Free Hammond and Leslie

[Heepster]

First let me say, my name is Jesse and I'm a Hammond-aholic. </P>


It happened to me. Yesterday on CL, there it was, an ad for a free A102 and Leslie, 100 miles away. I called and the guy said he'd hold it for me. I picked it up yesterday afternoon. The Leslie is a 130. It has an 11-pin leslie kit on the organ, but no leslie cable.They said it had been in the back room of the church when they bought the building. Had never been started, had been sitting at least 10 years. They wanted it gone. No power cord. Condition unknown. I made a$300 donation to the church, as they refused any payment for the organ.</P>


I got the organ home and tried tostart it. Nothing. Got out my tester and got AC through the Start switch to the Start motor, which was frozen up. Thanks to you guys and all I've learned from this forum, I got some WD40 and cranked it by hand until it broke free. (Also thanks to Mr. Benton for the excellent article on his web site.) It spins when the pinion is disengaged from the TWG, but can't turn the TWG for more than a second or two. So I'm assuming the TWG is sluggish with old oil. Next step is the hair dryer trick or lighter fluid, oiling and turning by hand. </P>


Turning on the Run switch, I observed the tubes all lit up, and a soft hum from the speakers seems to indicate the electrical system is working. I think this organ has excellent chances for recovery, but if I had not been reading this forum, I would think otherwise. So you guys have all had a part in keeping this one from the trashcan. </P>


I'm ordering an 11-pin cable and will start on the Leslie when it arrives.</P>


The speaker codes indicate the 2nd and 6th weeks of 1961, and the oiling chart has a 1961 date, so I think it's safe to say this is an early 61. Serial # is 12149. The reverb amp is different than my 63 A100, which has an H-AO-44-1 amp. This one has an H-AO-35-7 (B) reverb amp. Silver power transformer on the AO-28-5 preamp. Fluted vibrato knob, pilot light. I think the Leslie kit is a 7830?, it's hard to read. Inside the bench was the original owners warranty envelope, with certificate of purchase and warranty card, a pack of preset labels, and info on cleaning and care, as well as some old Hammond music books. </P>


Ok, so I'm sitting there on my knees turning the TWG by hand and it hit me: I have crossed the line, from spectator to participant. </P>


When my girlfriend got there she asked me what the funny smell was, and I have to admit, I never thought of it as funny, I love the smell of a Hammond. Aromatherapy.</P>


I've been in denial but it's time to face it. I've been on this forum a few months, lurking and learning, and now I check CraigsList daily for Hammonds. I found an M3 for 50 bucks and persuaded my bass player brother he needed it. Unfortunately, it worked perfectly.Now I've got the A102as my project organ and I think I'm going to enjoy restoring this as much as playing it. So I have become one of you. </P>


Cheers,</P>


Jesse</P>
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[dwagar]

wow. what a great find. Way to go man.

[picothinker]

Hi Jesse, great find, and great luck in getting such good stuff for practically nothing! This is a testament to the reliability and simplicity of the original equipment.</p>

To further your Hammond acquisition enjoyment, I recommend searchtempest.com (http://www.searchtempest.com/) for an easy Craiglist aggregator. Put in your zip code, give it a radius, and it will search the neighboring Craigslists in one fairly easy step.</p>

thx-Scott S.
</p>

[Brendon Wright]

Ahh! That is fantastic!!!</p>

It's funny how inoperable one of these beasts can appear until you find one of these forums....</p>

now, if only I had the service manual for my stereo amp I could get rid of the humming, overheating output transistor in that! </p>

</p>

[Heepster]

Yes, I used SearchTempest, I found that tip on here! Thanks for the congrats, and just want to let everyone know, keep looking, these things really do happen!</p>

Any advice on getting this thing working is welcome.</p>

</p>

[bossbandbob]

Hi and welcome Heepster (as in Uriah?).</p>

I just got a free,
frozen A-101 going and also have a 130 (that I paid 150$ for) that I
added a a DIY top rotor unit to as well! Make sure the run motor is
also turning freely and the shaft is moving laterally a bit as well.
You may need to direct a bit of oil to that shaft &amp; bearing in
front of the motor. The tub with the wicks should have wicks going to
that bearing and scanner so make sure the foam pad is moistened with
oil (don't fill that tub with oil). I added a an equal mixture of
Hammond oil &amp; fluid to the foam pad to help get that motor going.
Congrat's and good luck!</p>Bob

[CEB]

</P>


Hi and welcome Heepster (as in Uriah?).</P>


...</P>


I knew Ken Hensley. He used to live in St. Louis but I think he moved to someplace in Europe. I want to say Spain.</P>
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[Brendon Wright]

That's too cool!!</p>

And here I was replacing the washer in our toilet cistern. What a contrast.</p>

[Heepster]

</p>

Hi and welcome Heepster (as in Uriah?).</p>

...</p>

I knew Ken Hensley. He used to live in St. Louis but I think he moved to someplace in Europe. I want to say Spain.</p><p mce_keep="true"></p>

</p>

Cool! I visited his St Louis studio once, and inside sat an old beat-up B3 that looked like total crap. I froze. I was told this was THE B3 used on Live 73, and his 'touring' organ. I touched it in awe.</p>

Yeah, Ken lives in Spain nowadays.</p>

[bossbandbob]

That is cool!!</P>


While we are on the subject of A100's, I 'm in the process of finishing and buttoning mine up. Just installed the Footpedals tonight and all are working fine! Next steps are to hook up the leslie and make a Zener OD unit for it. It is just too clean sounding for me without those options!</P>


The green felt cover over the TG filters.......is that needed? What purpose does it serve? I'll carefully put it back on if needed, but I'd rather not if I don't have to asI don't want to mess up any of those fine filter wires while doing so!</P>


3B</P>

[Heepster]

Hi and welcome Heepster (as in Uriah?).</p>

I just got a free,frozen A-101 going and also have a 130 (that I paid 150$ for) that Iadded a a DIY top rotor unit to as well! Make sure the run motor isalso turning freely and the shaft is moving laterally a bit as well.You may need to direct a bit of oil to that shaft &amp; bearing infront of the motor. The tub with the wicks should have wicks going tothat bearing and scanner so make sure the foam pad is moistened withoil (don't fill that tub with oil). I added a an equal mixture ofHammond oil &amp; fluid to the foam pad to help get that motor going.Congrat's and good luck!</p>

Bob</p>

Hi Bob,</p>

What was the process you used with the lighter fluid and oil? How long did it take? Mine seems to be the TWG having the most resistance to turning.</p>

[bossbandbob]

Add a thimble full of half hammond oil, half lighter fluid to the funnels. I did that 2-3 times within 3-4 days. When everything is working right, fill the funnels with just oil again as the lighter fluid will break up the gum but evaporate the oil. I'd also spray WD-40from under the TG and try to hit the TW bearings. You'll have to remove some of the wire bundleclips and suspension springsto get it high enough to see underneath. It is still hard to see so some you'll have to spray blind or through the slits at top. If you hit the tone wheels it should run into their bearings. Also with the organ off you can feel underneath and see which are stiff and hand spin them to get them loose and oiled. They may squeel when restarted. If that continues ,respray.

[TheAdmiral]

</p>

Mine seems to be the TWG having the most resistance to turning.</p>

</p>

You can't say for sure it's the TWG unless you disconnect it from the run motor/scanner, which could actually be the problem. Bob can certainly attest to that! Nevertheless, it all needs cleaning and lubing.
</p>

[indianajo]

Bobmann, the felt cover over the tonewheel filters is a useful device to keep dirt off of the electronics. If you ever have to solder again any of that stuff, you will wish it had the felt filter over it. Not to mention lint in the bearings. Not to mention the shorting effect of 1/8" of skin coated lint on medium impedance circuits. I just repaired a ST120 amp with 12 transistors, with a perforated cover. It had about 1/8" of lint and cathair all over everything. Took me 5 or 6 hours to clean it and it is only 12"x18". It is amazing how much lint and skin flakes float around a house, even if you don't have a cat.

[Bobmann]

You are addressing the wrong Bob, Indianajo...[:$] Seems to be a few of us on the forum these days.

Personally, I keep the TG covered with the felt sheet on all of mine...I also keep the backs in place to help keep the dust bunnies out.
I noticed that the H's that I have use a felt that is about 3/8" thick...I presume that this was also to help mask the noise of the TG in addition to keeping it clean.
Nothing attracts dust faster than an oily surface, and the inside of the TG is full of oily surfaces.</P>


Bob</P>

[bossbandbob]

OK-you guys talked me into it. I'm Installing the felt cover next.Just made a Zener OD unit for it- sounds awesome! Hooking up the leslie to it next. I inspected all the wiring &amp; switches. Nothing broken, frayed anywhere.Except for a coating of dust on everything on the bottom that was not covered, everything looks almost like new. Not sure how it was stored all this time, but I think it was in a heated anddry space.

[Heepster]

OK got the 11 pin cable in from Rick. Hooked it up, and it works. The 7830 kit and the 130 Leslie. Bob, after I get the A102 lined out, I need to build a top rotor cab like yours. You got a parts list?

[bossbandbob]

First 2 things you'll need is a 2-stack/speed leslie motor which you can get out of an old organ that has a built in leslie or on ebay,etc. If you get lucky you can snatch one there for under 50$, then you'll need a leslie horn unit which are cheaper to buy new (Goff-30$) than on ebay. You will need a treble driver (Red &amp; I use a Selenium phenolic from Partsexpress) and 800hz hipass and lopass crossovers-about 16$ for both at partsexpress. The CO and tweeterin the 130are useless as they are designed for above 4000Hz rythym unit cymbal sounds.I made a spindle out of plumbing parts from home depot and bought a bearing and largeO ring for the drive belt from a local bearings store.You will need some speaker and AC wire,etc. You can either run the top unit from the 130's amp after the hipass CO or use an external amp. I use an Epiphone Valve Jr for now but I need to figure out how to bipass its preamp for anything louder than home useas the gain is too high/soon with 2 preamps (theres one in the A100). I'll be posting more pix of it soon. the thing I like about usingan external amp is that you can adjust the volume and tone controls. I also leave the A101's speakers on when I use the leslie as I get better bass from them than the130and adjust the top rotor leslie to be slightly louder to be more evident.

[Heepster]

You use the ac from the motors (I assume the 130 has two?) to switch the rotor speed in sync with the 130? If so, I'll need a two motor stack, not a two speed motor, yes? Other than the rotor, you didn't use any parts from a leslie? I was wondering if a cheap drum leslie could be converted to a horn rotor, but I'm guessing the mounting hardware is too different? Are you doing counter-rotation with the 130? </p>

Are any of the modern retail horn boxes any good?</p>

I'm planning on the A102 being my project organ, so I'll be doing the zener OD, effects loop, line out, and a kit so it can be hooked up to the 122A. I hope I can have two kits on it at once?</p>

Hope I can figure out the missing tones soon.</p>

[redoctoberff]

A 2 motor stack IS a 2 speed stack. Top motor for tremolo speed, bottom motor for chorale speed, so switching between the motors gives you the speed switching. Not sure how Bob's rig is set up but I assume the two fast and two slow motors are wired in pairs so both fast motors are on at once or both slow motors are on. </P>


The Selenium driver is called the D250-X, costs about $45 shipped, and sounds amazing, plus it can go very loud without distorting. Here's a link:</P>


http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=264-204</P>


Read the reviews-- it won't disappoint. The diaphragms are also cheap which is good if you ever blow one, which is about the only way a compression driver will break.</P>


I assume by horn boxes you mean things like the MotionSound Pro3 and Pro3T. I've heard good things about them, but this route will be cheaper, unless you're just looking for the easiest solution.</P>


You'll want the horn and lower drum to rotate opposite directions to get the right phasing effect, but that is accomplished easily since as long as the bottom motor faces down (it should) and the top motor is hanging facing up (pulley at the top) they will spin in opposite directions.</P>

[bossbandbob]

Yes,the two fast and two slow motors are wired in pairs so both fast motors are on at once or both slow motors are on. My leslie control kit runs both at the same time. I ended up reversing the direction of my top motors by switching the electromagnets around as that was the only way i could quiet down the slow motor......long story. The motor and horns are the only "real" leslie parts I used on this rig.

[Heepster]

Update: it works!</p>

The starter motor is fixed, the missing tones present and accounted for. The TWG has been flushed with lighter fluid and refilled with oil.The TWG is one of the quietest I've ever heard. Can't tell it's running.Drawbars sound pretty good, but there are some keys noisy.</p>

So, I have an organ that hasn't been played at all in at least ten years, brought back to life, by this group. </p>

But I'm wondering about shifting busbars. I've seen some say "shift 'em", and others say "don't, they're all oxidized except where the contacts have protected them!" Remember, this organ has been in storage in the back room of a church for at least ten years, probably more.</p>

I've gotta decide, shift the busbars or not, so let's hear your two cents worth, folks. That's what we're all here for.</p>

[bossbandbob]

I don't know enough about the busbars, but 2 things got mine to perfect playing condition: just playing it and cleaning every tube and electronicconnection I could find with electronics cleaner spray. I did the tubes &amp; sockets and drawbarstwice.

[bossbandbob]

http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/images/106940/360x480.aspx (http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/picture106940.aspx)http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/images/106941/360x480.aspx (http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/picture106941.aspx)</P>


Here are a coupla pix of my upper rotor unit. The AC wires coming out of the 130 simply plug into the top unit to connect the motors, and there is anamp-inand a speaker-out jack. The speaker-out right now goes back in the130 into a down-firing tweeter that I installed earlier under the 130's woofer for more treble response. Now it is just there to achieve a 4 ohm load for the amp I'm using for the top unit. I just need to stain it to match, and make some removable louver inserts.......... and make a matching grill cloth[:S]?</P>

[bossbandbob]

http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/images/106942/640x480.aspx (http://organforum.com/photos/bossbandbobs_gallery/picture106942.aspx)

[Tim Rinkerman]

Heepster,</P>


Nice going on the resurection! Definately shift the busbars....it will get your dead or scratchy notes fixed.</P>

[Brendon Wright]

From what I've read, I'd rather leave 'em as is. There's just as much dirt on the rest of the bussbar.</p>

The old recipe from the service manual is to FIRST whack on that note staccatto machine gun style til the problem goes. If it doesn't, that's when they recommend shifting the bars. Though after X decades you'd do better to go in there with a contact cleaner than to shift 'em... from what Ive read.</p>

I HAVE recovered some scritchy notes using the staccatto method before on the C3 and it worked. </p>

The other thing is that if you have some nice SPIT on those notes, it's the grubby drawbars that give it. Clean those babies and you'll lose the spit which I personally think is a great sound.</p>

Cheers!</p>

</p>

[Colin]

To echo the earlier comment, I also just resurrected an A100 that was frozen from not being played for 20-odd years, and it certainly had its share of scratchy notes/dead notes after I got the generator turning. However, I've since done two 3 hour rehearsals with the organ (and a bit of personal practice), and it plays &amp; sounds about 95% better than when I first got it going (granted I have replaced one of the preamp tubes and adjusted the tone pot). The machine-gun technique and some time will probably bring back any goofy contacts-give it a week or so of playing any suspect keys, then move into more serious techniques :P</p>

</p>

Colin
</p>

[TheAdmiral]

Good advice from Brendon and Colin.

[Heepster]

Well, it certainly won't hurt to wait and see if it improves. I have been hammering on them but it really needs playing regularly to bring it back all the way. I've seen some improvement, there's only a couple stubborn ones.</p>

I refelted the upper manual today, just to see how difficult it was and if it made any improvement. I don't consider the keys on this one as noisy, they feel about normal for a Hammond, not too loose or noisy, really I didn't feel the felt would make much difference, the keys weren't bad to begin with. I left the bottom manual alone, for comparison, since they were in about the same condition. I must say I was even a little worried that the new felt might be worse than the old. You know, they don't make stuff like they used to.</p>

This was an eye-opener for me. The upper keys are silent, I mean wow, it DID make a difference, and the keys seem to feel more solid as well. I haven't been able to detect the more solid feel as being slower on fast runs, but maybe it's just that I'm not that good on fast runs! The difference in the sound of playing both keyboards with the organ off is impressive, the upper keys are SILENT. Not just quiet. Silent, like a new keyboard! So I'll probably end up doing both organs before it's all over with.</p>

It'll cost about 50 bucks and take a good chunk of your day to do both manuals. Because once you get in there, you are looking at fifty years worth of cool stuff accumulated under the keys. It's fun to clean it all up, and who knows, it might even help those stubborn keys. I made a wand for my vacuum out of the cardboard tube from a pants hanger duct taped onto the attachment wand, and even cleaned way back in there where the regular wand wouldn't reach. This isn't a real difficult project, doesn't take a rocket scientist, just time consuming taking out the 28 or so bolts and screws per manual, plus removing reverb tank, music rack and deck, and the 6 long bolts that hold the manuals in and together. Put a towel below where you are working to catch those ones you drop.</p>

I've requested a gallery, so there will be pictures eventually.</p>

Jesse</p>

[bossbandbob]

Where do you get the felt from? Is it all one piece?

[Heepster]

Got the felt from Tonewheel General Hospital but Goff and others carry it. It's all one piece, and the old felt peeled off nicely in one piece also. You'll need to trim the lower felt. Also the front rail is stuck on with double sided tape and you'll just have to pull it off with your hands. Great rainy day project, even if it's not raining.</p>

It makes the glissandos smoother, too.</p>