HAMMOND ORGAN MAINTENANCE 'Missing Oil Wick Thread' & 'Percussion Fix' 

Great presentation! Each person who learns here will teach others. I serviced Gulbransen in Billings. Obviously, the Hammond product was stellar but the firm refused to back the product up unless the available service man was connected exclusively to a Hammond dealer. Without schematics, many good organs became junk. It was a big tragedy and hurt the entire organ business. Now here you are 50-years later, making up for Hammond's secrecy. You have my deepest respect. Thanks.

A few short years ago I needed a tube for a mike preamp. Went to the local Radio Shack. I was laughed at. The kid says “We don’t use tubes anymore!” . I just returned the laugh. I guess ignorance is bliss.🙄

Excellent video. Like everything in the Universe routine maintenance is required to keep things operating. Again , Thanks for a great video. 😎😎😎

I hope you get messages yet, but there is a reasonably very simple and SAFE fix for the Percussion problem. It has worked for me. I have a small battery operated circuit that does generate some higher voltages,.... BUT.... I apply them in such a way that it will NEVER damage the organ, and if you follow the procedure correctly, there will be NO shock either. There is another underlying problem with the tone wheel organ in general regarding the vibrato unit called the "Scanner". This scanner will sometimes not make clean vibrato, but a PULSING of tones. Normally most techs pull the scanner and sent it off for rebuilding. Over the last 30 years, I have never pulled one to send out. Again I clear the "Shorts" inside the scanner with a small voltage shock. 100% success on that one. Okay, there are a few that require to go to the pickup end and clean the contact point and carbon button, but not usually needed. The percussion and the scanner problem is caused by the same reason. Hammond organ metal parts grow metal hairs on the parts very often. These 'hairs' get across contact points and short their operation. The percussion is in the keyboard contact rail for the percussion to be triggered, and the scanner between the capacitor plates inside it and ground. Hope this may help you in the future.

My M101 percussion was also out so I twisted the percussion cut-off screw, tested the tubes and re-sat them twice and it works! Very strong 2nd and 3rd harmonics that softens when I hit the “soft” switch. Can’t quite figure out how the “Fast Decay” switch works but I believe it does now. My organ is a first year ‘61 and it’s perfect - thank you for help!

I enjoyed this video just for seeing the inside of the hammond. Found it as fascinating as the music that can be created from it!

i took your advise, replaced the oil wick and repaired the percussion at the same time. thanks

Thanks man! I fixed the percussion on my A100 by pulling the tubes thanks to this video! Thanks for the knowledge and insight!

This is exactly what I needed. Thanks! Great video.

Thanks for your good advice which I found very helpful indeed and I will try and carry out the procedures and get my Hammond Percussion working and check for tone wheel top up and vibrator oil tray and wick supply. Your video has given me great insight into keeping my 1963 Hammond L100 playing at it's best and maintenance tips that are so important.

Thank you so much! The percussion on my m3 stopped working last night, and before I tried to "zapp" it I took a look at your video and guess what....... It worked!

Informative and amusing guy - thanks!

Yup, great vids Steve... spreading the knowledge will keep these old tone wheels going for another fifty years ^. I remember when I purchased my A100, I took the back off to gloat over the mechanical marvel that the tone wheel is. I noticed that thread running down to the drive shaft, and thinking it was just surplus crud lurking there I almost tore it out. Thankfully I stopped to think first and investigated further, eventually realising that this was in fact part of Lauren's ingenious lubricating system. My A100 percussion was not working correctly when I purchased it... the previous owner claimed that it had the Jimmy Smith 'Paradise Club' mod that stopped the percussion from decaying... anyhow, after checking capacitors and voltage levels etc. I determined that it was in fact 'dendrite whiskers' shorting the percussion switches. I used a 12v 4 amp PSU to 'zap' the percussion switch wiring attached to the pre-amp (in all switch positions) and.. whalla it started working again after the 'zap' blew the dendrites off the switch contacts :) Some folks use AC mains voltage... but I think 110v or 240v could indeed do some damage! 12v @ 4amps is fairly safe IMO

Thanks for the video. We had to do this less than a week after I watched it.

Thanks so much! I hope my video helped get your confidence together. I knew nothing about the insides of a Hammond, but I have learned so much from other youtube videos and tinkering on my own and of course just asking around. Good luck on your M102!

very interesting and informative. Thank you.

Hello Steve, and thanks for your video. I just bought an A105 with a 750 Leslie from a church, and they told me that the rotary never worked, nor did the reverb. When I tried it out, these problems did exist but also the vibrato tabs on both great and swell would drop the volume by about 3/4 when depressed. I got vibrato, but very quiet. They gave me a great price though, so I bought it. As I was packing it up to take home, I noticed that the 5-pin A105 socket had been changed out to a 6-pin adapter, and BEHOLD - the 11 pin Leslie plug was now a 6-pin plug. When I got it home I saw that two of the 6-pins had been modified to carry AC to the Leslie along with only 3 other pins being used! OK... Leslie is going to the shop for restoring the electronics to factory 11-pin status - in the words of Dirty Harry, "A man's got to know his limitations." Now for the organ. I pulled the 6-pin stuff out - which contained the chorale/ensemble and fast/slow/off controller - and connected the spliced wires back up. Organ works fine, but still vibrato gets quiet. I was following wires, checking solder joints (the ones the installer did were pretty bad), and scratching my head... all to no avail, so I came here and did a search on youtube. I watched this video, went back and reseated all the tubes per your advice, and VOILA - SUCCESS! Thanks a lot, Steve. That was long-winded, but I wanted to put it all in. Anyway, now all that is left is to find out why the reverb does not work,,, none of the tubes appear to light up, so that is a good place to start.

I remember those tube testers at Radio Shack, did use them a few times. Last time I used one in one of their stores was around 1982-83 I believe. I remember about every Radio Shack had one too. Make you wonder if they are all stored in a warehouse somewhere, unless they were sold to small business electronic stores. Hopefully the latter. Would be a shame to see tube testers in a bone yard unless they were being used.

You mastered !!!

Thanks Steve, very interesting, Ki used to have an A100 a lovely organ, good to see them still being used, I'm Yamaha Keyboard these days but love the true Hammond sound from a Hammond Organ,. Keep playing! Chris UK

I concur, Bob is a great guy with loads of useful vids on Hammond maintainance. I did successfully 'ZAPP' my non working percussion after trying several other things first. I used a 12v 4amp psu, removed each percussion wire from the back of the pre-amp in turn and zapped each wire with the percussion switche's in every position. This blew the dendrites of the switch contacts (to zinc case) and all was working again. I think 12v dc is safe for this although I have heard some use AC mains \O/

Thanks for writing. Always glad to hear from other Hammond owners. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

Great Video. I remember working on B3's with all the preamp and percussion issues.

Dude, you have a cool voice. Thanks for the video!

Great video, cool effects! It's fun to watch and listen to you. The very same oil wick thread is also missing in my A100. You are definitely motivating me to fix it now. Good job! Many thanks!

Great video...I worked for Harrington Organ NW Chgo yrs ago...in addition to bench repair & delivering Hammond's sometimes to 3rd floor walkups....old man Harrington would let me play any organ in the place! I had an electronics business in Chicago for over 40 years and just the past few yrs sold the last of my old tube testers. Your video jarred many fond memories of old Hammond's we would work on. Ed was into cutting up Hammond's for the rock groups...hated to see that! Thanx for posting

Steve, really great video. What a nice mix of information and entertainment. I loved the call to RadioShack. I laughed out loud (trying not use LOL). I own an A-100 w/leslie. I've owned a C-3, a bunch of H models before I realized they don't compare to the C-3, B-3 or A series. I currently picked up an A-100 at an estate sale (from a trailer park, go figure). After getting this bad girl home (all 400 lbs. of it), I found it to be an awesome single-owner specimen that is in perfect working order. Very, VERY clean. In doing my research here before re-selling this bad girl I came across your series of videos. Thanks for all of the information and humor you provided in this video as well as your other videos. They convinced me I would be stupid not to subscribe to your channel. Keep up the good work amigo.

I had so many requests for this thread, I've already given it away. The ebay user I bought it from does not have it listed anymore. I was told that heavy cotton thread from a fabric store will work, this is from a Hammond tech. Also check out the discussion on the Organ Forum topic 'Heavy Cotton Wick Thread'. recommends using 30 gage crochet cotton thread.

holy voice-over!!! how much to read a book to me

Great Video! Thanks for sharing this info!!!!!

Souns like the music at the chicago cubs ball park . It sounds very good . I seen some of these organs in goodwill . They will usally be sold in sometime , I never see them there long .

Hi, As shown in my video, I removed and reseated the percussion tubes, that did the trick. The next step would have been to spray with DeOxit. BTW, mine is an A-100. Not sure where percussion is on your B3, but try the technique on all the tubes which is a good idea for an organ that age. Beyond that, hopefully someone with more tech experience than me can offer some more tips. Also, look for the percussion cutoff control. Make sure it's not turned completely off.

Thank you! Great video

great video, thanks. if you still need a tube tester, they show up regularly second hand, ebay could be a great source

Thank You Sir!!

Very good. Thanks

I haven't encountered this one, but search 'hammondwiki percussion troubleshooting', they address the Jimmy Smith 'paradise button.' modification along with a few tips for you to try. Hope it helps!

I know Al Lasher's Electronics in Berkeley, Ca has one, it is a more of a "Hard Core" electronic store. You might check with any Vintage Radio fans in your area to find a similar establishment. Generally if they're microphonic, they need replacing, If you can substitute a new tube and see if the problem goes away. I have a small, old tube tester (that runs on tubes itself), so I question it';s accuracy.

I never saw it mentioned but in the cup over the tone motor there also is a string that goes to the other side of the motor. I was lucky both of my strings were there. But there are strings that go out both sides of the cup. I just never heard it mentioned. So on to the next problem.

Great! Glad to know the video helped!

Yep percussion not working... on my A100 several years ago. I tried the tube pull trick and the adj. the percussion vol pot; did not work for me :( The problem with a lot of percussion failures though is 'dedrites' (flakes of zink plating) shorting the percussion switching to ground. The correct fix is to remove the switch box and clean all the dedrites out and laquer the inside of the zinc box so the pesky dendrites can't form again. However, that's a bit of an involved and timely procedure... I have successfully done a quick fix a couple of times by 'zapping' the switch box wires with a 12v car battery charger; a car charger has an element of AC and DC voltage, which is good for zapping and runs about two amps of current. Unsolder the 'hot' percussion switch wires from the preamp, earth the battery charger to the chassis of the organ, zapp each wire in turn for two or three seconds while getting someone to operate the percussion switches. Hey presto... the percussion started to works again :) The zapping liturally 'blows' the dendrites off the switch contacts that are shorting to earth. You do this at you're own risk though... as it is NOT the correct method and may require multiple tries to get it to work. Over several years I have had to do this twice (successfully) as the dendrites do return!

Thanks for this! I'll have to be sure to check mine. The wick cord looks like cotton twine you can find at a hardware store, is that accurate? I don't know if I have the felt in mine either. I have a few weeks before my regular oiling of my '62 Hammond A-102 and Leslie 142. I have my organ on a wheeled plywood platform for ease of access for maintenance; and it removes the risk of snapping the skinny front legs of the A-102. Cheers!

Hi these days the best place to find someone with a tube (valve where I come from) tester is a guitar Amp technician as most "good" guitar amps still use tubes, hope this helps.

You can also use a freeze mist from a spray can to free up sluggish generators and scanners as the oil gums up over time. You can get it from Digi-Key or Mouser Electronics; they will sell to anyone and they have no minimum buys on most products.

Sure! look on the preamp, you'll find a decay adjustment.

Great video. Extremely helpful. Like you, I noticed my oiling wick was missing and I am about to find and install a replacement. However, I'm a bit unclear about tying the wick to the brass bearing on the motor shaft below.. Does the brass bearing turn, and won't it wrap up the thread? please advise. Many thanks again....PC

I love this guy. haha!

thanks, i'll let you know how it turns out. tonespinner

Great Video! I am about to acquire an old Hammond Model B from a friend of mine. He says that it needs a speaker to be able to play, but I thought that since it is an older console tone-wheel organ that it did not need a speaker. Do you know if the older console organs need a speaker of some sort to be able to function?

Using other oils like 3-in-1, sewing machine oil, Castrol, Crisco, etc. will gum up the oiling wicks and prevent oil from reaching the generator. Repairing this condition is a major service event! Use Genuine Hammond Oil only!

2022 jan, interesting - 10 years later. Radio shack is gone, but how it the Hammond Doing?

Something that old should probably be Re-Capped to prevent excessive dc offset damaging the tubes.

Looking Online, Orange Amplifiers makes a Tube Tester that is Possibly sold through Guitar Center (probably Special Order for about $500.

Fantastico

Hi,Steve my percussion on my B 3 Hammond that I bought in Hawaii in 1970 brand new after my long dream is not working.I looked in the back or it, but its not the same as your M 102. Have any suggestions? Thanks

Man please tell me you have a side job as a late night AM radio host...

Hello Steve! If you have any leftover oil wich thread, I could use some of it. I have a few broken threads on my scanner as well. Looked on ebay and couldn't find any.

10 years later eBay has plenty of tube testers:)

i have messed with the decay adjustment and it appears to only alter the intensity. the problem with mine is that it won't decay at AT ALL and it is polyphonic. fires with one or more keys already down. they say that jimmy smith encountered this problem with an organ at a room called the "Paradise Club" and liked it so he had one of his own organs modified to do this. i DON'T like it and want to fix it.

what about percussion that works but won't decay? any thoughts on how to fix this?

At first glance I thought I was missing the wick thread. What I do see is, what almost looks like a this wire attached instead.

The people at my local Radio Shack don't even know the difference between stereo and monophonic.

You had to remove the sync motor/scanner unit to get access to the bearing and wind the new wick around, didn't you? How did you fix the wick to the bearing?

Hi Steve I am Mike from Wareham in Dorset in the GB I had to take my scanner apart to free up a stuck self centering bearing and guess what I snapped one of the the threads have you still got some left? Would you send me some? I will try michael casino on eBay see if he has some and where do I go for oil with out getting ripped off? Great video and bye for now you can find me on Facebook in Dorset by the way I have a t.v. cathode ray tube tester with lots of adapters don't know if it would work on audio tubes?

No wonder R.S. went out of business...

10 Yeats later. RadioShack is dead.