Did I ever tell you the story of how a Hammond Chord Organ saved my life? I was terribly depressed over marital woes and I took a two week vacation from work and bought an old model S (vintage late 40's) Hammond Chord Organ from an ad in the local paper and paid $25 for it sounding horrible. For the next two weeks I spend all my waking hours refurbishing the electronics of this oscillator based organ. It kept my mind off my sadness and yielded a perfectly functioning Chord Organ. It even came with a bunch of books so I could learn to play it. Congratulations on your most worthy project as from what I hear you are well on the way to have a functioning tone wheel Hammond. You should get the service manual to aid you in this restoration.
I get a bit emotional when Someone does justice to an old classic musical instrument by restoring them . To hear it's voice again , to not just restore a machine , but to restore the beauty of it's sound and allow it to once more have life and sing . I say this on behalf of the muses , Thank You .
@@AEMachinas To this day (and I've been around a while) I have yet to see any digital equipment that could rival the true pure sound of the old style analog equipment , first off the mechanical tone wheel , but also the tubes , and then the most known part the leslie , just those three components make the sound waves physically more active throughout the air , digital can't match the effects without the mechanical aspects . Many years ago I got to own a T-524 that I had to sell due to a move , I only wish I could get to hear that again , but it's long gone , I just hope it has been played like it was meant to be , and if not that someone like this might find it and let it live , guess I'll not know but I'll like to believe some old lady is giving lessons on it right now ? or maybe it found it's way into a church , that would be ok as it would at least get played once a week . Do I sound like I miss it like an old friend ? Well I do .
I smash these up for fun. Basically any old instruments, screens, computers, electrical goods etc that I can get hold, I bust up. Burn the debris in the garden and scrap any metal left after the fire.
@@WCM1945 You're making the common mistake that money is the most important thing in life. What if I get more pleasure from smashing up stuff up, than I would from going through the chore of selling it, and then spending the money on something else?
Try using a freeze mist on ALL of the brass bearings ( there are a lot of them, between each tone wheel, then re-oil the generator; that is why some of the tones are sounding "weird". You will need to remove a series of long bolts to access the tone wheel generator assembly. Vacuum all of the dirt out of the keys and organ interior. Wishing you the best in restoring this gem! ...i used to be a Hammond/Leslie repair tech back in the 1970's when these things were new. i still have the Hammond service manuals if you need one.
There you have it; Hammonds are bulletproof. The L100 was the most inexpensive (and lightweight) tonewheel organ Hammond ever made; yet it still works after sitting outside in the rain. You'll love it!
LOL, I don't think there is a tonewheel Hammond in existence that was 'lightweight'!!🤣 I have a T212 to attest to that. If I take the internal leslie assembly out and pull the top off, I can usually move it around by myself with a hand truck.😁👍
To be fair, it certainly did not spend much time outside and you can notice the inside is VERY neat and clean so this is an organ that originally was in a great condition.
@Dio Brando As I mentioned before, I actually have a T-212, but it has a transistorized amp (1961?). The L and M series I think were tube amps all the way through the years they were in production. My T-series sounds good, but not as good as the old tube units.😉 It also doesn't have as much 'key-pop' in the percussion as the older organs, which seems to be desirable, especially to the rockers. (Listen to 'Green Eyed Lady' sometime.)😁
@Dio Brando so you can play along with songs, also record internally. My father had a Conn Theater Organ with internal cassette recorder. (Conn Organ was a POS, but recorder was good system.)
I rescued a Hammond T-311, and for the life of me couldn’t figure out where to put the oil. The instruction manual had words but no pictures. This was so useful, can’t thank you enough! Also you are a badass for doing this restoration. Can’t wait to see more!
There are more good old organs to be found out there than you would dream of. The advance in electronic/synthesizer technology since the 60s and 70s has killed the organ as a practical instrument. The Hammonds sound great, but for a working musician they can be a pain to move around~ it usually takes two big men and a boy to move them any distance and forget about getting them up stairs... If you want a good Hammond, contact churches or Look up Masonic Lodges (they usually all have Hammonds and it often is harder to get rid of one than to find one to get.
My Neighbor dumped a nice whurlitzer and an Orcoa. The Orcoa is just an an Air Turbine, Reeds, and Valves attached to the Keys... which works perfectly. The Whurlitzer was pretty bad off so I gave that away.
Great job Rin! I rescued my first hammond a little over a year ago. Luckily I found a mentor 10 miles from me. Be careful, this disease gets in your blood and will overtake your garage. I have 5 hammonds now and would take more but I'm out of room. I dream of having a warehouse/shop/rehearsal place. Serious obsessions, lol
The 'Leslie' speaker from the Wurlitzer is called a Spectratone Speaker. It was Wurlitzers version of a Leslie speaker. A true Leslie speaker has the speaker mounted in a cylinder & the whole thing rotates around a vertical axis instead of a horizontal axis. I've worked on both.
my model has that, say, would you happen to know what might be the issue with my '68 multi-mate percussion Wurlitzer in that when turned on, there is constant (single) foot petal note? ( has 25 foot petals ) the note turns off if i disconnect the foot petal connectors... perhaps a stuck or broken reed? Thxs
@@Conn653 you mean the glass magnetic reed switche(s) by the petals ( magnet on each petal ) ? i tested every one, checked the 3 connectors and sockets + wiring as well. It plays a single note constantly & will change to whatever freq you last pressed (on the foot petal keyboard ) but it doesn't release the note when you release the foot petal ... also need a new belt for the Spectratone Any links to schematics/part sources would be GREATLY appreciated.
@@robozstarrr8930 contact Morelock Organ Service, in Mississippi. They have the schematics & parts. Janice is a sweet lady & will help you out. She's hard to get a hold of but once you do, she'll do you right!
Love this video Rin! I still have my dad's old A100 w/ Leslie. Thanks for showing me how to go about oiling it. It has been over 20 years (at least) since it was properly lubricated. I have great memories of him playing that old beast. You will love it. Thanks again!
Thanks for this video!!! This was a very handy video for me. I just got a free Hammond L-103 so it's almost exactly like yours. My tonewheel sounds a little rough but not near as bad as yours did when you first fired it up. I've been oiling it and now I think all I have to do is keep at it until the tonewheel quiets down.
I recently have been working on my 1960 M3 after taking the organ out of storage after 20 years. This had the front cover still on it so the insides are very clean. Tube checked and replaced as needed amp tubes. Hammond oil to left cup for scanner and motor, both middle and right cups had three doses of filling cup, that was Friday night. Saturday checked and had some squealing bearings so I left it alone. Sunday night so two days later: tonight, I realized that some heat might get the oil to flow better. After ten minutes of going up and down the generator on the bottom side slowly back and forth, I started the organ and had NO SQUEEALING!! When I shut down the generator it ran for 16 seconds until it stopped. I imagine this might be rare? but if your organ is squealing give it some loving heat! Johnne in Clallam Bay, WA.
This is relevant to me!!! I got an M100 that's very similar and I'm in the process of chopping it and restoring it to make a usable piece of gear out of it. It's got many of the same issues yours has.... minus the stink bugs!! Saving this for future reference!!!
I found an organ almost identical to this one on the roadside a few days ago. It's a L143 and IT WORKS! I actually drove by it a few days before I had time and cargo space to pick it up. Grateful it didn't rain. There were a couple fuses out of socket and the whole inside was caked in dust (and somebody's baby pic). I straightened the pins and reseated the fuses, and it fired right up. In good condition and no grinding noise in the wheels. Cleaning it up, then I'll do the oiling thing. Good luck with yours.
Good for you! My folks bought me back in 1968 a Hammond T series that looks close to yours. After yrs in their house, then my step uncles, now mine, it started to squeak like yours. I recently ordered from "Tonewheel General Hospital" (yes that is correct), Generator and motor oil. Now I have to wait for the oil to wick down the funnels (2). Also oiled the motor. I believe it had not been oiled in yrs. Who knows. I played in grade school and high school band (sax), and took organ lessons for 2 yrs. At 71, I have time now to get it going again! Have fun!!!
Well done for rescuing that.Here in the Uk people dont put stuff out by the road,they just take it straight to landfill.But,ive just got hold of a 1969 Hammond T202 and its in beautiful condition but it sounds like its never been oiled.Screaming like a Banshee.The few drops are ok when its been oiled once a year for the last 50 years-but on my organ the oil inside is a big one and its never been opened. So i filled the caps up to the top twice and oiled the motor itself.Its still very noisy ,but the oil has to find its way along little thread wicks to all the bearing -80 odd.It plays in tune now,so its just a case of letting the oil do its work.BTW-my Hammond has a leslie inside it-a Bonus.Dont bother getting a valve leslie for it but keep an eye open for a 110 or 120 or 125.To give it a true Hammond sound you need the leslie with horns at the top like a 145 but they are just soooo expensive now.
Thank God someone like you found this instrument and is willing to restore it. You have a true treasure in your hands. A true tone wheel organ from Hammond is nothing less than a hand crafted piece of art. There is no sound that can compare. I can't believe that someone would just toss it to the side of the road like that. I wish I could get lucky enough to grab a find like that no matter what shape it's in.
14:26 @@RinoaLreally I had one given to me by the school where I workef. Sst in the storage closet forever and nobody ever used it. Summer clean up they said get it out of here haul l it to the dump or something. I have two othe. they were giveaways at an auction nobody wanted them. So I was going to strip them to make guitar amplifiers out of the tube amps. Tried to give the one the school gave me a way to the organist at our church Justice Sunday. But she doesn't have room in her own home she wants a electronic keyboard to practice with. So I'm just probably going to haul them to the dump someday. Probably just take the wire pliers and cut off the wires and yank the amplifiers out and dumpster the rest of it. Kind of a shame great cabinet wood
I think that is a testament to how well those were made if that Hammond sat out in the rain and still worked but just needs some TLC to get it working correctly. It's nice to see that you rescued it! No modern Chinese made electronics would of held up like that.
Just rescued a Hammond organ that had been abandoned at the end of my street, the plug has been cut off, but beside flaking damage on the laminated chip board body, nothing is missing, & no careless damage. Luckily I got to it before the young kids treat it like a pinata & smash it up like they do nowadays. They don't appreciate stuff like this that I do & I'm glad it's out of the public eye, meaning I couldn't find anyone to help me carry it up a flight of stairs because it's one heavy mutha!!!🤣 I have it stored in a little alcove which is part of the building where I live, it's where the bins used to be stored. My advice, what I would do is find everything you need to know about a particular model & arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible. From what I see here, when I start maintenance on mine, I know it's going to be a rather complex project!🙂👍
these old organs are works of art these are popular I saw a dude playing one on a war video from the early 70s eric burdon also procol harum a Whiter shade of pale live in Denmark in 06 very classy little organ I could only imagine the tone and hours of fun playing this.
Hi Rin , great find but be careful poking your hand in there. Hammonds run very high voltages even after unpmuged you might be wearing a perm lol. I picked up a Hammond 1957 C3 from a church they just wanted it off their stage. I also built my own leslie 122 complete with the correct vents. Holler if I can help.
I'm extremely impressed how far you came to fixing the Hammond. Can you put up a video of the final outcome. Would love to see it . and. Thanks for sharing
@@Cruiseangel72 nasty? do you always blow up for no reason and read an honest statement as being an insult? me: idk when ill get around to it you: REEEE YOUR AN ASSHOLE WAAA seriously. i dont want you bugging my channel if you are going to make shit drama out of nothing.
A tone generator that dry will need a lot of oil, and a lot of time for it to work it's way into each of the bearings. Every bearing (and there are a lot of them) has it's own piece of thread that wicks oil down from the main trough under the funnels. If none of the threads are broken, you should be in good shape as far as the generator. The amplifier may need some capacitors replaced, and the tubes tested. These will get pretty loud and full sounding when they are working properly. Though it's possible the speakers themselves have cone damage from the weather too. If you Google "Hammond L-100 service manual" You'll find a PDF you can download. Good luck on the restoration!
yeah i figure i'll let it have a few months to let the oil get through, then start playing with it this summer. i have tube testing equipment from my television restorations, so dont worry i plan to test the caps and tubes, and probably replace the tubes since i have several thousand of them. and i already read most of it, but the service manual doesnt say what i want to know. i want to know if tonewheel oil will be ok for the motor itself.
@@RinoaL Ya the same generator oil is also used for the motor. I usually put 3-4 drops in each motor cup. But yours might need a few more since it probably went decades without oil.
the motor gets quite hot so i'll tape a thermometer to it and run it for 30 minutes, then the next day add 2 drops of water and run it and see if it runs any cooler. then continue until it levels off
@@RinoaL Water? LOL I assume you mean oil? The motor will get pretty warm normally. You may also want to check the capacitor on the motor, but those seem pretty reliable.
yeah, sometimes i'll go to type a word but my hands type an entirely different word, then when im in a hurry i dont notice it. worst was one time i typed "one" as "hydrogen". my brain is weird.
I had a 1960 M103 Walnut model. Mine had two on switches. One was off/on the second was on momentary. To start, flip both up, holding one in the up position. In 2-3 minutes it will remain running on the one switch and you release the second. That noise is the clutch at the right end. The drawbar setting for most rock songs is 3-8-8-3. Then blend the rest as your ear tells you. I disconnected the foot petals and got a set of keys that go there on the lower left where the metal cover is. For bass, the key colors are reversed , black in front and the small keys were white.
I like how casual you are about it. This is just me, but if I were you, I would vacuum out the mice droppings, vacuum off the keyboard, drawbars, stops, etc. so dirt doesn't migrate further into the organ. carefully wipe down the case and oil it with the appropriate color stain or furniture polish and cover it up with a plastic drop cloth that you can get at any paint or hardware store for a couple of bucks. Wiggle the tubes a bit to break down any corrosion or oxidation that had a chance to form as a result of being outside and in the rain. Using a vacuum is preferable to wiping the dirt off with a damp cloth, because you don't want dirt getting down between the keys, etc. After vacuuming, then use a damp cloth to remove remaining film, etc. As for the Leslie, I built a home-grown version when I was back in high-school in about 1970. There were no plans or internet or TH-cam, so I had to think it up myself. Only one rotor, though. It worked OK but if you keep your eyes peeled, you'll find a real Leslie Model 122 left out in the rain or in an old church somewhere, broken. With your skills, you'll be able to fix it. I'd talk to every organist you can find, like after a church service. Lots of churches used Hammonds until they could afford a pipe organ, then out went the Hammond and Leslie. Maybe they have been moved down into the church basement. Unless we're talking about a gospel church, of course, in which case the reverse may be true. The pipe organ goes pretty much unused and the Hammond B3 or A100 is the center of attention.
I just picked up a Hammond H-100 that showed up for free on FB Marketplace. It was in a garage and probably hadn't been oiled or used for 40+ years. The vinyl power sheath was crumbly. Now it's in my garage and I'm replacing the electrolytic filter capacitors on the power supply and the 5AR4 rectifier tubes are suspect. I've ordered solid state plug-in 5AR4 replacements for use in testing and may go back to 5AR4 tubes later. I'm going to replace the canned electrolytics with an axial cap array and relocate them off of the chassis (onto the cab wall) and connect them with longer wires. Two plastic keys are broken, so I need to figure out how to replace those. Overall, mine was pretty clean inside and had a mostly-full original oil tube inside. I've oiled the two funnels, the two motor tubes, and the vibrato well. When disconnected from the tonewheel main shaft, the motor spins and is silent. However, the tonewheel shaft acts "spring loaded" and, if I try to rotate it, it returns to its original position. I think something just after the 1st spring junction is binding it. The tonewheels look new and undamaged and most of them spin freely and have a bit of free axial play, which I understand is a good sign. I need to scan them carefully and identify the problem spots. When I opened it up, it looked like the thick brown felt blanket over the TG was factory placed, so I don't think it likely that any foreign objects fell into the mechanism. Possibly, some bits are dry-oil glued together? Or, maybe a tonewheel sensor is out of position and binding a tonewheel? Anywho, anyone who has advice or ideas to share, thanks in advance! Thanks to you, Rinoa, for the video and congratulations for getting your to sing!
Heh heh, that sounds like the tone generator in my T212 when I first got it.🤣 Fortunately I got not just one, but 2 - T212's given to me, just to haul them off, and I made one really good one out of the pair. The tonewheels just needed a good oiling and some TLC, and I had to work on the vibrato scanner a bit to get it stable. Other than that and a replacement capacitor or 2, it was a pretty easy restoration. The T-212 also has the benefit of a built-in leslie, which is pretty nice, plus you can connect it to an external such as a 122 cabinet, and it will work in conjunction with the speed switch on the organ. Time is your friend when you are waiting for the oil to get to the various parts in the tone generator (as you have already seen). They use cotton threads to 'wick' the oil to various locations, and it does take some time for it to do that, especially in cold weather. It may be to your advantage to find someone in your area with a tube tester, and pull all the tubes in the amp and get them checked. You should still be able to find what you need on E-bay, if any of them are bad or marginal. Also, drop the pedal assembly and check the contacts, as they are prone to corroding up in a wet environment, plus you can adjust them for contact height across the pedal board, so that each one 'sounds' at the same amount of pedal depression. The drawbar contacts can be iffy at times too, but it's pretty involved to actually get them out of the organ since the wires are soldered to the sliding contact side (the back) of each drawbar. The easiest way I found to clean them is to shoot 'electronic spray cleaner' with a straw, into the back of each drawbar, and work it back and forth a few dozen times to get the crud off the internal contact bars. This will cut down on the gaps in volume for each one, and maybe make a few work that weren't working before. If you're handy with a soldering gun, re-solder each of the wires on the back of the drawbars, as these usually break over the years since they move with the bar and have no support to speak of. The spray electronic cleaner works for all the rocker switches and tone tabs and their contacts as well. Keep at it, and you'll have a nice L model before you know it.😁 One word of caution: Be careful when messing with the output socket for the external leslie speaker (on the back of the amp) There are some nasty high voltage pins that will definitely ruin your day, and a couple that retain voltage even after the organ is turned off because of the internal capacitors. It would be to your advantage to grab a service manual from here: dl.lojinx.com/analoghell/HammondL100SeriesServiceManual.pdf if you don't already have it. Good luck Rinoa!😉👍
Peter Wikvist I thought I could be wrong but not THAT wrong! I know that, knew that, and I’m now very embarrassed about that! I’m going to leave my comment exactly where it is to teach me a little humility...and that I need to get my colour blindness sorted so I can tell the difference between Pink and Purple!
Finally a tutorial on oiling I'm thinking an E-111 is similar the two flaps on the motor was a hint as well as the foam at either end of the rod. My cabinet has 80% of the oil left in the tube.
Any American made musical instrument deserves consideration for a restoration; it is tremendously gratifying and a lot of times all it needs is love, the rest all comes together.
Wow. What a find.Never got that far inside a Hammond. I nearly bought a Hammond "L200 Spinet" while serving in the army in Germany. Did not due it would have sat locked in my room back in the barracks while out was out in the field on exercise. I knew they were electro- mechanical, but not that mechanical.Talk about oiling. I was working on the doors of a Shell Filling station and this young lady student asked me were she could buy a funnel with a very fine spout. I asked her what for and she said I will show you. So I followed her out to her car and sure enough as I had suspected she pointed to the end of the dip-stick tube. She had been trying to pour engine oil down the tube after removing the dip stick. I just got hold of the oil filler cap, removed it and told her to try that for size. She was totally embarrassed. I presumed that she was not sitting for a degree in mechanical engineering. I 'm sorry but I went back to the shop and burst out laughing. The woman there said what's the joke and I had to tell her what the young lady had wanted. It was going through my head how long would it take to refill a bloody "Chieftain"Tank engine if you had to do through the dip-stick pipe.
Thats a different type of Leslie speaker than ive ever seen, the ones ive come across are like a rotating foam horn with a stationary speaker. That one is pretty nifty!
You are my new youtube Hero!!! It's so cool that you have rescued this very cool "art"ifact from the side of the road! Great to see for me on two fronts...I pick up stuff on the side of the road as well and one of them is a large Hammond speaker cabinet that seems to be relatively unused! I have thought it would be a great little bass guitar speaker because of the incredibly large speakers it contains. I am speculating that it seems to be very unused because of the preference for Leslie speakers in combination with the "Hammond Single Celled Organism", a Frank Zappa quote, and I surmise the speaker was set aside and a Leslie went with the Keyboard to other digs. Very cool to that you have rescued the Leslie!!! I anxiously await your next installment and am gonna check out all the rest of you vids! Cheers, and thank you!!!
I’m a huge Hammond fan. Like you, I don’t play, but these are unique instruments that must be saved. I’m not too familiar with the L-112, but I know the B-3 in good condition is worth a lot of money. I’m a retired electrical engineer and I restore a lot of old tube type electronics like are used in these old organs. In addition to the tone generator mechanism, there are a lot of parts in the electronics of the L-112 that will need to be tested evaluated and replaced just due to age. Those parts are 40-50 years old and subject to failure. I don’t know where you are located, but I would be happy to help you out with the electronics restoration. Since this is a unique project, I am volunteering my services at no cost to you. I’m located in Kentucky and I’m sure we could work out the logistics of shipping the electronic sections to me for restoration. Please contact me if I can help.
Tony Banks of the band Genesis played a similar model L-100 or T-100 (transistorized version) in the 70's. He played it on the albums and tours for Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering.
Love your can do/will learn attitude! L-series models have their own 'flutey' sound - sits in the mix really well. There's a pot in the back you can tweak a bit to get a fearsome growl when hooked up to a Leslie... love 'em... love 'em!
Suggestion: Mount the guts behind Plexiglas and mount them on the wall above the organ, so it looks like a table top piano, with a tall see through table. And the glorious guts there to see and admire. Cool gears inside!
I love your inquisitive nature and watching you learn as you go. . keep it up! That Hammond sounds super cool already. Enjoyed watching you tackle this project. There is NOTHING like the sound of a real Hammond with a real rotating speaker. You can get a sense of it from the video but when you are in the same room....WHOA! Good luck to you Rinoa
You've got a great start on that one. The "Lesie" unit from a Wurlitzer can sound very good. They called theirs "SpectraTone". I connected one to my old Baldwin and it made a world or difference. I was a Hammond Technician for a couple of years in the early 70s, and I can vouch for the fact that they are extremely rugged instruments, and can sound as good at fifty years old as they did on the showroom floor. I did notice some "bleeding" notes when you pushed the expression pedal way down. I suspect there might be some moisture trapped in one (or both) keyboards. Some WD40 can help with that. You might use some good quality contact cleaner, too, on the stop tab switches and drawbars, since the moisture probably left some cruddy stuff there. Sounds like your electronics is OK, maybe a little hum from old filter caps that might need replacing. But it sounds like all the vacuum tubes are good. That will save you some $$ right there. Looking forward to your next post!
Rin, I enjoyed your video on the Hammond! It brought back memories of a Scooby-Doo episode where an organ was featured and the sounds of screeching organ sounded like the "ghosts". I know you'll get it up and going and I look forward to seeing your progress.
Many years ago when kids were little my son and I were bringing things to our local charity store we spotted one of these, paid $50.00 and brought it home. Installed in my sons bedroom we took to playing it (badly) and my daughter whose bedroom was adjacent complained that it was like living next door to a funeral home :-)
I restored a Hammond B3 which had similar neglect/moisture/rust issues. I found that a mixture of PB Blaster and Hammond oil worked wonders on the squeaky tone wheels. The ratio is 3 parts of Hammond oil to 1 part PB Blaster. Apply and then let sit for 12 hours. If there are still issues repeat process.
I am an electronics tech and organist of over 40 years experience repairing and refurbishing older electronic organs including Hammond. Personally I prefer Conn over most other makes due to the separate note oscillators which make up the tone generators so they sound much more like a pipe organ with notes drifting in and out of phase with each other. The Hammond instruments generate tones via rotating steel wave shaped wheels with magnetic pickups placed close to the wheels all locked in phase so without a leslie all sounds musically dead. The wheels are rotated via bakelite gear wheels driven from a synchronous motor. The vibrato and all amplification is all performed via vacuum electron tubes , problems can develop here as well as the mechanical tone generators. If the oil is not kept up to the generators, permanent damage can be done to the gear trains and bearings. Transistor tone generation is much easier to maintain although with Conn spinets there are 56 separate manual tones to be tuned and 13 pedal notes to be tuned to the manuals, usually annually but in the real world they are rarely ever touched......Robert
i've owned like 6 organs so far, and up until now they were all mostly transistorized (Sometimes hybrid) and i honestly wasnt too happy with their sounds so i ended up dismantling them. they sounded too electronic like a crappy casio.
Most American organs form the early 1970's used 12 master oscillators followed by divider chains, a few were voiced reasonably but most were not. The Conn did a reasonable job for the electronics that was around then. I prefer to play a reasonably large Theatre Pipe Organ with 3 manuals and at least ten pipe ranks. That being said I practice on a Conn 652 theatre console built in 1979-80 that I have refurbished. There are a couple of that model here on youtube. Electronically quite a complex beast, but not quite the same as playing a real pipe organ. At the moment I have 6 organs between the house and workshop. Lost count of how many I have owned , dismantled for parts and pasted on to individuals and churches. Yamaha, Kawai, Technics, Casio, in fact fairly much all of the Japanese instruments are not worth bothering with. Regards Robert
I rescued a Hammond E-112 that was going to a electronics recycler. It was the last thing remaining in a house from an estate auction. It had most of the oignal paperwork with it,including the bill of sale when new $2500.00! That was a lot of money in the mid 1960's
In the late 60s I used to play a full-pedal Hammond at Ballast Point Navy Chapel. I always like the sound of the Hammond (not as much as a PIPE organ, but excellent for those Chapels). HOPE and patience is my advice, because you'll need that to teach yourself to play. I taught myself the piano and organ, with no lessons, then went on to earn a living for 50 years with my skills. Learn to read, learn the theory, and play it all the time. I now have a Wurlitzer full-pedals model I bought for $400. I also have 2 grands, one a model A Steinway, 1914, the other a 6' Weber, 1929. Go for your dreams in music.
I'm intrigued and will be following, since I also have a "rescue organ" that I picked up for free, a Hamond Model 125222L (Romance Series) with the Leslie speaker. I've been meaning to tinker with it for a bit.
@OnlyRocknRoll Yes, somebody even sold an old, totally useless PA system that i know for sure sound absolute shit if one want to play music on it and was realy sheaply made when they came in the the 50s here for about 60 bucks, then i saw the guy who bought it started to ask tons oq question on a forum where those slightly retarded guys in the category who simply refuse to listen to anyone outside their circles, it's fully up to each what one want to spend money on, but i picked together a first class HiFi amplifier from brand new russian valves for about 350$ in total, including a brand new Brittish made transformer and some german made outputs in very good condition, and even some brand new cahssi details, the sound from those tubes are so uncomparably better than anything tose guys try to sell for 50 bucks each, i think i gave 6 bucks for the most expensive of them included shipping and socket because it did not happen to hawe the right letters on it... Now i bet that thing would be concidered worth like 1000$ from the same guys, if they pay med 1500 bucks for it i will accept it with a smile... At least it would not suprise me, if they hawe a meeting here around i will deffinitly bring it there just to see...
I have an L-102 and the guts of a rotating speaker very similar to your situation. I bought a small hotone clean amp with plans to drive the "leslie" system. Because the hammond organ amp needs a speaker load to work, I didn't unplug the speaker from the amp. I have taken audio out of the organ via a splitter and connected it just before the white plug that feeds the amp. One end back into the amp, and the other connection into guitar pedals and an amp. The only thing the organ doesn't output unfortunately is the spring reverb tank. That is connected after that signal feeding the amp. The Chorus/Vibrato and Percussion are all in the signal pre amp so that still outputs in the white plug connection at least. I've also used a Pigtronix Rototron pedal which has a fantastic stereo leslie effect. You just need to use another booster guitar pedal to feed it as it has a volume threshold before sounding. If you only drive it from the hammond audio signal and it's drawbars/expression pedal/soft volume switch settings are too low, it won't play anything. Of course you can always connect up a big 'ol Marshall stack but I'm not there yet. Nice Wile E. reference there as well.
I am shocked you were able to restore that! I have an M3 which is like that but a lot older and is in way better condition than that originally was! That is amazing that you spent that much time restoring that. But you know, Hammonds are the best organs out there.
I always bought this oil from my HVAC parts house to use on any kind of turbine applications which mainly include a shaft tuning in a bronze bearing which is what is going on in the Hammond tone wheel assemblies and also the running motor and pony or starter motors on the older Hammond organs. I always spent the bucks and bought genuine Hammond tone generator oil because I did not know any special properties that may be been inherent in that oil that I might not get with zoom spout. Does anyone know what the oil was that Hammond used to package their tone generator oil?
@@kdegru Hammond says to use the official Hammond oil because if you use something with a different viscosity, it won't play in tune. It depends on the tone wheels spinning at an exact RPM for the pitch to be right.
Clean it up, repair/refinish the wood and have fun tinkering with it. Your method of applying oil was a good start. I would imagine the rows adjustment knobs at the back are “tuning pots”. Good score. Just goes to show ya, you don’t have to be terminally ill to be the beneficiary of “an Organ donor”...
Just messing around? You did a few neat diddles on the keys...you have potential! At least you knew what you had sitting by the road. If you have the interest...bless you...and all the best!
Did I ever tell you the story of how a Hammond Chord Organ saved my life? I was terribly depressed over marital woes and I took a two week vacation from work and bought an old model S (vintage late 40's) Hammond Chord Organ from an ad in the local paper and paid $25 for it sounding horrible. For the next two weeks I spend all my waking hours refurbishing the electronics of this oscillator based organ. It kept my mind off my sadness and yielded a perfectly functioning Chord Organ. It even came with a bunch of books so I could learn to play it. Congratulations on your most worthy project as from what I hear you are well on the way to have a functioning tone wheel Hammond. You should get the service manual to aid you in this restoration.
I get a bit emotional when Someone does justice to an old classic musical instrument by restoring them . To hear it's voice again , to not just restore a machine , but to restore the beauty of it's sound and allow it to once more have life and sing . I say this on behalf of the muses , Thank You .
That's why I rebuild neglected vintage Saxophones, to give them back their voice.
timc333 better than a digital app that’s for sure
@@AEMachinas To this day (and I've been around a while) I have yet to see any digital equipment that could rival the true pure sound of the old style analog equipment , first off the mechanical tone wheel , but also the tubes , and then the most known part the leslie , just those three components make the sound waves physically more active throughout the air , digital can't match the effects without the mechanical aspects . Many years ago I got to own a T-524 that I had to sell due to a move , I only wish I could get to hear that again , but it's long gone , I just hope it has been played like it was meant to be , and if not that someone like this might find it and let it live , guess I'll not know but I'll like to believe some old lady is giving lessons on it right now ? or maybe it found it's way into a church , that would be ok as it would at least get played once a week . Do I sound like I miss it like an old friend ? Well I do .
Tone wheel hammonds are rare in Australia
Those things are half human anyway. I have been making them survive for the last fifty years.
I am a Hammond organ owner thank you for rescuing that organ. You did a great job.
I smash these up for fun. Basically any old instruments, screens, computers, electrical goods etc that I can get hold, I bust up. Burn the debris in the garden and scrap any metal left after the fire.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Hobbyists pay good money for old parts. Your cheating yourself.
@@WCM1945 You're making the common mistake that money is the most important thing in life.
What if I get more pleasure from smashing up stuff up, than I would from going through the chore of selling it, and then spending the money on something else?
Try using a freeze mist on ALL of the brass bearings ( there are a lot of them, between each tone wheel, then re-oil the generator; that is why some of the tones are sounding "weird". You will need to remove a series of long bolts to access the tone wheel generator assembly. Vacuum all of the dirt out of the keys and organ interior. Wishing you the best in restoring this gem! ...i used to be a Hammond/Leslie repair tech back in the 1970's when these things were new. i still have the Hammond service manuals if you need one.
Good work ... nice to see someone who appreciates vintage equipment
There you have it; Hammonds are bulletproof. The L100 was the most inexpensive (and lightweight) tonewheel organ Hammond ever made; yet it still works after sitting outside in the rain. You'll love it!
LOL, I don't think there is a tonewheel Hammond in existence that was 'lightweight'!!🤣 I have a T212 to attest to that. If I take the internal leslie assembly out and pull the top off, I can usually move it around by myself with a hand truck.😁👍
To be fair, it certainly did not spend much time outside and you can notice the inside is VERY neat and clean so this is an organ that originally was in a great condition.
@Dio Brando As I mentioned before, I actually have a T-212, but it has a transistorized amp (1961?). The L and M series I think were tube amps all the way through the years they were in production. My T-series sounds good, but not as good as the old tube units.😉 It also doesn't have as much 'key-pop' in the percussion as the older organs, which seems to be desirable, especially to the rockers. (Listen to 'Green Eyed Lady' sometime.)😁
@Dio Brando so you can play along with songs, also record internally. My father had a Conn Theater Organ with internal cassette recorder. (Conn Organ was a POS, but recorder was good system.)
Man! Can I tell you stories about Hammond's!! Have been a private repairman to local musicians for the last half century.
The resilience of Hammond organs always amazes me. Nice video.
I love your channel icon.
I rescued a Hammond T-311, and for the life of me couldn’t figure out where to put the oil. The instruction manual had words but no pictures. This was so useful, can’t thank you enough!
Also you are a badass for doing this restoration. Can’t wait to see more!
A Hammond with a Leslie,,,,, Rin, you got the bomb set up. And knowing you, it will be sounding great.
well thank you (^_^)
W
Who was the criminal that dumped such a treasure!
Maybe someone who tought about Rinoa... ;)
There are more good old organs to be found out there than you would dream of. The advance in electronic/synthesizer technology since the 60s and 70s has killed the organ as a practical instrument. The Hammonds sound great, but for a working musician they can be a pain to move around~ it usually takes two big men and a boy to move them any distance and forget about getting them up stairs... If you want a good Hammond, contact churches or Look up Masonic Lodges (they usually all have Hammonds and it often is harder to get rid of one than to find one to get.
@@sheep1ewe I started to reply here, decided to post up top... xoxox
@@sailorbychoice1 I can accompany it with my electric piano if You wish... XX
My Neighbor dumped a nice whurlitzer and an Orcoa. The Orcoa is just an an Air Turbine, Reeds, and Valves attached to the Keys... which works perfectly. The Whurlitzer was pretty bad off so I gave that away.
Great job Rin!
I rescued my first hammond a little over a year ago. Luckily I found a mentor 10 miles from me. Be careful, this disease gets in your blood and will overtake your garage. I have 5 hammonds now and would take more but I'm out of room. I dream of having a warehouse/shop/rehearsal place. Serious obsessions, lol
well seeing as this is my 8th organ, im not at risk of finding too many more. they are quite rare here
@@RinoaL I just noticed your location. We're almost neighbors, lol.
The 'Leslie' speaker from the Wurlitzer is called a Spectratone Speaker. It was Wurlitzers version of a Leslie speaker. A true Leslie speaker has the speaker mounted in a cylinder & the whole thing rotates around a vertical axis instead of a horizontal axis. I've worked on both.
Conn653 also with a leslie, i think the woofer and the tweeter are separate, each their own speed, which makes for a lot of the whurly feel
my model has that, say, would you happen to know what might be the issue with my '68 multi-mate percussion Wurlitzer in that when turned on, there is constant (single) foot petal note? ( has 25 foot petals ) the note turns off if i disconnect the foot petal connectors... perhaps a stuck or broken reed? Thxs
@@robozstarrr8930 broken Reed switch on that note. I had that on a 950. Replaced the switch & problem solved.
@@Conn653 you mean the glass magnetic reed switche(s) by the petals ( magnet on each petal ) ? i tested every one, checked the 3 connectors and sockets + wiring as well. It plays a single note constantly & will change to whatever freq you last pressed (on the foot petal keyboard ) but it doesn't release the note when you release the foot petal ... also need a new belt for the Spectratone Any links to schematics/part sources would be GREATLY appreciated.
@@robozstarrr8930 contact Morelock Organ Service, in Mississippi. They have the schematics & parts. Janice is a sweet lady & will help you out. She's hard to get a hold of but once you do, she'll do you right!
Love this video Rin! I still have my dad's old A100 w/ Leslie. Thanks for showing me how to go about oiling it. It has been over 20 years (at least) since it was properly lubricated. I have great memories of him playing that old beast. You will love it. Thanks again!
Thanks for this video!!! This was a very handy video for me. I just got a free Hammond L-103 so it's almost exactly like yours. My tonewheel sounds a little rough but not near as bad as yours did when you first fired it up. I've been oiling it and now I think all I have to do is keep at it until the tonewheel quiets down.
I recently have been working on my 1960 M3 after taking the organ out of storage after 20 years. This had the front cover still on it so the insides are very clean. Tube checked and replaced as needed amp tubes. Hammond oil to left cup for scanner and motor, both middle and right cups had three doses of filling cup, that was Friday night. Saturday checked and had some squealing bearings so I left it alone. Sunday night so two days later: tonight, I realized that some heat might get the oil to flow better. After ten minutes of going up and down the generator on the bottom side slowly back and forth, I started the organ and had NO SQUEEALING!! When I shut down the generator it ran for 16 seconds until it stopped. I imagine this might be rare? but if your organ is squealing give it some loving heat! Johnne in Clallam Bay, WA.
This is relevant to me!!! I got an M100 that's very similar and I'm in the process of chopping it and restoring it to make a usable piece of gear out of it. It's got many of the same issues yours has.... minus the stink bugs!! Saving this for future reference!!!
I found an organ almost identical to this one on the roadside a few days ago. It's a L143 and IT WORKS! I actually drove by it a few days before I had time and cargo space to pick it up. Grateful it didn't rain. There were a couple fuses out of socket and the whole inside was caked in dust (and somebody's baby pic). I straightened the pins and reseated the fuses, and it fired right up. In good condition and no grinding noise in the wheels. Cleaning it up, then I'll do the oiling thing. Good luck with yours.
Thank you for the video. I have rescued 3 Hammond organs myself. They are very tough!
This video was recommended to me by TH-cam and I'm a new subscriber waiting for updates on this!
TH-cam's AI for thumbnail selection seems to be getting better.
Hola...
I'm looking into rock organs, Great recommendation!
Yup ,it´s been a long time since suggestions made sence,,i subbed to :-)
Very nice. The experience of playing a Hammond is special.the sound, the smell of the oil, the hot tubes, and of course the moving air.
Good for you! My folks bought me back in 1968 a Hammond T series that looks close to yours. After yrs in their house, then my step uncles, now mine, it started to squeak like yours. I recently ordered from "Tonewheel General Hospital" (yes that is correct), Generator and motor oil. Now I have to wait for the oil to wick down the funnels (2). Also oiled the motor. I believe it had not been oiled in yrs. Who knows. I played in grade school and high school band (sax), and took organ lessons for 2 yrs. At 71, I have time now to get it going again! Have fun!!!
That was a great video. I love tube amps and your Hammond has a great sounding tone, very nice rescue.
Well done for rescuing that.Here in the Uk people dont put stuff out by the road,they just take it straight to landfill.But,ive just got hold of a 1969 Hammond T202 and its in beautiful condition but it sounds like its never been oiled.Screaming like a Banshee.The few drops are ok when its been oiled once a year for the last 50 years-but on my organ the oil inside is a big one and its never been opened. So i filled the caps up to the top twice and oiled the motor itself.Its still very noisy ,but the oil has to find its way along little thread wicks to all the bearing -80 odd.It plays in tune now,so its just a case of letting the oil do its work.BTW-my Hammond has a leslie inside it-a Bonus.Dont bother getting a valve leslie for it but keep an eye open for a 110 or 120 or 125.To give it a true Hammond sound you need the leslie with horns at the top like a 145 but they are just soooo expensive now.
This is absolutely wonderful to see this instrument, getting some loving care,
Thank God someone like you found this instrument and is willing to restore it. You have a true treasure in your hands. A true tone wheel organ from Hammond is nothing less than a hand crafted piece of art. There is no sound that can compare. I can't believe that someone would just toss it to the side of the road like that. I wish I could get lucky enough to grab a find like that no matter what shape it's in.
well its taken me 13 years to find this, and like 8 organs to realize how special these are
YOU JUST PICKED IT UP OFF THE SIDE OFTHE ROAD. I've been wanting one of these things to fix and repair for YEARS now.
You say that like I havent as well. Ive wanted this sound for about 20 years, so I get it.
Gotta keep searching, they are out there
@@RinoaL Cheers. do you play it much? This is the organ the beatles used on let it be
Sadly no, I moved across the country so it is in storage for the future.
14:26 @@RinoaLreally I had one given to me by the school where I workef. Sst in the storage closet forever and nobody ever used it. Summer clean up they said get it out of here haul l it to the dump or something. I have two othe. they were giveaways at an auction nobody wanted them. So I was going to strip them to make guitar amplifiers out of the tube amps. Tried to give the one the school gave me a way to the organist at our church Justice Sunday. But she doesn't have room in her own home she wants a electronic keyboard to practice with. So I'm just probably going to haul them to the dump someday. Probably just take the wire pliers and cut off the wires and yank the amplifiers out and dumpster the rest of it. Kind of a shame great cabinet wood
I think that is a testament to how well those were made if that Hammond sat out in the rain and still worked but just needs some TLC to get it working correctly. It's nice to see that you rescued it! No modern Chinese made electronics would of held up like that.
Just rescued a Hammond organ that had been abandoned at the end of my street, the plug has been cut off, but beside flaking damage on the laminated chip board body, nothing is missing, & no careless damage. Luckily I got to it before the young kids treat it like a pinata & smash it up like they do nowadays. They don't appreciate stuff like this that I do & I'm glad it's out of the public eye, meaning I couldn't find anyone to help me carry it up a flight of stairs because it's one heavy mutha!!!🤣
I have it stored in a little alcove which is part of the building where I live, it's where the bins used to be stored.
My advice, what I would do is find everything you need to know about a particular model & arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible. From what I see here, when I start maintenance on mine, I know it's going to be a rather complex project!🙂👍
these old organs are works of art these are popular I saw a dude playing one on a war video from the early 70s eric burdon also procol harum a Whiter shade of pale live in Denmark in 06 very classy little organ I could only imagine the tone and hours of fun playing this.
th-cam.com/video/AqZceAQSJvc/w-d-xo.html
That spring reverb has a presence!
Hi Rin , great find but be careful poking your hand in there. Hammonds run very high voltages even after unpmuged you might be wearing a perm lol.
I picked up a Hammond 1957 C3 from a church they just wanted it off their stage. I also built my own leslie 122 complete with the correct vents. Holler if I can help.
u luckee sumbich
Your doing God's work, thank you!
I'm extremely impressed how far you came to fixing the Hammond. Can you put up a video of the final outcome. Would love to see it . and. Thanks for sharing
well i will when i will
@@RinoaL ok ok no need to get nasty . i changed my mind i dont need to see your final video its ok.
@@Cruiseangel72 nasty? do you always blow up for no reason and read an honest statement as being an insult?
me: idk when ill get around to it
you: REEEE YOUR AN ASSHOLE WAAA
seriously. i dont want you bugging my channel if you are going to make shit drama out of nothing.
A tone generator that dry will need a lot of oil, and a lot of time for it to work it's way into each of the bearings. Every bearing (and there are a lot of them) has it's own piece of thread that wicks oil down from the main trough under the funnels. If none of the threads are broken, you should be in good shape as far as the generator. The amplifier may need some capacitors replaced, and the tubes tested. These will get pretty loud and full sounding when they are working properly. Though it's possible the speakers themselves have cone damage from the weather too.
If you Google "Hammond L-100 service manual" You'll find a PDF you can download. Good luck on the restoration!
yeah i figure i'll let it have a few months to let the oil get through, then start playing with it this summer.
i have tube testing equipment from my television restorations, so dont worry i plan to test the caps and tubes, and probably replace the tubes since i have several thousand of them.
and i already read most of it, but the service manual doesnt say what i want to know. i want to know if tonewheel oil will be ok for the motor itself.
@@RinoaL Ya the same generator oil is also used for the motor. I usually put 3-4 drops in each motor cup. But yours might need a few more since it probably went decades without oil.
the motor gets quite hot so i'll tape a thermometer to it and run it for 30 minutes, then the next day add 2 drops of water and run it and see if it runs any cooler. then continue until it levels off
@@RinoaL Water? LOL I assume you mean oil? The motor will get pretty warm normally. You may also want to check the capacitor on the motor, but those seem pretty reliable.
yeah, sometimes i'll go to type a word but my hands type an entirely different word, then when im in a hurry i dont notice it.
worst was one time i typed "one" as "hydrogen". my brain is weird.
Another tip. Pull all the tubes and give both the pins and the sockets a good spray of electrical solvent.
I had a 1960 M103 Walnut model. Mine had two on switches. One was off/on the second was on momentary. To start, flip both up, holding one in the up position. In 2-3 minutes it will remain running on the one switch and you release the second. That noise is the clutch at the right end. The drawbar setting for most rock songs is 3-8-8-3. Then blend the rest as your ear tells you. I disconnected the foot petals and got a set of keys that go there on the lower left where the metal cover is. For bass, the key colors are reversed , black in front and the small keys were white.
I like how casual you are about it. This is just me, but if I were you, I would vacuum out the mice droppings, vacuum off the keyboard, drawbars, stops, etc. so dirt doesn't migrate further into the organ. carefully wipe down the case and oil it with the appropriate color stain or furniture polish and cover it up with a plastic drop cloth that you can get at any paint or hardware store for a couple of bucks. Wiggle the tubes a bit to break down any corrosion or oxidation that had a chance to form as a result of being outside and in the rain. Using a vacuum is preferable to wiping the dirt off with a damp cloth, because you don't want dirt getting down between the keys, etc. After vacuuming, then use a damp cloth to remove remaining film, etc. As for the Leslie, I built a home-grown version when I was back in high-school in about 1970. There were no plans or internet or TH-cam, so I had to think it up myself. Only one rotor, though. It worked OK but if you keep your eyes peeled, you'll find a real Leslie Model 122 left out in the rain or in an old church somewhere, broken. With your skills, you'll be able to fix it. I'd talk to every organist you can find, like after a church service. Lots of churches used Hammonds until they could afford a pipe organ, then out went the Hammond and Leslie. Maybe they have been moved down into the church basement. Unless we're talking about a gospel church, of course, in which case the reverse may be true. The pipe organ goes pretty much unused and the Hammond B3 or A100 is the center of attention.
I just got one exactly like that one,and with the same dry tonewheel sound,it was free from a family that had it since 1965!
Wurlitzer Spectra-Tone! Thought I’d never see another one of those. Lovely machines btw.
I just picked up a Hammond H-100 that showed up for free on FB Marketplace. It was in a garage and probably hadn't been oiled or used for 40+ years. The vinyl power sheath was crumbly. Now it's in my garage and I'm replacing the electrolytic filter capacitors on the power supply and the 5AR4 rectifier tubes are suspect. I've ordered solid state plug-in 5AR4 replacements for use in testing and may go back to 5AR4 tubes later. I'm going to replace the canned electrolytics with an axial cap array and relocate them off of the chassis (onto the cab wall) and connect them with longer wires. Two plastic keys are broken, so I need to figure out how to replace those. Overall, mine was pretty clean inside and had a mostly-full original oil tube inside. I've oiled the two funnels, the two motor tubes, and the vibrato well. When disconnected from the tonewheel main shaft, the motor spins and is silent. However, the tonewheel shaft acts "spring loaded" and, if I try to rotate it, it returns to its original position. I think something just after the 1st spring junction is binding it. The tonewheels look new and undamaged and most of them spin freely and have a bit of free axial play, which I understand is a good sign. I need to scan them carefully and identify the problem spots. When I opened it up, it looked like the thick brown felt blanket over the TG was factory placed, so I don't think it likely that any foreign objects fell into the mechanism. Possibly, some bits are dry-oil glued together? Or, maybe a tonewheel sensor is out of position and binding a tonewheel? Anywho, anyone who has advice or ideas to share, thanks in advance! Thanks to you, Rinoa, for the video and congratulations for getting your to sing!
I love your eagerness and desire to restore old Hammonds!!
Heh heh, that sounds like the tone generator in my T212 when I first got it.🤣 Fortunately I got not just one, but 2 - T212's given to me, just to haul them off, and I made one really good one out of the pair. The tonewheels just needed a good oiling and some TLC, and I had to work on the vibrato scanner a bit to get it stable. Other than that and a replacement capacitor or 2, it was a pretty easy restoration. The T-212 also has the benefit of a built-in leslie, which is pretty nice, plus you can connect it to an external such as a 122 cabinet, and it will work in conjunction with the speed switch on the organ. Time is your friend when you are waiting for the oil to get to the various parts in the tone generator (as you have already seen).
They use cotton threads to 'wick' the oil to various locations, and it does take some time for it to do that, especially in cold weather. It may be to your advantage to find someone in your area with a tube tester, and pull all the tubes in the amp and get them checked. You should still be able to find what you need on E-bay, if any of them are bad or marginal. Also, drop the pedal assembly and check the contacts, as they are prone to corroding up in a wet environment, plus you can adjust them for contact height across the pedal board, so that each one 'sounds' at the same amount of pedal depression. The drawbar contacts can be iffy at times too, but it's pretty involved to actually get them out of the organ since the wires are soldered to the sliding contact side (the back) of each drawbar. The easiest way I found to clean them is to shoot 'electronic spray cleaner' with a straw, into the back of each drawbar, and work it back and forth a few dozen times to get the crud off the internal contact bars. This will cut down on the gaps in volume for each one, and maybe make a few work that weren't working before. If you're handy with a soldering gun, re-solder each of the wires on the back of the drawbars, as these usually break over the years since they move with the bar and have no support to speak of. The spray electronic cleaner works for all the rocker switches and tone tabs and their contacts as well. Keep at it, and you'll have a nice L model before you know it.😁
One word of caution: Be careful when messing with the output socket for the external leslie speaker (on the back of the amp) There are some nasty high voltage pins that will definitely ruin your day, and a couple that retain voltage even after the organ is turned off because of the internal capacitors. It would be to your advantage to grab a service manual from here: dl.lojinx.com/analoghell/HammondL100SeriesServiceManual.pdf if you don't already have it. Good luck Rinoa!😉👍
i have several tube testers and several thousand tubes so i think im good. lol
Long live the immortal Lauren's Hammond.
Wow that thing really puts out a great sound after being out in the rain/weather and all.
and this is how i got my organ GREAT VIDEO
This is cool. Procol Harum, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. So much good music from the Hammond. Save this piece of art.
Peter Wikvist I'm probably wrong, but I thought Rick Wright played a Farfisa?
@@markharris5771 Richard William "Rick" Wright was in Pink Floyd. Rick played Hammond, Wurlitzer, Minimoog, Hohner Clavinet and Farfisa.
Peter Wikvist I thought I could be wrong but not THAT wrong! I know that, knew that, and I’m now very embarrassed about that! I’m going to leave my comment exactly where it is to teach me a little humility...and that I need to get my colour blindness sorted so I can tell the difference between Pink and Purple!
John Raymond Goadsby
a.ka. Goldy McJohn.
Steppenwolf , Bloodrock,
Early Santana and Vanilla
Fudge.
Finally a tutorial on oiling I'm thinking an E-111 is similar the two flaps on the motor was a hint as well as the foam at either end of the rod. My cabinet has 80% of the oil left in the tube.
Great job! We have 4 B3's at my school. I will have to share your video with the staff. They will love it.
Any American made musical instrument deserves consideration for a restoration; it is tremendously gratifying and a lot of times all it needs is love, the rest all comes together.
Doesnt matter where it was made as long as it is high quality
i thank you for rescuing that organ! Theres people that dont value ancient instruments.
Wow. What a find.Never got that far inside a Hammond. I nearly bought a Hammond "L200 Spinet" while serving in the army in Germany. Did not due it would have sat locked in my room back in the barracks while out was out in the field on exercise. I knew they were electro- mechanical, but not that mechanical.Talk about oiling. I was working on the doors of a Shell Filling station and this young lady student asked me were she could buy a funnel with a very fine spout. I asked her what for and she said I will show you. So I followed her out to her car and sure enough as I had suspected she pointed to the end of the dip-stick tube. She had been trying to pour engine oil down the tube after removing the dip stick. I just got hold of the oil filler cap, removed it and told her to try that for size. She was totally embarrassed. I presumed that she was not sitting for a degree in mechanical engineering. I 'm sorry but I went back to the shop and burst out laughing. The woman there said what's the joke and I had to tell her what the young lady had wanted. It was going through my head how long would it take to refill a bloody "Chieftain"Tank engine if you had to do through the dip-stick pipe.
Thats a different type of Leslie speaker than ive ever seen, the ones ive come across are like a rotating foam horn with a stationary speaker. That one is pretty nifty!
You are my new youtube Hero!!! It's so cool that you have rescued this very cool "art"ifact from the side of the road! Great to see for me on two fronts...I pick up stuff on the side of the road as well and one of them is a large Hammond speaker cabinet that seems to be relatively unused! I have thought it would be a great little bass guitar speaker because of the incredibly large speakers it contains. I am speculating that it seems to be very unused because of the preference for Leslie speakers in combination with the "Hammond Single Celled Organism", a Frank Zappa quote, and I surmise the speaker was set aside and a Leslie went with the Keyboard to other digs. Very cool to that you have rescued the Leslie!!! I anxiously await your next installment and am gonna check out all the rest of you vids! Cheers, and thank you!!!
well i recommend checking out my 15' x 28' workshop build series, its getting fairly done now. :D
such a beautiful instrument just wanna play with:)
I’m a huge Hammond fan. Like you, I don’t play, but these are unique instruments that must be saved. I’m not too familiar with the L-112, but I know the B-3 in good condition is worth a lot of money.
I’m a retired electrical engineer and I restore a lot of old tube type electronics like are used in these old organs. In addition to the tone generator mechanism, there are a lot of parts in the electronics of the L-112 that will need to be tested evaluated and replaced just due to age. Those parts are 40-50 years old and subject to failure. I don’t know where you are located, but I would be happy to help you out with the electronics restoration. Since this is a unique project, I am volunteering my services at no cost to you. I’m located in Kentucky and I’m sure we could work out the logistics of shipping the electronic sections to me for restoration. Please contact me if I can help.
Tony Banks of the band Genesis played a similar model L-100 or T-100 (transistorized version) in the 70's. He played it on the albums and tours for Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering.
Love your can do/will learn attitude! L-series models have their own 'flutey' sound - sits in the mix really well. There's a pot in the back you can tweak a bit to get a fearsome growl when hooked up to a Leslie... love 'em... love 'em!
Thanks for sharing this great rescue...you are great as well...
Brilliant repair!😮
Suggestion: Mount the guts behind Plexiglas and mount them on the wall above the organ, so it looks like a table top piano, with a tall see through table. And the glorious guts there to see and admire. Cool gears inside!
no thanks.
Good idea to vacuum out the inside and outside of the organ. An external cleanup will help it overall. You are an excellent mechanic!
It makes me so happy to see such a damaged instrument in capable hands, well done!
well thank you!
You did a great job.
I love your inquisitive nature and watching you learn as you go. . keep it up! That Hammond sounds super cool already. Enjoyed watching you tackle this project. There is NOTHING like the sound of a real Hammond with a real rotating speaker. You can get a sense of it from the video but when you are in the same room....WHOA! Good luck to you Rinoa
I found a m100 in the alley. It sounds so good. Thanks for the video. Now I know how to oil it :)
What sort of sick person leaves a Hammond in the alley lol
The Hammond oil is probably 3in one. I’d love a project like this.
You've got a great start on that one. The "Lesie" unit from a Wurlitzer can sound very good. They called theirs "SpectraTone". I connected one to my old Baldwin and it made a world or difference.
I was a Hammond Technician for a couple of years in the early 70s, and I can vouch for the fact that they are extremely rugged instruments, and can sound as good at fifty years old as they did on the showroom floor.
I did notice some "bleeding" notes when you pushed the expression pedal way down. I suspect there might be some moisture trapped in one (or both) keyboards. Some WD40 can help with that. You might use some good quality contact cleaner, too, on the stop tab switches and drawbars, since the moisture probably left some cruddy stuff there. Sounds like your electronics is OK, maybe a little hum from old filter caps that might need replacing. But it sounds like all the vacuum tubes are good. That will save you some $$ right there.
Looking forward to your next post!
yeah, but if not i have several suitcases if brand new tubes from my TV repair projects, so that helps.
thanks for the tip on the keyboards
What the heck!!??!! That was an incredible video!
Rin, I enjoyed your video on the Hammond! It brought back memories of a Scooby-Doo episode where an organ was featured and the sounds of screeching organ sounded like the "ghosts". I know you'll get it up and going and I look forward to seeing your progress.
The "Trough" above the Motor Shaft can also be used to Oil the Generator on the end.
A generator this Noisy needs to sit oiled for a couple of days.
Great video - well done
Many years ago when kids were little my son and I were bringing things to our local charity store we spotted one of these, paid $50.00 and brought it home. Installed in my sons bedroom we took to playing it (badly) and my daughter whose bedroom was adjacent complained that it was like living next door to a funeral home :-)
I'am so glad you got that wonderful organ going again how dare anybody dump anything as wonderful as this !
I restored a Hammond B3 which had similar neglect/moisture/rust issues. I found that a mixture of PB Blaster and Hammond oil worked wonders on the squeaky tone wheels. The ratio is 3 parts of Hammond oil to 1 part PB Blaster. Apply and then let sit for 12 hours. If there are still issues repeat process.
That sounds much better than an M101 i've just bought. Mine has loads of faults
Glad you are saving this. I have 2, even if you wanted, no one could make that mechanism today. Keep Hammond Organs running!
That grinding sound is what happens when the drawbars push the pickups into the tonewheels.
I am an electronics tech and organist of over 40 years experience repairing and refurbishing older electronic organs including Hammond. Personally I prefer Conn over most other makes due to the separate note oscillators which make up the tone generators so they sound much more like a pipe organ with notes drifting in and out of phase with each other. The Hammond instruments generate tones via rotating steel wave shaped wheels with magnetic pickups placed close to the wheels all locked in phase so without a leslie all sounds musically dead. The wheels are rotated via bakelite gear wheels driven from a synchronous motor. The vibrato and all amplification is all performed via vacuum electron tubes , problems can develop here as well as the mechanical tone generators. If the oil is not kept up to the generators, permanent damage can be done to the gear trains and bearings. Transistor tone generation is much easier to maintain although with Conn spinets there are 56 separate manual tones to be tuned and 13 pedal notes to be tuned to the manuals, usually annually but in the real world they are rarely ever touched......Robert
i've owned like 6 organs so far, and up until now they were all mostly transistorized (Sometimes hybrid) and i honestly wasnt too happy with their sounds so i ended up dismantling them. they sounded too electronic like a crappy casio.
Most American organs form the early 1970's used 12 master oscillators followed by divider chains, a few were voiced reasonably but most were not. The Conn did a reasonable job for the electronics that was around then. I prefer to play a reasonably large Theatre Pipe Organ with 3 manuals and at least ten pipe ranks. That being said I practice on a Conn 652 theatre console built in 1979-80 that I have refurbished. There are a couple of that model here on youtube. Electronically quite a complex beast, but not quite the same as playing a real pipe organ. At the moment I have 6 organs between the house and workshop. Lost count of how many I have owned , dismantled for parts and pasted on to individuals and churches.
Yamaha, Kawai, Technics, Casio, in fact fairly much all of the Japanese instruments are not worth bothering with.
Regards Robert
The warmth of this Hammond is enough to keep your basement warm, that and the vacuum tubes!!
Danke für das Video und danke für die Erklärung. Hammond ist einfach Super!
War zu erwarten.
Nice video I also found a very cheap L112 in Mexico and it was only missing a vacuum tube
Rin, you’re a true hero! Great video and and even greater inspiration for my daughter.
I rescued a Hammond E-112 that was going to a electronics recycler. It was the last thing remaining in a house from an estate auction. It had most of the oignal paperwork with it,including the bill of sale when new $2500.00! That was a lot of money in the mid 1960's
Can’t believe you picked up a tonewheel Hammond from the street.Wow,is all I can say.I love Hammonds.
yeah ive dreamed of this for years! this like my 6th organ but my first tonewheel
In the late 60s I used to play a full-pedal Hammond at Ballast Point Navy Chapel. I always like the sound of the Hammond (not as much as a PIPE organ, but excellent for those Chapels). HOPE and patience is my advice, because you'll need that to teach yourself to play. I taught myself the piano and organ, with no lessons, then went on to earn a living for 50 years with my skills. Learn to read, learn the theory, and play it all the time. I now have a Wurlitzer full-pedals model I bought for $400. I also have 2 grands, one a model A Steinway, 1914, the other a 6' Weber, 1929. Go for your dreams in music.
Any day you find a Hammond by the side of the road is a good day!
Found my m3 on the curb 5 years ago.
I'm intrigued and will be following, since I also have a "rescue organ" that I picked up for free, a Hamond Model 125222L (Romance Series) with the Leslie speaker. I've been meaning to tinker with it for a bit.
Nice tube amplifier!
Hammonds with tube amplifiers are ridiculously expensive in Europe, Congrat to a great find!
@OnlyRocknRoll Yes, somebody even sold an old, totally useless PA system that i know for sure sound absolute shit if one want to play music on it and was realy sheaply made when they came in the the 50s here for about 60 bucks, then i saw the guy who bought it started to ask tons oq question on a forum where those slightly retarded guys in the category who simply refuse to listen to anyone outside their circles, it's fully up to each what one want to spend money on, but i picked together a first class HiFi amplifier from brand new russian valves for about 350$ in total, including a brand new Brittish made transformer and some german made outputs in very good condition, and even some brand new cahssi details, the sound from those tubes are so uncomparably better than anything tose guys try to sell for 50 bucks each, i think i gave 6 bucks for the most expensive of them included shipping and socket because it did not happen to hawe the right letters on it... Now i bet that thing would be concidered worth like 1000$ from the same guys, if they pay med 1500 bucks for it i will accept it with a smile... At least it would not suprise me, if they hawe a meeting here around i will deffinitly bring it there just to see...
That's a FUNKY Leslie!
love you rinoa you my biggest inspiration
I have an L-102 and the guts of a rotating speaker very similar to your situation. I bought a small hotone clean amp with plans to drive the "leslie" system. Because the hammond organ amp needs a speaker load to work, I didn't unplug the speaker from the amp. I have taken audio out of the organ via a splitter and connected it just before the white plug that feeds the amp. One end back into the amp, and the other connection into guitar pedals and an amp. The only thing the organ doesn't output unfortunately is the spring reverb tank. That is connected after that signal feeding the amp. The Chorus/Vibrato and Percussion are all in the signal pre amp so that still outputs in the white plug connection at least. I've also used a Pigtronix Rototron pedal which has a fantastic stereo leslie effect. You just need to use another booster guitar pedal to feed it as it has a volume threshold before sounding. If you only drive it from the hammond audio signal and it's drawbars/expression pedal/soft volume switch settings are too low, it won't play anything.
Of course you can always connect up a big 'ol Marshall stack but I'm not there yet. Nice Wile E. reference there as well.
I am shocked you were able to restore that! I have an M3 which is like that but a lot older and is in way better condition than that originally was! That is amazing that you spent that much time restoring that. But you know, Hammonds are the best organs out there.
my house furnace motor has the same oil caps, as does the fan's bearings , use "Electric Motor Oil"
such as "Zoomspout"
I always bought this oil from my HVAC parts house to use on any kind of turbine applications which mainly include a shaft tuning in a bronze bearing which is what is going on in the Hammond tone wheel assemblies and also the running motor and pony or starter motors on the older Hammond organs. I always spent the bucks and bought genuine Hammond tone generator oil because I did not know any special properties that may be been inherent in that oil that I might not get with zoom spout. Does anyone know what the oil was that Hammond used to package their tone generator oil?
@@kdegru Hammond says to use the official Hammond oil because if you use something with a different viscosity, it won't play in tune. It depends on the tone wheels spinning at an exact RPM for the pitch to be right.
Clean it up, repair/refinish the wood and have fun tinkering with it. Your method of applying oil was a good start. I would imagine the rows adjustment knobs at the back are “tuning pots”. Good score. Just goes to show ya, you don’t have to be terminally ill to be the beneficiary of “an Organ donor”...
ha! thats a good joke.
wow nice find. x
Just messing around? You did a few neat diddles on the keys...you have potential! At least you knew what you had sitting by the road. If you have the interest...bless you...and all the best!
They've got good tubes in them and the amp is worth cash too.
Nice find!
It's amazing how often the fix for a neglected Hammond is to just keep oiling it