[HAM] My Summer Vacation (long-ish)

[Charles Buckingham]

Good day all,

I had meant to share this post three years ago but for one reason or 
another never got around to it.  I've now got a part II to it, so I 
thought I'd tell the whole story.

Back in the summer of '03 I spent a week visiting family in a small town 
on the south shore of Nova Scotia.  While out for a stroll one night 
down the main street, I happened upon the local music store (which also 
doubled as the local Sears catalogue outlet).  Through the window of the 
closed store I could just make out the distinct shape of a Hammond M 
series spinet in the back of the store.  As an "avid hobbyist" (read: 
Hammond nut),  I wanted to take a closer look.  The next morning I went 
back to the store.  It appeared to be an M3 with a lime oak finish, but 
turned out to be just incredibly sun faded.  The owner said that he had 
bought it from a church and it was not working.  After running off at 
the mouth for a while about tonewheel organs, he asked me if I could fix 
it.  The next thing I knew, the back was off and I was up to my arms in 
spinet.  The line cord was original and horrid.  At the bottom, there 
was the telltale sawdust from an unlocked generator bashing against the 
case during transport.  Someone had removed the original speaker and 
installed a cheap 4 ohm automotive woofer.  The store owner said that 
the organ had been "serviced" for the church by someone after they said 
that the organ was distorting.  Whoever serviced it had swapped speakers 
and pretty much disappeared. On the plus side, the generator had been 
regularly oiled.  We gingerly plugged in the power cord and fired it 
up.  Everything lit up, the wheels were spinning but there was no 
sound.  I went to the local library, downloaded a copy of the schematic 
and went back to the store.  I asked the owner if he had a meter handy 
and he did not.  He said that he knew a local gentleman who used to be a 
ham operator and he would ask him.  He came back with a functional but 
well used Heathkit IM-2202 meter and some stubby banana leads that 
doubled as probes.  After some careful poking around I determined that 
R31 was fried.  Digging around in a box of assorted parts we found a 
replacement resistor (probably the same vintage as the organ).  Using a 
soldering iron that looked like it came from a wood burning kit, I 
replaced the resistor and we were up and running.

I checked out all the features and everything worked fine.  The action 
was nice and tight.  It really seemed as if it was only played on 
Sundays.  I instructed the owner on all of the functions and workings 
(i.e. why don't these drawbars sound on the upper keys, how the 
percussion works etc.) and showed him how to lock down the generator for 
safe transport.  I left the schematics in the back of the organ with a 
description of the service performed.  As I was returning home a few 
days later, I told the owner to make sure he replaced the cruddy old 
line cord and the mismatched speaker before using the organ regularly.  
Above all I asked him to make sure that it got played.  Although he 
played mainly guitar, he said he was planning to keep the organ.  
Despite that I said that I'd do the repair for free (I was on vacation), 
he insisted on paying me for my time.  I gratefully accepted (and 
probably spent most of it on beer!)

My Dad died last December and he requested that we bring his ashes to be 
buried next our Mom in Nova Scotia.  We returned last week to do this 
and I took the opportunity to follow up on the organ.  When I walked 
into the store the owner recognized me immediately.  He said that the 
organ had sat around for a few months as he couldn't make the time to 
play it.  Rather than having it collect dust in his store, he moved it 
to a nearby studio owned by a friend.  Apparently it has ended up on the 
recordings of many locals and various groups traveling through the 
area.  As he put it, people would walk into the studio, take one look at 
the Hammond, and say :"I want _that_ on this recording".  I don't fix 
organs for a living so it was an odd (but good) feeling to know that 
something I worked on was being used and enjoyed by so many people.

Then the owner said "Oh yeah, it quit about a month ago...".  His buddy 
turned it on and "a whole bunch of smoke came out of it".

Well, the timing couldn't have been much better for him so I said I'd 
take another look at it for him.  He had it back in the store within a 
day or so.  When I lifted the amp out there was a puddle of stinky brown 
wax on the bottom of the case.  The power tranny had fried releasing the 
mystical blue smoke that is critical to the proper operation of all 
electronic devices.  I pulled out the rectifier and there were pieces of 
filament tinkling around in the glass.

I knew he wouldn't have a spare A0-29 floating around in his parts bin.  
Hammond organs (even spinets) are pretty scarce in that part of Canada.  
I told him I had a spare back at home (thanks Tim!) and he said "Do you 
want to sell it?".  I offered to take the amp (sans transformer) home 
with me, repair it, and ship it back to him.  I was concerned that if I 
just shipped him the working transformer without checking out the rest 
of the amp first he might end up with another puddle of wax.  He paid me 
in advance for the repairs and return freight costs and using the same 
bent-tipped wood burning kit soldering pencil I removed the amp from the 
organ.  He said "I guess I'd better buy a new soldering iron if I'm 
going to put that back in".  I pulled the tubes, packed everything well, 
and checked it through with my luggage at the airport (definitely not a 
carry on item).

So now I get to the crux of this long post.  Here I am with an A0-29 
that blew it's power transformer.  Apart from the dead rectifier there 
are no other obvious signs of trauma.  I'll give everything a good once 
over, check the replacement transformer for leakage, add a proper line 
cord (he never replaced the original) and add some fusing for cheap 
insurance. Does anyone have any general or model specific suggestions or 
recommendations before I stick it in a test organ and fire it up?

Many thanks for reading.  I look forward to any feedback.

Regards,

Charles