine oil to get it up and running, then later flush it out properly with naptha and fill it with proper Hammond oil.

Oiling instructions:
Remove the back cover of the organ. At roughly the same height as the keyboards is a wooden shelf running the width of the organ - look for two circular holes roughly the size of a coffee mug, beneath those holes are the white plastic oil funnels. Fill the two funnels on top of the tone wheel generator with oil.
Don't do it too slowly - just spout the oil into the funnel until it is almost level with the top of the funnel, it will drain down naturally. Repeat for each funnel.
Let it sit for a few days to allow the oil to seep through the moving parts and penetrate the bearings, then fire up the organ. If it still screeches, repeat the oiling process and wait a few more days. Keep doing this until the screeching stops.
A tone wheel generator which hasn't been oiled in decades may require many days or weeks of repeated oiling to get it back to proper condition.

There should be a blue motor at the left side of the tone wheel generator as you look at it from the open back of the organ - there is a very small funnel with a spring-loaded flip-top lid at each end of the motor - put a few of droplets of oil in to each funnel - only two or three droplets is required.
The motor might be difficult to access due to the vibrato scanner in front of it - the brown drum which resembles a toilet paper roll.
If the tone wheel generator still screeches after several repeated oilings, then you might have a stuck tonewheel, or the scanner drum might be rattling.
It is easy to remove the scanner drive belt from the pulley to rule out the scanner as the source of noise.
If you've got a stuck tonewheel then you'll need a higher level of skill beyond simply filling cups with oil, I won't go into the details here.