[HAM] New Hammond Factory Sound

[William Mark Bristow]

Kon and List,

I'm 49 and I started playing Hammonds when I was 7 years of age (1964).  I
can recall when 1st Baptist bought a new C3 and a couple of PR-40's, 1st
Methodist bought a new C3 and 122, and 1st United Pentecostal bought a 1963
B3 and a 122's.  Plus we had American Music Co which had at least 5 Hammond
consoles on the floor (with illegal Leslies) and legal tone cabinets.
During those years, from 1964 to (1978 when I played a brand new B3 - one of
the last off the assembly line still sitting unsold for 3 years in Jents
House of Music in Lubbock, TX) I have played dozens of NEW and near new C3 -
B3 - A100's - D-152 - RT -3, etc.

 

The Factory Sound - sounds like any red-mylar-cap B3 or C3 - in fact it
sounds like my 1961 wax-cap C3 (Schleicher Chop) and my 1953 B2 & 145 stock
and with wax-caps - and plenty of highs - in fact the tone pot is set below
half on that organ.  (And sounds exactly like my XK3 run thru my 145 - I
know I'm gonna get yelled at for that one!)

 

The Factory sound is not some mysterious unattainable "Holy Grail."  That
last new B3 I played (about 3 years old - still unsold on the floor of
Jents) sounded terrible - thin and nasal and I much preferred the used C2
sitting beside it.

 

Listen to the recordings made in the 1960's & 1970's - the Hammonds sound
pretty much the same as now.  There were Hammonds then that were thick and
muddy - and some that were thin and nasal and some that sounded wonderful.
I recently helped a church buy a CV (early 1940's I think) from the
Salvation Army for $100.  From the keyboard feel, it has hardly been played
at all - and it sounds wonderful - wax caps and all. 

 

I wonder what honor the last one living will receive - the one who heard a
brand new tone generated Hammond with his own mortal ears! - Everyone please
bow.

(I'm kidding - really!!)

Mark