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Buying a Hammond that’s NOT a B3
So, like me you dig that classic Hammond sound, but can’t shell out the thousands of dollars on a B3, read on! The guide is not so much for the well seasoned Hammond aficionado, as much as those who want to get into Hammond and get the most bang for their buck.
There is a cult built up around the B3, which years are the best, and also that only a B3 will do. Granted the B3 has the name recognition, but Hammond essentially made ONE organ for many years, of which the B3 is just one. There are great Hammonds that give you that sound that aren’t B3’s here a guide.
The C3 is a B3 in a more ornate cabinet, intended for churches. This is now common knowledge, but I thought I’d throw it in. The cost just about the same as a B3, they are electronically identical, and keep in mind they are heavier.
The A100 is a B3 with a built in power amplifier, and a different cabinet. The amplifier includes reverb, a rather nice spring reverb. It’s the most highly recommended alternative, but they’re not that much cheaper. It doesn’t have a built in Leslie speaker, with a simple modification a Leslie can be added.
Next up, or rather next down the line are the B2 and C2. They are very very similar to the B3, but without percussion (the harmonic key click). There are add on percussion kits to make B2’s B3, but even with the kit they sell for less. They have a slightly different preamp that uses an 8 pin preamp, rather then a more modern 10 pin. There are little converters made for changing the pin out of an 8 pin to accept the smaller 10 pin, doing this will make it more B-3 like, however I personally like the older style preamp sound, a little warmer. I for one don’t mind playing with no percussion or the percussion off, so this for me is not a big deal. Also these organs were factory EQed to give as little actual key click as possible; there is a pot that regulates this range in the EQ try turning it up. My Hammond is modified to have full key click, if I turn the draw bars down, it make a percussion like sound.
Next are the A, B, C, and D. There are the earliest Hammonds, some are pre-war. Keep in mind that the tone generator NEVER changed even into the 70’s, these organs are capable of making many of the same sounds. These organs are often held back by early preamp designs that were less bright and a little quieter. Also they not only lack percussion but also chorus and vibrato. These organs can be retrofitted with later preamps, even those out of non-valuable Hammonds. Some of these organs also did not operate without a Tone cab or Leslie, because they got their B+ voltage back from the cab. Why is a long story, it didn’t last long. Once again replacing the preamp or power amp in these organs is possible. You can find B2 preamps, M2, M3 amps that will work great. When hooking up these later amps will not give you chorus.. because you don’t have a chorus generator. And they will not give you percussion, I have no idea of how you will make that circuit work, but they’ll still sound the balls. These organs are some of the cheapest Hammonds out there.
Which brings me to my model D. I had a model D, which is a C with an earlier version of the chorus. To make the chorus it uses an entire other chorus generator, slightly out of temperament to make an absolutely beautiful chorus on which the later chorus generator was based (in other words a similar sound, I would even say more rich). I LOVE IT! At times I prefer it to a B3, but it didn’t start out that way. It had one of those wanky old preamps in it, and even though I had a Leslie 145 I had to run a DR amp hooked up to the organ to power up it’s preamp. It was cool, but still not hot. Then the preamp started giving me trouble. I couldn’t fix it, I asked a repairman buddy of mine to come over and have a look, he did and had no luck too. I saw that on this organ the only input to the preamp and it was visible, just a balanced connection off the tone generator. I asked him what would happen if we hooked on directly off of that, and he said, I don’t know let’s try. What came after that was MAGICAL! By hooking up directly to the bassman, we changed my 1947 Hammond into a 1964! It sounded bright, plenty of key click, rich and amazing. This is why I often recommend replacing the preamps on old Hammonds.
Lastly the M3. The M and the M2 are also ok, but these organs are found regularly for under $250, sometimes given away, so go for the 3, it’s got the most features. The M3 is often toted as the Baby B3 or the home B3, and they often fall short of this claim, they are however cool Hammonds and you can do something with them. What they don’t have is called foldback, the additional harmonics on the upper keys. They have one less draw bar, and they don’t repeat the bass below, as a matter of fact they have much fewer bass keys. If you just need right hand solos and lush Hammond chords, this might be for you. If you’re an all hands all feet all the time organ player, you can’t whip up much of a storm on the M3. They have one octave of built in petals that take some getting used to. They have a built in power amp (low power) and a built in speaker. They often have a Leslie adapter added on, and can be modified to run a Leslie rather easily. Plugged into a Leslie they sing something like a B3, without the Leslie you can get the Booker T Green Onions sound, and variations on it, but the built in amp will never keep up with a rock band. Also I have an M3 that I chopped up to be more portable that I use as my gig organ. I find if you can get some EQing between the organ and the Leslie, in my case I run a Leslie with a fender bassman head, you can get back what you miss from the lack of foldback. There is also an add foldback to your M procedure that is detailed on some websites but it’s very complicated, not for the hobbyist, and not worth paying someone else to do.
That’s all I’ll mention for now. There are other cool Hammonds, the L100, the M100, I’m not a fan of the H’s, but put forth here are what I believe are the best lower cost options in Hammond.
Wondering about Leslies? Check out my Leslie guide that should be posted here too.
So, like me you dig that classic Hammond sound, but can’t shell out the thousands of dollars on a B3, read on! The guide is not so much for the well seasoned Hammond aficionado, as much as those who want to get into Hammond and get the most bang for their buck.
There is a cult built up around the B3, which years are the best, and also that only a B3 will do. Granted the B3 has the name recognition, but Hammond essentially made ONE organ for many years, of which the B3 is just one. There are great Hammonds that give you that sound that aren’t B3’s here a guide.
The C3 is a B3 in a more ornate cabinet, intended for churches. This is now common knowledge, but I thought I’d throw it in. The cost just about the same as a B3, they are electronically identical, and keep in mind they are heavier.
The A100 is a B3 with a built in power amplifier, and a different cabinet. The amplifier includes reverb, a rather nice spring reverb. It’s the most highly recommended alternative, but they’re not that much cheaper. It doesn’t have a built in Leslie speaker, with a simple modification a Leslie can be added.
Next up, or rather next down the line are the B2 and C2. They are very very similar to the B3, but without percussion (the harmonic key click). There are add on percussion kits to make B2’s B3, but even with the kit they sell for less. They have a slightly different preamp that uses an 8 pin preamp, rather then a more modern 10 pin. There are little converters made for changing the pin out of an 8 pin to accept the smaller 10 pin, doing this will make it more B-3 like, however I personally like the older style preamp sound, a little warmer. I for one don’t mind playing with no percussion or the percussion off, so this for me is not a big deal. Also these organs were factory EQed to give as little actual key click as possible; there is a pot that regulates this range in the EQ try turning it up. My Hammond is modified to have full key click, if I turn the draw bars down, it make a percussion like sound.
Next are the A, B, C, and D. There are the earliest Hammonds, some are pre-war. Keep in mind that the tone generator NEVER changed even into the 70’s, these organs are capable of making many of the same sounds. These organs are often held back by early preamp designs that were less bright and a little quieter. Also they not only lack percussion but also chorus and vibrato. These organs can be retrofitted with later preamps, even those out of non-valuable Hammonds. Some of these organs also did not operate without a Tone cab or Leslie, because they got their B+ voltage back from the cab. Why is a long story, it didn’t last long. Once again replacing the preamp or power amp in these organs is possible. You can find B2 preamps, M2, M3 amps that will work great. When hooking up these later amps will not give you chorus.. because you don’t have a chorus generator. And they will not give you percussion, I have no idea of how you will make that circuit work, but they’ll still sound the balls. These organs are some of the cheapest Hammonds out there.
Which brings me to my model D. I had a model D, which is a C with an earlier version of the chorus. To make the chorus it uses an entire other chorus generator, slightly out of temperament to make an absolutely beautiful chorus on which the later chorus generator was based (in other words a similar sound, I would even say more rich). I LOVE IT! At times I prefer it to a B3, but it didn’t start out that way. It had one of those wanky old preamps in it, and even though I had a Leslie 145 I had to run a DR amp hooked up to the organ to power up it’s preamp. It was cool, but still not hot. Then the preamp started giving me trouble. I couldn’t fix it, I asked a repairman buddy of mine to come over and have a look, he did and had no luck too. I saw that on this organ the only input to the preamp and it was visible, just a balanced connection off the tone generator. I asked him what would happen if we hooked on directly off of that, and he said, I don’t know let’s try. What came after that was MAGICAL! By hooking up directly to the bassman, we changed my 1947 Hammond into a 1964! It sounded bright, plenty of key click, rich and amazing. This is why I often recommend replacing the preamps on old Hammonds.
Lastly the M3. The M and the M2 are also ok, but these organs are found regularly for under $250, sometimes given away, so go for the 3, it’s got the most features. The M3 is often toted as the Baby B3 or the home B3, and they often fall short of this claim, they are however cool Hammonds and you can do something with them. What they don’t have is called foldback, the additional harmonics on the upper keys. They have one less draw bar, and they don’t repeat the bass below, as a matter of fact they have much fewer bass keys. If you just need right hand solos and lush Hammond chords, this might be for you. If you’re an all hands all feet all the time organ player, you can’t whip up much of a storm on the M3. They have one octave of built in petals that take some getting used to. They have a built in power amp (low power) and a built in speaker. They often have a Leslie adapter added on, and can be modified to run a Leslie rather easily. Plugged into a Leslie they sing something like a B3, without the Leslie you can get the Booker T Green Onions sound, and variations on it, but the built in amp will never keep up with a rock band. Also I have an M3 that I chopped up to be more portable that I use as my gig organ. I find if you can get some EQing between the organ and the Leslie, in my case I run a Leslie with a fender bassman head, you can get back what you miss from the lack of foldback. There is also an add foldback to your M procedure that is detailed on some websites but it’s very complicated, not for the hobbyist, and not worth paying someone else to do.
That’s all I’ll mention for now. There are other cool Hammonds, the L100, the M100, I’m not a fan of the H’s, but put forth here are what I believe are the best lower cost options in Hammond.
Wondering about Leslies? Check out my Leslie guide that should be posted here too.
Guide created: 10/05/09
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