Rock & Roll: Kieth Emerson trick bad for organ??

[Whitneydrew35]

I’m sure this has probably popped up on this forum before but I couldn’t find anything. I was wondering if the thing that Kieth Emerson does where when he’s holding a chord or playing he flicks the off switch off really quick and then turns it on agains and it really distorts the sound and pitch of the chord and it’s kinda cool. If you don’t know what I’m talking about watch a live version of Rondo and he always does it at the beginning. ( when in ELP, not the Nice as much) but I was wondering if this would damage or hurt my organ if I did this? May be a dumb question but I just want to be precautious haha :)

[tpappano]

No, it won't hurt the organ. But when you switch it off you have only about 1 second before the now unpowered amplifier depletes its stored energy and the sound fades out. It comes right back when you switch it back on. This works best with 'single motor' organs like the L100. In dual motor instruments like a B3 or M3, the run motor probably will not be able to come back up to normal speed due to its design (I haven't tried it on my M3). Just for fun I've considered adding a separate switch for the motor on my E100 so the amp could still operate with the motor off 8)

[KC9UDX]

That's gotta be the least damaging of his antics. It technically is still damaging, but so little that it's unlikely anyone will ever quantify it.

I did catch my daughter doing this to my solid state organ once. This is far more likely to damage a solid state one than a tonewheel and tube one. :mad:

[Whitneydrew35]

Thanks for the responses!! And one more question, will stabbing knives into my Hammond damage it at all?? Hahaha

[KC9UDX]

It depends where the knife ends up. I've wedged a tongue depressor between keys to hold one down, and always figured a knife would work that way too.