"New" M3! Drawbar Problem Galore!

[Guest]

I just got a beautiful new blonde M3. It is beautiful in fantastic condition, however, the drawbars are confusing me. They work.... sometimes. If you pull them out all of the way, the don't work. Most of the time they don't work, but there are little spots where they work, about 5 or so. Besides that, everything seems fantastic. Any help? If it helps diagnose a problem, the drawbar working spots are all located in the same point on the 1-8 scale of sorts. Thanks for any help

[toasterDude]

Re: "New" M3! Drawbar Problem Galore!



Congrats on the M3... I always did think Hammonds in the blond wood looked terrific. How about posting a picture or two?</P>


Take heart, though - nothing to worry about with the drawbars. It's very common on Hammonds that haven't been played for a long time, for the drawbar contacts to get dirty, giving the intermittent performance you're experiencing. Fortunately the solution is simple: buy some electronics contact cleaner like Caig DeOxit and spray the drawbars liberally from the back, then work them in and out repeatedly. You should also know that it can take awhile to get them cleaned up to the point where you get a continuous swell or fade in amplitude on each harmonic. There was a thread very recently where somebody was worried that spraying the drawbars hadn't fixed the problem -- no matter, just keep spraying and working the drawbars every couple weeks and they'll come back. I had this issue with a 1955 M3 that had sat for a LONG time gathering dust -- took me a few months to get the drawbars back completely. Anyway good luck with it and enjoy! cheers, TD</P>

[Guest]

Re: &quot;New&quot; M3! Drawbar Problem Galore!

Thank you! It's acually already almost perfect again! A couple drawbars on the upper manual are still a little wacky, but nothing i'm concerned about. Thanks