Bigsbybender's Latest Score!

[bigsbybender]

Hey all...

I thought some of you might be interested in my latest score. It's not "tube guitar amp" but is tube and sounds just as good!

It's a 1936 Hammond Model A.  The 810th Hammond organ ever built, made about the 7th month that these were in production. I got it for $100 on Craigslist. It was sold as is because the internal preamp is not self powered, thus it could not stand alone through a guitar amp. Hammond used a multi-pin connection that fed the preamp from the Tone Cabinet (Separate Amplifier).  I rigged up a temporary power supply and ran it through my 5F6/JTM45 amp that I built, it sounds incredible!

Check out the Tubes!  A 56' Triode and a 57' Pentode!  It's hard to believe that it's 1936 as clean as it is!

Below I have the tone cabinet amp as well.... I wish I had the original cabinet. It's rated for 20w  and uses a quad of 2A3, 5Z4 recto, and a pair of 56' triodes!   The power transformer is pretty toasty looking so I haven't fired it up yet... It also doesn't have a plug for the wall, instead it gets 115vAC from the Hammond Organ Console via the multipin cable.

I need a cheap compact power supply to provide 200v B+ (There is a separate 2.5v filament transformer). I was directed to this http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=IHB200-0.12virtualkey59720000virtualkey597-B200-0.12

I was tempted to flip this for more money..... but now I may keep it.

[eleventeen]

I played & gigged with a keyboard player in numerous bands between 1975-1980 who had a Hammond A. I am sure I heard him explain that it was a great piece several times over but I can't recall the details. I know it had the same (or similar) type of percussion that a B-3 has. I must have been a lot stronger in those days because I moved that beast more times than I care to remember. And yes, it had 2-digit tubes. I can't recalll if the amp in his Leslie was unusual...meaning, whether it used 6550's or not. It was unquestionably a great sounding organ.

There are sure a lot of those old Hammond organs being gutted on ebay, etc; for their amplifiers. I can certainly understand, they are big and heavy and expensive to maintain on those rare occasions when they need mtce. if I were offered one even for free I couldn't take it. But I am sorry to see these scrapped.

[stingray_65]

Hammonds have such a sound all their own, I've got my kids trained pretty well and can tell a Hammond or a Rhodes electric piano when they hear them.

Earlier this spring my 14 yr old daughter started sputtering while we we're at 5th 3rd field watching the Mudhens. "Daddy! they're playing a B3!"

A father couldn't have been prouder!

I've never seen such an old model Hammond, you have quite the relic!

I hope you enjoy it for many MANY yrs.

Ray

[eleventeen]

When you get the pedals and the bench with it, and the cabinet is in decent condition, it becomes harder and harder to justify stripping it down into just a chassis and some trannies. I hope you or one of yours plays kbds and equally importantly, you a have a place to put it!

[topbrent]

Nice score.   

I just picked up a very clean "A" just like yours last night. 
The organ deal included 2 of those nice 2A3 triode power tube amps and 4 field-coil Jensen A-12 speakers. 
All items in quite nice condition for pre-war FDR era stuff...

[Ritchie200]

Nice job BB!  I saw an old Hammond catalog from the '30's that had a pic of a 4x12 cabinet for church/auditorium that was a dead ringer for a Marshall straight front....

I bet if you did a nation-wide search on CL you could rustle a powered cabinet up!  Good luck!
Jim

[bigsbybender]

Nice job BB!  I saw an old Hammond catalog from the '30's that had a pic of a 4x12 cabinet for church/auditorium that was a dead ringer for a Marshall straight front....

I bet if you did a nation-wide search on CL you could rustle a powered cabinet up!  Good luck!
Jim

HMMMMMM maybe they had that idea before Jon Lord..... Perhaps Highway Star was actually a depression era song...
   
I need to hook up a Leslie to this, but there will always be a Marshall hooked to it as well, for obvious reasons. A JTM45 is on it now, the 18w Stout may come soon

If I can snag the original style tone cabinet, then I'll restore the whole thing and sell it to a collector or somewhere that can properly display it.

These things are the pinnacle of craftsmanship as far as electric musical instruments go. I also began the chop of my 1965 Hammond E182 tonight.  Since the cabinet was in rough shape, it makes a good candidate. I removed so much bell and whistle circuitry that I think I have hook-up wire for the rest of my life.  IT sounds better the more I strip it to it's basics.



j.

[bigsbybender]

Nice score.   

I just picked up a very clean "A" just like yours last night. 
The organ deal included 2 of those nice 2A3 triode power tube amps and 4 field-coil Jensen A-12 speakers. 
All items in quite nice condition for pre-war FDR era stuff...

AWESOME!  That would be the A40 cabinet....  Great Score!

[DummyLoad]

very cool! good to read you're going to hang on to it.

--ISO

[RicharD]

Yeah for Hammond restorations.  They're fun to work on.  I cleaned up a little spinet I got for $50.00 and gave it to my daughter's boyfriend.  He still needs to get that thang outta my house.  There's a really great Hammond website that tells you how to fix just about everything.  It has a clickable tone generator chart for tracking down those pesky broken wires.  It saved me hours of searching for needles in the haystack.