Trying to identify chord organ from 1959

[Danielbeisenberg]

I am trying to identify the first organ I ever played, in 1959, aged 13. I was with a group with a layover of several hours in the Miami airport, which was less than 1/4 the size it is today. Some dealer had put this organ in one of the two concourses, to my surprise it had power, and there was no one around and no sign saying not to, so I switched it on and spent a couple of hours playing it til it was time for our flight.

I remember it very clearly. One manual, left hand worked buttons, with a palm bar to make them speak. Two pedals, root and fifth of whatever chord was selected. It was not portable, close to the size of a small piano, with bench.

I was surprised that it had every key, C, C#, D, D#, etc. For each key there were buttons for major chord, minor, major 7th, augmented and diminished. It did NOT have sixths, ninths, or minor 7ths. I’m less positive of this, but I believe they were in order like on a keyboard, not G next to C and F by Bb, like I see in some pictures. My parents, which I much appreciate in retrospect, had seen to it that I knew basic music theory (Eastman youth program), so I was able to make good use of it. Improvising and popular songs, no printed music.

I never saw this model again, and looking at many pictures of chord organs I can’t find it. Can anyone help? Thanks. Dan Eisenberg, [email protected]

[andyg]

Sounds like a pretty good description of a Hammond model S chord organ. I'm trying hard to think of any other single manual chord organs from that era.

[Danielbeisenberg]

Thanks for your reply. I looked at pictures of that model. It has unlabeled stop keys (if that’s the right name), but if the one I played had had them I would have experimented with them. It also had no white dots on chord buttons.

[andyg]

I'll ask over on the Vintage Organs Facebook group. Although this is a bit before the group's usual era, there may be a couple of people who know their organ history. For the moment, this one has me stumped. It's the two pedals giving root and 5th that made me think Model S, but there may have been others, of course. Wurlitzer had chord panels like this too, but they were on two manual organs.

[terryp]

Sounds exactly like an S6. My folks had one, I had it for a while after they passed, and shortly after, I gave it to my nephew. He still has it, and it works - probably with the original tubes. There's a slider under the chord buttons that exposes different contact surfaces if they become intermittent. Very clever use of limited oscillators too, to avoid conflict with its very limited polyphony.

[andyg]

Consensus over on the Vintage group is that you played an Hammond S and, with great respect, may be mis-remembering some details, almost 60 years later.

I'm inclined to agree, so closely does your description match the S. Finding details on chord organs from back then isn't easy - I'm sure you've tried - and I've been going through the 'mother list', Blue Book and the other references I have. Though there were some 'toys' and standalone tabletop models, the only three I've found so far that are anything like your description are the Hammond S, the Thomas Chordion and the Minshall Chord Organ, but the latter two don't match your description in terms of the two pedals and chord button layout. There was also the Electrovoice 'Regency' chord organ from 1958 (no images available yet) and maybe others, so I'm certainly not saying your memories are definitely incorrect, so I'll keep looking for you.

Updated: Just found the service manual for the 'Regency'. It has a few photos and it's nothing like you describe. The search goes on...

[andyg]

Final update!

The organ you played back in 1959 was definitely a Hammond Model S. The clincher is that it had the two pedals for root and fifth bass. I've just heard from a guy who is probably THE Hammond expert. He tells me that Hammond patented that system and therefore no other organ could use it.

[terryp]

Just Google Hammond S6, and you'll find lots of pictures of what I had. Two pedals, knee-operated expression lever/On-Off switch, and palm-operated expression boost bar. There were Hammond chord organ clubs all over, and lots of easy-play books written especially for the S. Bet you a buck that's what you had. It was the first 'organ' I played as a teenager too. And, since the chord buttons were laid out similar to an accordion, it wasn't hard to pick that up later.

[Danielbeisenberg]

That must have been it, then. I see in another posting that it was new in the late 50s. Thank you all. Can anyone point me to a picture showing the chord button arrangement?

[KC9UDX]

That must have been it, then. I see in another posting that it was new in the late 50s. Thank you all. Can anyone point me to a picture showing the chord button arrangement?