The electric guitars nearest kin requests you stop killing off our family members:)

[John_H]

I've got a friend who frequents local auctions. I asked him to keep an eye out for a small upright piano for me. A couple of weeks later He shows up with 500 lbs. of solid state Baldwin organ. Nobody was bidding on it so after buying it for five dollars, he brought it over and gave it to me. I didn't want it, but didn't want to hurt his feelings either so we unloaded it into my garage. It didn't work, but I fixed the bad power switch, and got it up and running easily enough. I figured it would be easier to give away if it worked. I put up ads on craigslist, and never even got a single response. It took up space in my garage for a while before I exiled it to the back yard. In 1980 this working, top of the line electric organ cost around $4,000. Almost the price of a new car, and I couldn't give the fucker away. Nobody wants these old organs.

[Enzo]

Some churches will take them out of ignorance. If the thing works, and a donation won;t result in a repair bill for someone, about the only place that MIGHT be ineterested in taking one would be an old folks home. 80-90 year old people are of the era when organs were played in the home and organ music made sense to them. So they stick one in the common room and some old guys will always come along who can play it, and another lovely day comes and goes. But these days, someone can also usually com up with a little YAMAHA PSR-something keyboard that makes organ sounds and a bunch of other sounds, plus has the rhythm and accompaniment feature, which fulfills the same purpose as an organ. Plus the little keyboard is portable, sits on a table, then is easily stored in a closet, out of the way.


If you still need a piano, those are a tough sell these days. You might have to go look, but I bet a bunch of them live in schools and other gathering places, just gathering dust. ANy of them that have a show to put on probably come up with an electronic piano now - probably one comes with the musician these days. And an electric does not go out of tune, is not temperature sensitive and won;t need its action revived now and then. You might find one for free for the price of hauling.

[Enzo]

I was touring back in the 1965-1975 era, we carried a full B3 and Leslie with us. We used a set of piano dollies under the ends, it wasn't too bad. I did know a number of guys who had chopped B3 setups.

[Chuck H]

About twenty years ago I ran across a big, wooden and obviously intended to be stationary Hammond at a thrift store with a $50 price tag on it. I did some research and found out that it was the same as a B3 but a console model with built in rotary speaker. It didn't have the B3 name on it but that's what I was able to determine by calling some shops. I thought about it for about a day and went back with $50 but it was already gone. Someone stole it at fifty bucks! I'll bet it was worth at least a hundred!

Point is, that would have been a very desirable model for a console organ and it was still priced in peanuts.

[Enzo]

For people in the know, tone-wheel Hammonds are "grab it now" items. But they are the exception. if it had been little Thomas, I bet it would still be there.

[big_teee]

What organ does Greg Allman play?
And, what is the big Wood Cabinet box behind him.
I know nothing about organs.
You can see it in this vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=6IrAIlAN9z0
T

[The Dude]

That would be the infamous Hammond B3 organ with a Leslie cabinet.

[big_teee]

So I guess speakers in the Cab?
If so what kind?

[The Dude]

There's a rotating horn assembly and a down-facing speaker that acoustically couples to a rotating drum. The drum is slotted so that sound only comes out of the slot as the drum rotates. Here's a pic.



Peter Frampton, among others, used Leslie cab's on guitar quite often. They're not just for keyboards anymore.
You can hear it plainly on the end solo of "Do You Feel Like We Do?"

[Paulj0557]

Eh, I'll just take it at face value.

Like anything else, my reaction is this: so, what do you want me to do about it?

Just save 1. Just 1 that's all. A guitar player should have no trouble liking ONE of these small spinets. Not saving just to save, but to dig the hell out of!

My first organ was a Lowrey model that was a tube organ, small, and beautiful sounding. Check out the 1986 organ blue book- https://archive.org/details/OrganBlueBook-1985-1986

Like the way these sound? Then save 1, just 1. HAMMOND,CONN,WURLITZER TUBE AMP ORGANS ARE EXTREMELY RELIABLE AND VERY VERY EASY TO REPAIR! That's what the ORGAN FORUM IS FOR

Here's a Lowrey DSO1 from 1965. It's a Vacuum Tube Divider organ- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bth5RDIozsI

Here is a Hammond L-100 ( easy to find in your town for less than $200 and sometimes free in the morning of listing). The M3 is the spinet version of a Hammond B3. More M3's were made than ANY other spinet organ ever made. The M100 has the same vibrato scanner as a B3/M3, but the L100 like you are about to listen to here has a vacuum tube vibrato. A quick power boost 'instant DEEP PURPLE' is to run the RCA OUT from the vibrato to the RCA PERCUSSION IN. You lose vibrato, but get a massive amount of mean tone wheel heaven with a Leslie! BTW L100's take a Leslie 147 (a line in Leslie), whereas the M100's,M3's (like the B3) are BALANCED OUT and use the Leslie 122 or Leslie 145 BALANCED IN. Okay enough 'HAMMOND for $300 or less' buyers theory.
Here is Walter Wanderley on a Hammond L100 through a Leslie 147. [Note that little Wurlitzer 120 electric piano on the right, I bought a mint one last year for $25 w/ bench & legs!]
[same song as the Lowrey above]- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9aftG6pybA

And here is what appears to be a Thomas tube organ. Thomas, Gulbransen, and Allen made transistor oscillator organs w/ tube amps from 1953, where everyone else was ALL-TUBE until around 63' to 67'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S4HPYDDGKE

Wurlitzer only had one all-tube organ! PLEASE if you EVER see a WURLITZER ORGAN WITH ALL WHITE TABS and TUBES it is an electrostatic reed organ and yes!, YOU SHOULD STOP AND GET IT! Even if it's to bring it straight home, throw a tarp on it out back, take 3 pictures and tell me to write your ad for you. Here is what they sound like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ58zOnP2xc ( larger Series 20 CONSOLE electrostatic Keyed reed, air moves reed when keyed)
https://www.youtube.com/user/paulj0557 [the title video of my channel] - (SPINET smaller electrostatic Free reed, all reeds move always from start up...remember the reeds are NOT heard, but used electronically)
BOTH ARE TREASURES TO BE SAVED MORE THAN ANY OTHER ORGANS! Like a Hammond they are built to last several hundred years with simple capacitor changes in the amp/power supply every 30-50 years. Okay? Okay!

-( Leave a comment on the video saying you have found one, and I'll write an ad so you can sell it better. I just want to be sure they don't get dumped.) As tempting as it is to rob that amp don't! If anyone can prove they saved a Wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ I will darn near give you the amp from one! Please, they are great great organs!


This is the Wurlitzer Series 30/31 Orgatron from 1946. I own the Orgatron 31 & the 5' tall Wurlitzer 310 'Vibrato cabinet'
Here is a demo of a Don Leslie designed-for-Wurlitzer upper steel vane rotor in the 310 cabinet. The video is not the best demo, but on the organ it sounds amazing! These use the often 'robbed for projects' chassis#'s 6431 and 6420 2-6L6 amplifiers X 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcSyo5EgEws
Here is a Series 30 Wurlitzer Orgatron ( Series 30 has it's own speaker & amp internal to the organ. The 30, no)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxFP...gco4ZkYE6QWjAA
The 'keyed reed' electrostatic reed organs have a very pipe like quality due to the slower attack of the note when keying, it imitates to lag of air going into a pipe in a pipe organ. Since the Hammond tone wheel organ ( AKA the B3) had an instant attack due to all of the tone wheels in constant motion, it was a great organ for popular music. This displeased Wurlitzer so they created the 'always blowing reeds' electrostatic 'free reed' organs ( 4600,4602,4800,44,4410,4420,4430). The organ I played on my channel is a free reed. Notice the difference in the attack from the 3 Wurlitzer organ videos. The one of me on the 4410 is a fast attack organ, and the Series 30 and Series 20 organs are very much slower attack for church music. However take a look at the images I posted. Notice under the picture of the Series 30/31 keyed reed organ in the image, all of the many types of music it is able to play. I figure that it probably can, but unfortunately the two demonstrators in the videos are certainly not taking them for a good ride! Ugh! I hate it when players never change tab settings and refuse to play it like a Hammond. Believe me, the Keyed reed organs can hop!

So I will leave you all alone now. Just think before you fink. That kind of talk does the organs no favors and just out of respect for the craftsmanship, even if you hate organs, do that for me please. Thank you-Paul

[Enzo]

Yeah well, I have too many amplifiers as it is, and I have several more juke boxes than I have room for. You ARE also saving jukeboxes aren't you? They certainly are an important part of Americana. I'd have to find a new home for at least one of my jukes to make room for one of these beasties. As to easy to repair? Well, as far as I know, it still requires getting down on the floor and then getting BACK UP, not easy. A lady brought me over a beloved piece of furniture - her console AM/FM/record player. All tubes. I had to give it back to her, I just could not get down on my knees on the cement floor to work on it. We are all saving console radios too, aren;t we?

[tedmich]

sometimes you need to give the old organ a rest, IMHO

[Chuck H]

I wondered how long it would take!

When I chop organs I carry the parts in little Styrofoam coolers.

Organs don't come up much for me as often as they use to.

I only got my hands on an organ once... At summer camp.

[eschertron]

Ow! Ow! Stop, Chuck, you're hurting me!

But seriously,

...an important part of Americana.

I think the poster's thrust (oh there's the organ joke again!) is that if the instruments are around for new generations of musicians to use and listen to, then their tone will continue to be venerated. It's not so much about furniture as it is about keeping the tradition alive. And the parallels are interesting: for a touring pop ensemble, digital sampling synths are pretty much 'good enough' for the keyboard duties the same way a digital modeling amp is 'good enough' to emulate a range of guitar amp tones. OTOH, the solo artist probably will insist on the right equipment to produce his or her signature sound.

You wanna be known as the person who encouraged the next Keith Emerson or John Medeski? Make sure everybody in town gets to see that your organ is fully functioning and reliable!

[The Dude]

Make sure everybody in town gets to see that your organ is fully functioning and reliable!

Yep......