Hammond sounds

koneguitarist · December 2014

Last night we were playing a small pub, and regular dipping keyboard players were not available, so singer who had seen this guy play asked him to sit in.

We met him on the night, and he pretty much played all Hammond tones on a Nord keyboard with a box plugged in (Neo something) sounded awesome, and he could bloody play.

He plays in a few bands( one with Loyd Grossman) and is in demand, but it was a pleasure to hear our usual sets with a Hammond organ sound and vibe. Great fun.

not_the_dj · December 2014

Nice one, I do like a good Hammond.

Lixarto · December 2014

Agreed - the Hammond is the best sound in the world; better than any guitar noise.

Roland · December 2014

I love a decent Hammond

ESBlonde · December 2014

My B.I.L. repairs hammonds and tone cabinets on occasion and has a couple in his personal collection. The real thing in the flesh is quite stunning to hear at full chat when played well.

Phil_aka_Pip · December 2014

Agreed. The Hammond sound is awesome. It's always a pleasure to play with someone who can do it.

BTW there's even a good Hammond sound in the Yamaha DJX if you can be bothered to look for it

@ESBlonde is your BIL Dennis Brown by any chance?

robinbowes · December 2014

That would be the Neo Ventilator

R.

ESBlonde · December 2014

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Agreed. The Hammond sound is awesome. It's always a pleasure to play with someone who can do it.

BTW there's even a good Hammond sound in the Yamaha DJX if you can be bothered to look for it

@ESBlonde is your BIL Dennis Brown by any chance?

No It's JB who does stuff for and with Dennis, they have been friends for many years.

jpfamps · December 2014

I love the Hammond organ.

In fact I recently bought 2 (!!) to renovated: an L100 (Keith Emerson model) and an M100 (which is the nearest of the spinets to a B/C3) which has been chopped.

The L100 i'll get working an connect to the Leslie cabinet in a friends studio, and the M100 I'm aiming to engineer into a portable chop with Leslie 145 connection for a friend of mine, and Hammond organ player extraordinaire, Joe Glossop.

I've done a few job's for Joe in the past eg on his Leslie cabinet and Nord Electro, and Joe persuaded me that it would be a good idea for me to get into Hammond repair as there is a dwindling number people able to fix them.

I said the best way to learn was to get an old organ that needs work are rebuild it.

I will chart my progress with this venture on the JPFamps blog.

MatthewShreddery · December 2014

Those Nords are bloody brilliant - my mate in our band plays one. It even has a 'Jump' (Van Halen) preset built in...

robinbowes · December 2014

I've got an old Leslie unit from a Farfisa organ I picked up for not much. It's currently with a friend who is trying to find time to build it into a replica of a Vibrotone cabinet. It will be awesome when (if!) it gets done.

R.

maltingsaudio · December 2014

ESBlonde said:

My B.I.L. repairs hammonds and tone cabinets on occasion and has a couple in his personal collection. The real thing in the flesh is quite stunning to hear at full chat when played well.

They sound great but moving them on and off stage is a completely different set of hernias

ESBlonde · December 2014

jpfamps said:

I love the Hammond organ.

In fact I recently bought 2 (!!) to renovated: an L100 (Keith Emerson model) and an M100 (which is the nearest of the spinets to a B/C3) which has been chopped.

The L100 i'll get working an connect to the Leslie cabinet in a friends studio, and the M100 I'm aiming to engineer into a portable chop with Leslie 145 connection for a friend of mine, and Hammond organ player extraordinaire, Joe Glossop.

I've done a few job's for Joe in the past eg on his Leslie cabinet and Nord Electro, and Joe persuaded me that it would be a good idea for me to get into Hammond repair as there is a dwindling number people able to fix them.

I said the best way to learn was to get an old organ that needs work are rebuild it.

I will chart my progress with this venture on the JPFamps blog.

If you get so you need some spares I could put you in touch with JB who has some rare items in his workshop racked up.

koneguitarist · December 2014

robinbowes said:

That would be the Neo Ventilator

R.

That would be the unit, and it was a twin keyboard Nord as well, wonderful sounds, he has Hammonds, but said it sounds better, and more reliable.

vasselmeyer · December 2014

My old band were in the studio one time and we were all called upon to help move a Hammond M102 into a the studio next door. In the end it took six of us to move it. It was the heaviest piece of musical equipment I have EVER encountered. We had the pleasure of listening to the real thing being fierd up and played though. What an amazing sound, warm, rich but also a little edgy. And with the vintage ones you hear and experience all the crackles, pops and hisses that make it such an organic sound.

Dominic · December 2014

There's an excellent processor for keyboards called a Ferrofish - German Built -that has a 2 keyboard register and live Hammond b3 draw bar set up.......it can be used with any midi enabled keyboard .......sounds very realistic and has controls to dial in all the true vintage Hammond idiosyncracies that are caused by worn parts and are acknowledged to be a principal component of the signature sound ......it also has gain and compression settings,

johnnyurq · December 2014

"It's Wednesday night; it's amateur Hammond organ recital night. OK, take it away, Skutters!"

Couldn't resist, but I do like a good hammond on full chat.

IvisonGuitars · December 2014

LOVE the Hammond sound and a good hammond player is worth their weight in gold.

We (The Misers) used to tour with an L100 and Motion Sound Leslie cab and it sounded stunning - bloody heavy and impractical most of the time - all was well until it went on fire during the encore at a hometown gig. Switched to a Hammond XK2 after that, far more practical but never quite had that 'thing'.