Hammond Tonewheel Organ web pages

My 1962 A-105 "real Hammond"

"A real Hammond weighs three or four hundred pounds, is thirty-plus years old and has two switches to turn it on. Anything else is something else." - Father Gino Click any of the four thumbnails at the left to see the A-105 I got on 2/09/2002. An A-105 is the guts of an A-100 series console with internal speakers, built into a C-3 church-style cabinet. You can see the console back in the fourth picture. It weighs about 450 lbs. Based on serial number and organ characteristics, I believe it was made in 1962. I bought it from a friend, who had bought it from a school some time before. It needed some work to play well - field mice had damaged some of the taps on the inductor in the vibrato line. I replaced that with a modified E-100 vibrato line and cleaned excess oil out of the scanner. I also fixed about half-a-dozen non-working notes and did a lot of internal cleaning. In place of a Leslie, I got a Motion Sound Pro-3T and Low-Pro in early March, 2002. I'm VERY happy with them, it sounds like a 147 to me, and it's transportable to boot. I wired a line out box (see link below) for the AO-28 for sound, and built a box with two toggle switches for speed and a third to switch between the internal speakers and a load resistor. Then I attached it to the bottom of the console beneath the presets. I moved the connection for the reverb amp to the back of the main amp so reverb works through the organ even if the load resistor is on. Details are here, I'll eventually put up pictures or you can e-mail me at

Click the front or side pictures to the left to see my first Hammond, a showroom-condition one-owner 1971 L-295 (Mediterranean-style oak cabinet) spinet with Rhythm II unit. I purchased it on 8/1/2000 on EBay. It weighs about 220 lbs with the matching bench. Those were stickers on the C and G bass pedals. This is my Hammond epiphanies post to the Hamster list from the day after it arrived.

I also have Native Instruments B4.

• How Hammond tonewheel organs work by Maryland Organ Service.

• Hammond organ pages at theTheatre Organs home page.

• Hammond organs FAQ Page has lots of Q&A and how-to info, and the Hammond and Leslie Models page shows the features and time frame of the different tonewheel Hammond organs.

  Hammond ceased production of tonewheel organs in 1974. Some electronic organs made between 1974 and 1986 (when Hammond closed) had drawbars, but these LSI organs are generally considered inferior. Organs made by Hammond-Suzuki (XK-2, XB-3A, A-205, etc) are all digital.

• Hammond Organ Identification will help you identify which tonewheel organ you have. Hammond and Leslie Age Determination List will help you identify when a particular organ was made. You may have to look at the front panel or open the back of the organ to find the serial number plate to find the model or type.

• How to move a Hammond. While humorous, it contains good advice, and has specifics (see "Protecting The Goods") on how to "lock down" the tonewheel generator on models with start+run switches. Also see this article on HammondWiki. On my A-105, two of the four bolts are underneath the keyboard outside the organ. The other two are under the shelf the preamp is attached to, and can be reached from below.

• Hammond organ additive synthesis by Paul Schnellbecker describes a number of drawbar settings (including the default presets) and how to add them to get a particular combination of sounds. One portion of this document gives a set of drawbar stops for sacred work, if you reprogram the presets you'll get a workable approximation of a small pipe organ. It works, we're using them at my church and I'm using it on my A-105.

• Hal Davis posted a list of Hammond organ registrations translated from pipe organ stops. Same document in MS-Word 2000 format.

• Beauty In the B, the Hammond Organ Story. Lots of good information, although some inaccuracies and weaknesses have been noted. BITB Errata lists some of them. I have a copy of this book, one of the things it includes is how to hook up external amplifier or speaker to an existing organ.

• HammondWiki page is an interesting collection of Hammond organ information. The Hammond organ Pop Hits page is there, too.

• The Hammond Forum (aka Hamster mailing list) is an internet mailing list discussing Hammond organs.

• The Hammond Zone is another internet mailing list discussing Hammond organs.

• Hamtech is for technical discussions on playing and repairing Hammond organs.

• The CloneWheel mailing list is about the various Hammond clones, pro's, con's, reviews, fixes, etc.

• NordElectro is for owners and interested parties for this particular clone.

  Incidentally, I subscribe to these mailing lists from my AOL account, rather than this mailbox. So far, it hasn't been spammed, but I get enough mail from these lists.

• SpinCity a Hammond tonewheel spinet organ fan site.

  Spinets (L-100, M/M2/M3, M-100 and T-100) have 44-key offset keyboards, flip-tabs for presets, and small one-octave pedal sets. They don't have a full set of 9 drawbars for the lower manual, and lack foldback. In general, the M-100 series and the M-3 are the most desirable, and the closest to a B-3 sound, complete with percussion. The L-100 had limited presets and electronic (non-scanner) vibrato, which is applied to both manuals equally. The M/M2/M3 don't have any presets or reverb. The T-100 series has a transistor amplifier and pre-voiced percussion (like E-100) and some had built-in Leslie speakers. L-100 and T-100 organs were self-starting (one switch instead of a start/run switch pair).

  Other spinet sites: Captain Foldback's site (has some schematics!) Frederick Somerville's site (lots of spinet mods.) Adding foldback to your M3 or other spinet. J-P Palmulaakso's SERIOUSLY modified L-200 Wow!

• Portable Hammonds: Portable Hammond organs (Porta-B, X-5, B-3000, etc).
  Chopped organs ( English version of Federico Conti's page referenced on that link).
  Choppers: Keyboard Specialties Electronic Instrument Services

• Harvey Olsen's Leslie speaker facts and rumors and Leslie Model Description (requires Adobe Acrobat reader).

• The clones: besides Hammond-Suzuki, there is also the new model of the Korg CX-3 and BX-3, the Nord Electro, the Roland VK-8 and VK-77, the Voce Key5 and V5, the E-MU B-3 module, the Blue Chip OX-7 and Baby B. For an impressive "virtual tonewheel" software implementation (standalone or VST plug-in), check out Native Instruments' B4. A demo version is available for PC or Mac. I have this and like it.

• Organ Service Company sells service manuals for pre-1986 Hammond organs, both tonewheel and electronic. The Hammond FAQ (link above) has a list of dealers, vendors and repair companies.

• Videos: John Fullard, and BT Productions (producers of "Hammondology" videos).

• Hammond Tonewheel Organ Web Ring

• Keyboard Magazine Masters Class by Joey DeFrancesco

• Four-part document on the 1949 Vatican prohibition on Hammond organs for liturgical use: 1 2 3 4

• 1/4" line out hook-ups: Spinet or organ with self-contained speakers or Console with AO-28 or similar 3-wire preamp Alternate Console line out circuits

• Getting B-3 percussion from an E-100 by Michael Fulk. While I no longer have an E-112, I've saved this article for others that may want it.

"It's safe to say that the Hammond isn't an "organ" at all, but rather, an instrument unto its own self" - DeserTBoB
"It's about as much an organ as is a Theremin" - Hal, responding to DeserTBoB

• Search EBay: Hammond organ listings over $25.00 (cuts out most advertising flyers, recordings, parts, etc).
• TheatreOrgans.Com Classifieds for Hammonds
• Recycler.com search for Hammond organ (primarily southern California)
• DigiBid search: Hammond