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Conference napalm::commusic_v1

Title:* * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * *
Notice:Conference has been write-locked. Use new version.
Moderator:DYPSS1::SCHAFER
Created:Thu Feb 20 1986
Last Modified:Mon Aug 29 1994
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2852
Total number of notes:33157

1292.0. "Info For Repairing Hammond Organ" by ROLL::BEFUMO (Life is like a beanstalk...isn't it?) Fri Apr 01 1988 12:20

    	This may be kind of outside the subject of this conference,
    but I'm hoping that some of you synthesizor folks may have started
    out on one of these :
        I just bought an old Hammond B-C organ which is in need of some
    (hopefully) minor cleaning & adjustment.  Before I open it up &
    start mucking about I'd like to have some idea of what I'm looking
    at.  If anybody has any tips, advice, pointers, etc., They would
    be greatly appreciated.  Any info on where I might find some kind
    of manuals, schematics, etc., would be super!  Thanks. (Yes, the
    "farfisa" note a few back is mine, too.  I've gone on a binge of
    buying old keyboards - now all I have to do is make them work &
    learn how to play!)
    						joe b
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1292.1M3 ExperianceBARTLS::MOLLERVegetation: A way of lifeFri Apr 01 1988 16:2023
    I've serviced an M3 (very similar, mechanically) in the past &
    other than vacuuming out the insides & re-oiling it, there probably
    isn't a whole lot that you can do with it. The M3's & B3's have
    mechanical tone generators. These are more like guitar pickups /
    strings (in concept) than you might expect. If you crack open the
    motorized section, you'll find a metal wheel for each tone, and
    that wheel was molded with teeth on the outside edge. Each note
    has a different amount of teeth on it, and as these spin around,
    the pickup near the teeth will convert the magnetic variations
    in the pickup caused by this motion, in much the same way a guitar
    string causes a guitar pickup to generate a voltage. If these
    wheels are loose, or bent, or slightly out of position, you can
    get notes that appear out of tune. I've corrected loose ones on
    an M3, and it's a Bitch to get the mechanisum apart and back together
    again. There are more wires than I care to worry about that you
    have to disconnect & re-solder (the wires were all black in the
    M3 - so I was glad that I marked everything). The M3 sounds great,
    so, I considered the effort worth it, but, I don't plan to go into
    business doing this. I also tossed the amplifier & case for this
    monster & put it into a new cabinet. This reduces the weight by
    at least 150 lbs.
    
    							Jens