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Hello there! I am new to these forums, and have owned a Hammond & Leslie for a little over 24 hours. To make a long story short, I have always wanted a Hammond and Leslie, and this past week, I discovered that a local church was giving away a C3 and a 122, so I ended up with them.</p>
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After doing some research yesterday, I believe that the Hammond C3 is from 1957 based on the serial number. It has been in a few different churches over the past 40 years, and before that, was donated to a church by the original owners, a local family. The organ is in pretty good condition, but the reason it was being given away is that it supposedly wasn't working, and the church bought a new digital organ, and could thus afford to part with this one.</p>
When I got the organ home, I fired it up, and the first time, there wasn't any sound. The second time, it worked! The third try later on, nothing... The 4th try, and every subsequent attempt, success! So I'm thinking that it probably just needs to be serviced with some Hammond Oil, and possibly a look at the starter switch. Otherwise, it appears to be in pretty good shape. It's missing one key, but those are easy to replace. I am thinking about having a local Hammond service center send someone out next weekend to take a look. How much would a service like that cost, generally? I'm new at this ;)</p>
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Now onto the Leslie. I am primarily a guitar player, so my interest in the Leslie speaker originally came from its use with a guitar from players like George Harrison and Eric Clapton. In fact, George Harrison's guitar tone on the song "It Don't Come Easy" at the Concert for Bangladesh (in which Billy Preston was also featured with a Hammond/Leslie) is the first time I can remember learning about a Leslie speaker. As such, I have always been interested in the 122, 145, and 147 models, as they're the ones Harrison and Clapton are likely to have used.</p>
My Leslie is a little confusing though. The back panel has a black & white metallic ID tag that says Leslie 122 with a SN that would indicate a model from early 1964, I believe. However, at the bottom of the cabinet, the amplifier says "Type 22H." After I saw that, I started to research the 22H and discovered that they were made between 1958-1963, and that they were single speed tube-driven cabinets. However, when I fired up the C3, I was able to switch between the tremolo AND chorale speeds, so I went searching for more evidence.</p>
I discovered that you can also date a Leslie cabinet by looking for the 4-digit code on the lower baffle. After loosening the Jensen speaker enough to slide it out of the way for a second, I found a code, "3389," indicating the 338th day of 1959... which would certainly indicate a 22H cabinet.</p>
However, given the fact that this organ spent the past 40 years in a church, is it possible that this Leslie was originally a 22H, and then upgraded to a two-speed 122 by Hammond personnel (maybe via a service contract with the church?) then given a new Leslie 122 ID tag from the factory? I would imagine any church hearing of the new two-speed Leslies would have wanted their single speed models (like the 22H) upgraded to give them the new sound.</p>
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And lastly, I was wondering if anyone here could help me with the guitar aspect of a Leslie speaker. I would like to be able to use my Leslie with the C3 and a guitar... I am aware that models like the 145 and 147 can be equipped with a Leslie combo pre-amp to accommodate a 1/4" cable. However, I think that newer pre-amp pedals like the Trek II UC-1A and the Hamptone LPRE3 can accommodate Leslie 122 models as well. Would this be the best solution? Someone told me that there was a way around it, to use the RCA jack on the Hammond's volume pedal, but my C3 doesn't have one (maybe it's too old?)</p>
Thank you very much! I look forward to learning more about these great instruments! </p>
I have a bunch of pictures of the C3 and the 122, but I need to figure out how to post them here first :). </p>
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