Growl On the Hammond M3

[LeslieSpeaker]

Hello! I can get distortion on my M3, but I want a little bit more. Does anyone know how I can get more of that growl? Mabye I could adjust something on my Leslie 900. If someone could please point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[TheAdmiral]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3

You'll probably need a tube amp Leslie instead of transistor. You can try to turn up the preamp with the adjustment in the volume pedal box. Others may have different suggestions.

[Brendon Wright]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



I truly recommend the Kon Zissis Zener diode overdrive or 12AX7 overdrive with EQ on Hammond Wiki:</P>


http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/K...erdriveCircuit</P>


http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/K...erdriveCircuit</P>


JonC3, a member here, altered the zener OD to work an M3/M100 etc: http://organforum.com/forums/permali...ead.aspx#61591</P>


Jon's a bit biased against solid state amps, so ignore his comments!</P>


If you can get it pleasantly distorting before the Leslie, obviously the Tranny leslies have a WHOLE LOTTA headroom to play with!</P>


The zeners growl and gravel quite nicely, and it'san easier circuit to build than the 12AX7 one.</P>
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[bossbandbob]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



[quote user="TheAdmiral"] You can try to turn up the preamp with the adjustment in the volume pedal box.
[/quote]</p>

Just exactly where is this adjustment, asks a newbie with an M3?</p>

Thanks BBB</p>

[bourniplus]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



The procedure is explained here:</p>

http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/H...eampDriveLevel
</p>

[LeslieSpeaker]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3

Well thanks all for the help. And, in regards to turning up the preamp, would that get me more distortion or just a louder sound? Thanks....

[bossbandbob]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



[quote user="LeslieSpeaker"] in regards to turning up the preamp, would that get me more distortion or just a louder sound? Thanks....[/quote]</p>

This post (scroll about 1/2 way down) and that Wiki may answer that question:</p>

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=60918</p>

Sounds like you get the just the right amount of growl if you do this correctly. Going to try tomorrow!</p>

BBB</p>

[bossbandbob]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



Here is a circuit apparently one can buy for a SS Leslie for OD....sounds real good on their utube demos but don't know much else about it. About 88$ US</p>

http://www.keyboardpartner.de/hammond/products.htm </p>

scroll to the MIG-L</p>

[redoctoberff]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



About volume: You do get more, and you still have to push it to get drive (floored volume pedal, and normal instead of soft...for full on drive at least) but thats kind of a good thing. I'm pretty sure after a certain amount of turning it will continue doing so but won't get any louder, so I just turned it to that point and left it there.</P>


I plan on building the zener circuit anyway though, to have more adjustable distortion.</P>

[LeslieSpeaker]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3

Thanks for all of the help. I turned the volume slot head, and WOW! I got a ton of distortion. It sounds great! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

[bossbandbob]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3

Just don't overdo it on the OD as I might have done. It was sounding
really cool as I was topping the leslie out but I sensed a burning
smell from the Leslie and immediately shut it down. Not sure yet
but I may have fried one of my Leslie 130 speaker drivers! Hopefully it
is just the 9$ tweeter I put in.

[toasterDude]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



Hey BBB, I have some experience with burned-up solid-state Leslies [:(], so I thought I'd give you a shout here. Seems like the weak point in Leslie's solid-state design was the output transistors. It's possible you may have pushed the output transistors past the limit and one has failed on you. It's common in this case forthe dyingtransistorto takedown one or more resistors in the bias chain (for some reason "R86" is sticking in my mind from when I rebuilt an 820 with this issue.) On mine, a couple resistors had actually burned up to the point the PC board was charred.</P>


At the same time it's possible you were just stressing the output transistors, and they were giving off a lot of heat - that's what the heat sink is for after all. So, was it more of a "burning" smell or just a "hot" smell?</P>


If you did fry something, never fear: these little SS amps are super-easy to work on. (like, super-duper easy! I rebuilt mine with almost no experience in electronics.) Post back with what's up and I for one will try to help as much as I can.</P>


TD</P>

[bossbandbob]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3

The speakers still work but I need to pull the tweeter from under the woofer to check if that does. One speaker sounds almost like it's cone is cracked.Will open it tonight to see what's up. I think it was a burning smell but there was no smoke. Man, I gotta figure out how to get that sound back without burning anything up. I was getting that cool second chorus "Green Onions Live" OD sound (with the upper register's vibrato on low), if you know what I mean!

[Brendon Wright]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



You're the real deal now bob, just like all the famous guys you've had a great go at burning out your treble driver. It always happened on the original jensens and they replaced 'em with Atlases, mostly, but the JBLs were big in the 70s(literally. Very heavy things).</P>


You're well ahead of me in that respect. All I can suggest isKon's zener overdrive, it makes the sound without pushing the speaker to do it. I bought all the bits for it a few months ago and then went on to use them on other things! </P>


He has a good parts list on the recipe on Hammondwiki, except I think there's one item which is missing from the list which turns up in the description.</P>


While the diagram looks confusing, I can guarantee that once you start adding part A to part B it'll all make a great deal more sense. We can discuss any confusing bits, anyhow, and I've got Kon's direct email if we need it!</P>


You've reminded me I need to listen to the MGs again today and hear that bit half way thru Green Onions....</P>


-Brendoon.</P>
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[LeslieSpeaker]

Re: Growl On the Hammond M3



Oh wow! I cannot believe that story. I was enjoying that SUPER overdrive sound, but noow after reading this, I think I am going to turn the overdrive down (ALOT!!)That would be God awful if somthing happened. And the funny thing about it is that I was starting to hear some weird noises, just like when some one touches a hot guitar chord (you know that buzzzz sound), so thats when I shut everything down. I guess you really can screw stuff up with excessive overdrive, huh? Well, byebye overdrive for now, at least[:'(]</P>