[HAM] A-102

[David Damroze]

Do they not have paragraph breaks in Canada ?
On Jul 5, 2007, at 8:47 PM, Doug Irvine wrote:

> With those beautiful French Provincial legs! Away back in the 70s, I 
> had
> sold one of these to a customer of mine, who was also a good friend.
> This man, who owned a Chrysler dealership, and from whom we had bought
> our Hammond Organ Studio van, decided that he would move his A to his
> summer place on Okanagan Lake.  So, because he had lots of trucks and
> staff at his disposal, he decided to do this himself with a couple of
> his employees.  They hoisted the organ into the back of a pick up, and
> with one of his guys driving it, took off, with Gladdie(his name was
> Gladstone) following. Well, the guy took off like gangbusters and the 
> A,
> which was facing back towards the tail gate moved toward the tail gate,
> flipped right over it, and went top first to the ground, which of 
> course
> was pavement! The organ hit the pavement top first, and then fell
> forward(back towards the truck) breaking off both legs. Smashed the
> music desk, and as I found out when I took it apart, broke the 
> generator
> shelf as well.  What really surprised me when I saw the damage, was 
> that
> none of the keys were broken as well.  I got a call from Gladdie almost
> in tears, describing the damage, and I told him I would come down to
> Penticton and get it. Took the RollOKari's and off I went, brought it
> back to Kelowna, and after taking it somewhat more apart, I figured out
> what I would have to do. Most important, to find out if it played, was
> to fix the generator shelf, which was a major problem in itself. He had
> locked the generator down, so there was no problem there, but getting
> the shelf aligned took a lot of trial and error, then try again, 
> finally
> got the generator to spin over, and that organ played! I still had the
> furniture problem to deal with, and that took about 3 months, as I had
> to first glue the legs back into place, and then repair the damage to
> the music desk, which of course had hit the pavement with the whole
> weight of the organ on top of it. That I gave up on, and ordered a new
> music desk from Hammond Organ Western Export Corporation, who was the
> export arm of Hammond Organ Company.  I had to fix the old desk
> sufficiently to be sorta usable until the new one arrived(3 months).  I
> loaned him an M-102 which was what he had prior to the trade up to the
> A-102.  How I fixed the generator shelf: I made braces to go under the
> shelf, aligned one side and clamped it to the top of the organ while I
> glued and screwed it in place. Then I went and did the same with the
> other end just to make sure it would not get out of alignment later on.
> With the generator unlocked, that organ started right up, and ran like 
> a
> clock(Hammond, of course!) and it was just about as quiet.  The two 
> legs
> caused me more trouble, not in getting them aligned and together, but
> the refinishing was a proper pain, I had to dig out where I had glued
> and clamped, and fill with Mohawk finishing stick, burning the lacquer
> stick in and then buffing out to smooth the leg.  I re-did one leg 
> twice
> before I was happy, and I was fortunate in finding a spray can that
> matched the color of the Provincial. Gladstone Parker is long gone,
> however his business is still there. This was a man who learned to play
> piano when a  youngster, then lost his left hand  at the wrist when a
> young man, and he could fake bass chords with his stump, and his pedal
> work with both feet was nothing less than spectacular, learned after he
> had the 25 note clavier.  So, Alicia, every time you look at that
> beautiful French provincial Hammond, think about how careful you should
> be with it! I still at 81, do a little touch up on furniture, but not
> like I used to. Still play a little as well!   Cheers, old Doug on
> Vancouver Island BC
>
>
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