Outstanding restoration, documentation and saving a rare piece of Hammond history !! I still have my B-3 bought new in '70. Gigged thousands of times. Did the same woodwork restoration to better than new six years ago. Put a Trek reverb in when that came out. Have a '65 RT-3 / AGO in mint shape, as I miss playing a '31 Aeolian Skinner pipe organ I had lessons on long ago. Love the music. Restoring a '46 C-2 now. Smooth drawbars, new caps & resistors, Trek reverb, woodwork stripped. Fixed reverb from 6x9 speakers in a 122RV Leslie don't cut it. The Trek reverb in the Hammond is perfect. Your video lit an urgency for me to finish her ( the C-2) !!
I played one {1938 Hammond Model E Concert Organ} at Bibleway Temple Church of Detroit, MI. First thought, "what the hell, presets shaped like the old typewriter keyboard!!!" An absolutely marvelous sound!!!
What a monster! All man made! The multitude of wires screwable! Congrats! You've made a spectacular restauration project as this gorgeous organ needs! Good find - Thanks to share it with us!...
As someone who loves watching vintage videos from British and Australian TV. I recognized the E as the model of Hammond used by Jerry Allen, who was a consistent presence on early British commercial TV, particularly on the midday show on ATV called "Lunch Box." Of course, Allen was playing popular music (using the vibrato settings already on there, not a Leslie), but the console design, including the buttons for the pre-sets, were immediately recognized by me when I started watching this video.
I used to have a Hammond E, for about 11 years from 2000-2011. It came up when I had met Robert Martin, who led the Hammond organ society out of Little Falls, New Jersey. He wanted to get me a B3, but this materialized. My mentor, a church organist heavily active in the Hudson Valley, jockeyed for me to grab it because of its A. G. O. features. It shipped with its own tone cabinet, but Robert gave me a gratis Leslie 31H speaker and the number for his technician to have the organ cleaned out and upgraded to connect with the 31H. Through the intervening years, the E became more important to my aforementioned mentor than me. He used to practice on it constantly. When he passed away, I knew that I should try to find a home for this organ with a musician who could properly care for it. (If it was an RT-3, I may have thought twice.) I was blown away to receive a bid from a Long Island resident seeking this precise combination of the E and a Leslie 31H. For my sense of duty and honor, it made more sense for this organ to go to a player who would use it and care for it then just for me to keep it and let it collect dust.
What a journey! WOW! Such a beautiful job. I also noticed around 20:00 the dollies. LOL Those are exactly the same ones I had back in the..... (cough) YEARS AGO for my Hammond. LOL I still have a bad back carrying that danged thing around. LOL Oh, the results on the pedal board got my heart beating fast! Just beautiful! What a wonderful restoration!
thats funny you mentioned Bob, and showed his shop there- he and his wife are wonderful people.... i got two 31H Leslies from him that needed restoring, and they are coming along nicely... it was a real pleasure driving up and meeting them.
Damn!! What a great job!! Your friend must be really proud! It’s so great to see such a machine, wonderful but beaten with age, get some tlc! I hope it lives another 80 years
D.A.M.N...N.I.C.E... ! I'm a Wersi man myself... I dreamed of owning a Wersi Galaxy when I was a 15 year old boy and ended up acquiring one age 39... It is awaiting a restoration, (it was my, 'childhood discovery day' of electronics). So preparing to do so in the not too distant future. Well done old man !! It's a credit to you...
The reward for all of us who love Hammond Instruments is the joy of seeing a young musicians play ”In The Is Joy” as the conclusion. Thank you for the video and be very proud of your accomplishment. And most of all thank you for securing the future of live musicians by encouraging Matt Luca to express his passion for the organ. God Bless you ALL. Posted by a life long organist and lover of Hammonds who began my career with a Hammond BC in 1965.
This is a superb example of respect for, and dedication to, tradition and craftsmanship. Thank you for your contribution to beauty in form and function.
Congratulations on such a wonderful restoration! It’s great to see that another early Hammond survives. Great performance at the end as well. As the previous post states, I wish you were my neighbor as well!
It's balm for the soul to witness a restoration of a rare old Hammond that is done with so much dedication and love. Thank you for sharing your experiences through this video, it's really appreciated. I didn't know a thing about the model E, I only saw an old picture once somewhere online but that's it. The cabinet of the organ is probably the most beautiful of any Hammond. I'm a big C3 fan (the mid-late 50's model with the quaterfoils) but the E is even more beautiful. Also nice playing in the end, great work on those bass pedals :-).
Magnificent! This was a thoroughly enjoyable video and very good of you to acknowledge those who assisted in helping you find parts, etc. Boy the memories!!!! Two buddies of mine were members of the Hammond Organ Society back in the day. I enjoyed listening to them play while I would accompany on my clarinet or bassoon! So unreal to come across this as I was reminiscing about those childhood days when nerds like my buddies and I would play music and thought it was really cool! Great times!
good job, thanks for taking your time and your patience in the restoration of this historic instrument very time consuming, i know because i have spent countless hours working on my own hammonds. congratulations.
Really great job and video! I was thrilled to hear the Paul Hindemith Sonate II played on the Model E!!! I played that as pre-service music at my wedding, back in 1987!! (I had someone else play the processional and recessional, though!).
Your E is pretty cool! Closest Hammond I had to the E was an RT-2. It had 8 large pad switches on the right panel. Love the sardine can inside, mine had that two, and the open can key was still on it.
What an admirable spirit behind this huge amount of work which had to be done! This was fascinating to watch and I thank you for sharing this experience with the rest of the world! Simply great!
There is a Hammond Concert Model E, in the main Sanctuary of the Bibleway Temple located in Detroit, MI where Organist Frances Chandler resides as Minister Of Music, and the late Rev. Charles B. Ransom, founding Pastor...
Wonderful workmanship! As a pipe organ builder myself, you did a marvelous job on your instrument. My thoughts about the Hammond organ: knowing how the tone wheel mechanism works, it would be expensive to do, but an extra mechanism to mixture ranks would've been fantastic. You could build in pitch breaks, AND simultaneously build not only the number of ranks for the mixture, you could also vary the amount of power within each rank. Oh my, if I had the time!
Great repertory choices and performance, Matt Luca, particularly the Hindemith! I practiced on a concert Hammond in high school (it wasn't an E; it had single expression and the pedal division had some push buttons including two 32's. Thank you for providing such an enjoyable tour of this particular interesting venture in American organ history.
At 6:00 I HAD to give this video a LIKE. This guy is a GREAT GREAT GREAT MAN!!! Since this very moment I trusted you. I love vintage organs and keyboards. Greetings from Argentina.
The short answer is: yes, but it would require a substantial amount of modifications, and you would lose some original functionality of the E. It's easier to simply get an RT3.
In particular it is the second One imported from America in separated pieces and assembled by the company Microtecnica in Turin, the biggest italian electronic Company in the 30s and 40s...
Great job. You made that organ look new again. I also have a model E, with the same Hammond tone cabinet. It is in good shape, but could use some TLC. I dont have the time now to take on the job. Mine also has one dead note. I plan to do the Trek note replacement mod. Everything else on mine works. I really should sell my E to someone that has the time to restore it. John Jacob
Stunning restoration and indeed magnificent instrument! It's possible to hear the two traks used as background music during the first part without commentary? It would be magnificent to hear Cesar Franck on hammond!
I had a base moulding missing on one of my Hammond E's. I had a cabinet maker build one out of walnut but it doesn't match. I like your idea better. One of mine has a dead tone 57 and plan one contacting Mike at TrekII when I get to that part.
Wow, cool vid, nice work. I would love to find a project like that. There's a guy up the street that has an old model A Hammond? 30s I believe. your organ sounds absolutely amazing
Joe, enjoyed your video very much and what a fantastic job on the old model "E" without replacing all the guts. I'm restoring a 1953 Model C, with a frozen tone generator from lack of lubrication. Things are going great on the project but I too have run into one or more dead tones. Could you put me in touch with a Trec II Note Generator specialist, who might be able to help me out. Thanks. Bob Rockey
De-Oxit, The Best for electronic contacts. Those old caps had a -20 to +100 percent normal specifications. They were not bad, but changing them was OK. I wonder if and tuning error occurred with the cap change. You son has a good set of feet. Sometime soon he will be playing like Felix Cavaliere, never lookin down, just boobing those two feet across the bass pedal. Former bassist myself, BEST REGARDS Steve
now we need a video on the model D with bombard. There's literally nothing, I have one and no one knows what it is, but its still a b3 c3 kinda mixed with a model E
Pretty sweet! I would love to do this to a chewed up 1949 BV and a 1962 22R leslie I have. One thing obout these older Hammond organs are the cool brass pieces everywhere like on your Run Start plate. mine has those too. The newer ones have the black plastic plates and piece like the chorus drawbar on yours. I wonder if that was replaced over the years? Anyway awesome rare model, turned out great, I am inspiired to do something similar with mine
@ hammondorganman: Thanks for the comment. I will be starting a full restoration on a Leslie 31A next week. Once that is finished I will do another video and will make sure we use the Chorus Generator in the demonstration.
HAMMONDS WERE FOR CHURCHES TO PLAY HYMNS. I'm so sick of looking at everyone using Hammonds for jazz as well as pounding on the keys (Corey). I have a Hammond and wouldn't pair it with a Leslie if you paid me. Hammond hated Leslie. I wanted to ThankYou so much for staying true to the Spirit of who designed these. The music as you are talking is true. Watch any original sales films. I forgive you for using a Leslie.
Thank you. Me too. I never understood why this "instrument," and goofy sounds/tones would find its way into other genres of music. Thank you as well, for hating the Leslie bullshit. That dude wanted to recreate the nasty, harsh, spooky sounds of a theater organ's tremulants (disgusting). That's the reason I will not listen to almost anything with (what I call) a Leslie organ (since Leslie took credit for [later] shaping its sound). Hard rock, black gospel especially. If you take the time to read Hammond's biography (which I did), you'll learn/see why he did not like Donald Leslie (a troll and had the wrong idea, for the electric organ). Use a provided tone cabinet instead. With the right drawbar settings (on any model), with all other crap off (switches), it should sound much closer to a traditional organ (which was the original purpose/goal).
Hi Joe, I was amazed by this video, I wish I had the skill and patience. I have a number of B's I'd like to restore but I know my limitations. I would love to out some chrome drawbars on one of my organs. I assume all Chromes were ratchet? How did you convert them to smooth?
Amazing video ! I was unaware of this model. It sounds better than most through a tone cabinet, would love to hear it through a Leslie. Or, was that what was playing during most of the video?
Dear joe great job. At the end of this great lecture the great organist the played you're restored organ I was hopeing he would pull the chorus control bar out so we could hear the chorus generator effect would you demonstrate that for us
+hammondorganman jazz organ I just remembered you were asking about the Chorus Drawbar! Here is a recording we just did. For the Prelude section, we made use of it. It was then turned off for the Fugue. Hope you like :-) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iIBSQyXqrRo.html
Great stuff man, I really appreciate your work there. I also had my model E restored more than 10 years ago, however mine has no pedal clavier as I had found it abandoned on one of my building sites. Also there was no back panel so my carpenter not knowing how the original looked like he divided it into two ornament parts instead of three but that's alright, it gives it a little feature of originality. It took a lot of time to make it work and look good but it works. Just recently I wanted to play it and after two minutes of me playing I smelled something was heating up. Could you please tell me what is that cylinder part from 17:40 of your video, as apparantly that is causing an issue. The organ plays well but after two minutes that part starts burning and smoking and the area around it turned black so it needs to stay off untill I repair it. Thanks
One Rare or possibly Never Produced item was the C-40 Tone Cabinet. It used Double the Components of an A-20 Cabinet, but was designed in a way to produce Vertical Sound Projection. It was a large Gothic cabinet with Legs similar to an A or B Organ cabinet. The legs allowed for Projection out the Bottom of the Cabinet. Hammond literature provides photos of other Tone Cabinets, but only a line drawing of the C-40.
Craig - yes they were rare but the C-40 was in fact produced. There was one that sold in PA about 2 months ago along with a Model BC. If you Google search old CL ads you may find the picture of it that were posted. It seemed all original and in quite good condition for it's age. It was huge!!
Craig - I actually know someone who has a PAIR of CX-20 tone cabinets. Sadly, he will not sell me one! Too bad - it would be a perfect match for my Model E. I could have bought the C-40 I mentioned before, but with all my Hammonds, Leslies, and now a Novachord I simply do not have the room.
