Organ donation
May 12, 2013 3:37 PM
Oops, I did it again.
A Hammond M3 for $100 was more than I could resist. The 16' G wasn't working but it was just a stuck tonewheel and took about 2 minutes to fix. My friend Steve was also selling a monster Leslie 760 for $400 so I jumped on that too and MacGuyvered a line out from the M3. Still need to do a bit of work on the Leslie but holy crap what a humungous sound!
It is REALLY REALLY different from playing a Hammond emulation. Maybe not that you'd notice in a track with one of the good ones, but physically enormously different. The Leslie really sounds totally different in a room from a single speaker... it's like the whole room is alive.
posted by unSane (13 comments total)
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A Hammond M3 for $100 was more than I could resist. The 16' G wasn't working but it was just a stuck tonewheel and took about 2 minutes to fix. My friend Steve was also selling a monster Leslie 760 for $400 so I jumped on that too and MacGuyvered a line out from the M3. Still need to do a bit of work on the Leslie but holy crap what a humungous sound!
It is REALLY REALLY different from playing a Hammond emulation. Maybe not that you'd notice in a track with one of the good ones, but physically enormously different. The Leslie really sounds totally different in a room from a single speaker... it's like the whole room is alive.
That looks pretty fun. Nice find.
No mouse poo in this one?
posted by chococat at 8:32 PM on May 12, 2013
No mouse poo in this one?
posted by chococat at 8:32 PM on May 12, 2013
Mouse free for the moment.
What I discovered is that as soon as you express vague interest in a Hammond, you are inundated with them. I was offered, within the space of a week: an M3 for $185, a free L100 in a barn with donkey damage, an M100 and Leslie for $500, a C3, two unnamed Hammonds, a mint A100 and L122 and some others I have forgotten about. There were also three or four B3s in the guy's garage who sold it to me, and the guy who told me about it had another three spinets that he was 'thinking' about selling. Zero to $100 is about the going rate for a spinet if you look around. The Leslies are much tougher to find, although you can get the 110 and 112s (single rotor, no amp) for $100 to $150 and they are cool to have in your studio.
I have a vague plan to chop it to make it easier to move around but to be honest it's not THAT bad. It is a two man job but not a difficult two man job and the chop doesn't actually take much wieght off it.
posted by unSane at 3:52 AM on May 13, 2013
What I discovered is that as soon as you express vague interest in a Hammond, you are inundated with them. I was offered, within the space of a week: an M3 for $185, a free L100 in a barn with donkey damage, an M100 and Leslie for $500, a C3, two unnamed Hammonds, a mint A100 and L122 and some others I have forgotten about. There were also three or four B3s in the guy's garage who sold it to me, and the guy who told me about it had another three spinets that he was 'thinking' about selling. Zero to $100 is about the going rate for a spinet if you look around. The Leslies are much tougher to find, although you can get the 110 and 112s (single rotor, no amp) for $100 to $150 and they are cool to have in your studio.
I have a vague plan to chop it to make it easier to move around but to be honest it's not THAT bad. It is a two man job but not a difficult two man job and the chop doesn't actually take much wieght off it.
posted by unSane at 3:52 AM on May 13, 2013
Way to go unSane - just don't think about gigging the fucker unless you have a team of fit young roadies on call. I've said before I'm sure that back in the Cretaceous I was in a prog band featuring a B3 (or was it a C3, I forget now). Unforgettable sound (not really capable of emulation in my view - Hammonds aren't so much organs as organisms) but a total bastard to move around. Took the entire band to lift the thing, complete with webbing straps and sack-truck contraptions at each end. The real heartsinker was when you discovered the gig involved flights of stairs and dog-leg turns..... Nevertheless....enjoy!
PS my "did it again" involves a custom shop relic 1960 Strat in candy green. I am bewitched and besotted if impecunious......
posted by Hoops McCann at 7:29 AM on May 13, 2013
PS my "did it again" involves a custom shop relic 1960 Strat in candy green. I am bewitched and besotted if impecunious......
posted by Hoops McCann at 7:29 AM on May 13, 2013
I have a pretty great Yamaha with whatever their rotating speaker setup is called - i love it to bits, and it is really different than an emulation. It's got an external input as well! Nice score, unSane.
posted by dubold at 9:17 AM on May 13, 2013
posted by dubold at 9:17 AM on May 13, 2013
SCOOOOOOOOOORE!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 AM on May 15, 2013
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 AM on May 15, 2013
A bit of an update -- we have a jam night here on Thursdays on my stage where people turn up and bash out cover tunes. I either play drums or keys... it's my night off basically so I play backup for other people rather than having to call the shots.
But OMIGOD the Hammond sounds so good. The Leslie is vastly, completely different from playing either through a keyboard amp or the PA, and the ability to tweak the Hammond on the fly, and the two keyboards, and the volume pedal... wow, it's just amazing. It slots right into whatever we're playing, no ifs or buts. I'm really blown away by how good it sounds in a live band context. I would gig with it without hesitation, no matter how much of a pain in the ass it is. It's whole orders of magnitude better than, for example, the VB3 vst through a keyboard amp, or the Korg CX3 I used to have.
posted by unSane at 9:06 PM on May 30, 2013
But OMIGOD the Hammond sounds so good. The Leslie is vastly, completely different from playing either through a keyboard amp or the PA, and the ability to tweak the Hammond on the fly, and the two keyboards, and the volume pedal... wow, it's just amazing. It slots right into whatever we're playing, no ifs or buts. I'm really blown away by how good it sounds in a live band context. I would gig with it without hesitation, no matter how much of a pain in the ass it is. It's whole orders of magnitude better than, for example, the VB3 vst through a keyboard amp, or the Korg CX3 I used to have.
posted by unSane at 9:06 PM on May 30, 2013
We had a mini music fest at my place for the weekend and hauled out the Hammond and Lesilie for it. My friend Drew played it for our set and HOLY SHITBALLS does it ever rock live. It was basically the star of the show. People kept coming up and taking pictures of it. Radically different from a sampled keyboard.
posted by unSane at 5:20 PM on July 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by unSane at 5:20 PM on July 4, 2013 [1 favorite]
Radically different from a sampled keyboard.
Absolutely. Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:53 PM on July 4, 2013
Absolutely. Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:53 PM on July 4, 2013
Next step is to put the lead guitar through the Leslie.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:37 AM on July 7, 2013
posted by soundguy99 at 9:37 AM on July 7, 2013
Yeah, I haven't done that yet. Apparently the cheap little single-speaker no-amp Leslies you can get for $100 are better for guitar than the big mofos like mine.
posted by unSane at 10:31 AM on July 7, 2013
posted by unSane at 10:31 AM on July 7, 2013
Hunh. I dunno that I've heard that idea before, but of course, as far as I'm concerned (YMMV) that's all the more reason to run it though your big mofo and crank it up and see what happens.
(Not responsible for loss of hearing or vision or bowel control or higher cognitive functions or marital harmony as a result of implementing my ideas.)
posted by soundguy99 at 11:35 AM on July 7, 2013
(Not responsible for loss of hearing or vision or bowel control or higher cognitive functions or marital harmony as a result of implementing my ideas.)
posted by soundguy99 at 11:35 AM on July 7, 2013
OK. Will post video and possibly obituary.
posted by unSane at 1:42 PM on July 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by unSane at 1:42 PM on July 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
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*Snort* Yeah, it's a helluva lot heavier than a emulation, isn't it?
Nice score, though. I'm not sure I could have resisted a Hammond for $100, and I live in an apartment.
You should have some fun recording with the Leslie, too. Find the sweet spot for the mice and the right panning of the channels and you're in swirly heaven.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:12 PM on May 12, 2013