Hammond M102

My son and his wife out in San Francisco just acquired a Hammond M-102, apparently in excellent condition. Do these things just keep going for ever?

I have one more good excuse to get out there for a visit!

I owned a Hammond B3 which was hauled from bar to bar and state to state. It never, never failed me. My guess is the M-102 will do the same. Unfortunately, I sold my B3. Now I wish I hadn't as they are hard to find and expensive.

The M102 has a vibrato unit that is NOT AVAILABLE any more. Be careful with that particular model. It's an electromagnet that repels some dangling metal cables and the shaking they do back and forth is the vibrato and it's really terrific.

Also, if you even need any work done on it the entire front has to be dismantled but any organ tech would know that. It wasn't very well designed but still sounds great.

I owned one for quite some time and had great fun with it.

And since it is a real tonewheel organ you can shut the power off while playing a chord and hear the tones go flat -- althugh I can't say if that damages it or not.

Oil the generator (sparingly) once a year so the bearings don't dry out. If you can't get Hammond oil use sewing machine oil.
Playing a chord when turning it off shouldn't affect anything.

Tom

"A Whiter Shade Of Pale" By Procol Harem, "Itchycoo Park" by The Small Faces, Some of the Jazz great Jimmy Smith, and other pop tunes of the 60's-70's were all recorded on a M100 series Hammond. Just add a tube Leslie and you won't believe your ears!

The M-100 series were a later model of the old M-3 and even older M-2's. If you can get used to only having an octave pedal at 16' it is fun to play around with. When I was a kid, I played many of them. They are right about keeping it oiled. Other than that, the Hammonds just keep going.

And I'm the new guy who also has an M-102. It's still in the back of my Suburban, but I hope to report some good news on it soon.

Oops. My M-102 is really an M-101. I misread it the first time. I spose I could actually get some new glasses....

Anyway, it's home, in the "studio" (other people might have called it a family room, but since I'm the only one who lives here.....)and running. Only a couple of problems. The tone generator has one or two squealing bearings (I've got oil soaking into 'em and after sitting overnight, it was quiet for about 5 minutes before the howl started up again) and one of the keys sounds completely wrong. I'll have to do more research on that one. But it's alive!