I just bought a Hammond M-102 It's still in the back of my Suburban. I've been playing a digital keyboard for a few months and absolutely fell in love with the sound of the Hammond.

Here's a pic:


Yeah, that old man is me. And caught playing with my organ. How embarrassing.

I hope to get to know folks here, so I'll be checkin in and readin the threads.

I hope I can post a report of my own M-102 coming to life in the next couple of days.

I'm falling asleep so I better close and get to bed.

Best regards,

And I'm another new old guy. I usually hang out (when I hang out at all!) over in the Adult Beginners forum. Until RatMan mentioned this forum, I didn't even know it existed -- I'm a really with-it guy

Good luck with your foray RatMan. Hope you spend more time playing your Hammond than tinkering with it -- it's an interesting sign that your photo is of the back the Hammond. And you seem to be playing from memory -- no music to be seen anywhere

I have a working Technics SX-EN4 and two other dead organs in my garage. They are nothing remarkable -- but one is a down-market Hammond. I was an electronics technician in a previous life, so I plan to fix them "one day".

Howdy Bruceee. Yeah, I hang out at the Adult Beginners' forum, too. And to tell ya the truth, I didn't know about this forum until I gave my infamous "I'm not going away mad" speech...so to speech.

Someone mentioned it there and I checked it out. Duh. Some daze I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer, either.

I don't play so much from memory as by ear. I make notes for myself on my computer (which is generally outta the picture) and play along with mp3 files. The notes tell me what key to start in and I go on from there. It worked very well for the bass and with the little electronic keyboard, but it's only gonna go so far with the organ...although I spent a little time ignoring the noisy bearing in hopes that it would quiet down...and it did, to an extent. I put some Eric Clapton blues on WinAmp and went to it. It was easy to play the 1-4-5 chord pattern, but I've got a whole lot to learn.

The pic of the back of the Hammond is kinda typical. My son took it as we were locking the tone generator down for shipment. So far, I've spent a whole lot more time behind and inside it than at the manuals. I've also donated a lotta blood to it. In case ya didn't know, there's a lotta sharp stuff in there!

I was also an electronics tech, starting in the military with radar and a vacuum tube analog computer, so this stuff is familiar, at least. Especially the smell of hot tubes (I guess you call 'em valves there.) For the last 20 years of my career I wrote financial software...mainly interfaces between different computers and software packages for a large hospital management company. So I've been on both sides of the hardware/software bridge.

I hope ya get a chance to fix yer "clone-wheel" (if that's really what it is) and play it a bit. I really, really love the tonewheel sound.

Drop me a PM if ya want a buncha links I've found to other organ and Hammond sites.

And for a chance I get to gloat to a Kiwi that we're heading for summer here. I have several Kiwi friends (one of whom I met on the salt flats a coupla years ago...and he ordained me an honorary Kiwi...but I haven't been able to master the language ) in the racing world and they seem to love taunting us as we bemoan the end of racing season and they tell us how lovely the weather is there and how they're all going to head for Lake Gairdner in Aus while we're freezing. My turn.

Best regards, mate,

Ray, aka

Ratman, your pic shows up as a red X on my computer. Congrats on the organ. My first "piano" was a little Hohner organ, the first eletric (not electronic) keyboard with child-size keys, some kind of air pump, that I got in the 1960's. The continuous singing sound is often more pleasant than the plink plunk of pianos, but lack of dynamics on that sparse model .... you can't have it all.

The organ went on to my brothers, in a farm house. I have it again. A mouse nested in it for a while so the air pumps sent smelly air up until it was played in. Two keys are chipped off, the motor grinds almost louder than the sound it emits, but it has the sweetest vibrato you can imagine.

good luck on this organ!! here is a link you might enjoy seeing. this is the latest iteration of the hammond technology. seems like they are getting close. interesting mfg website with sounds and info. cap.

Diversi Organ -Tone Wheel Clone Technology
www.diversiorgan.com


just plain ole forgot to paste the link! too early. cap

Diversi Organ -Tone Wheel Clone Technology
www.diversiorgan.com


just plain ole forgot to paste the link! too early in the a.m! cap