[HAM] The beauty of Tonewheels - an alternate view

[pj geerlings]

In the recent discussion about Tonewheels the focus seemed to be firmly on 
waveform. I won't dispute that the waveform is not pure sinous and it is 
probably not valuable here to weight the merits of individual differences 
between extant units - this has already been covered.

What I haven't noticed in the discussion is a recognition of the one thing 
that is constant in the Hammond design. This is something I would call 
"harmonic reinforcement".

Everytime you play a chord on a tonewheel organ the harmonics that make up 
each note are *always* in perfect alignment. This is because (for example) 
the same tonewheel that is used to sound at the 5 1/3' pitch for the root of 
the chord is also used to produce the fudimental of the fifth of the chord. 
The net result is that are simply no harmonic pitches that would tend to 
fight with each other.

Yes, I know that the harmonic sequence is "off" and frankly, IMO, it is a 
very small price to pay for *that* sound.

peace to all,
pj geerlings
nubi3.com