Vintage Organs

[Arpangel]

I cannot believe, I’m absolutely blown away, by the sheer amount of components and wiring, switches and everything else, it’s a work of art, sort of.
It’s amazing that these things work at all, I’ve never seen so much stuff in an instrument, those myriads of valves, the labour involved must have been totally disproportional to the price of these things, how long would it take to build one today plus it would cost many thousands, probably.
I’m on the look out for a nice valve organ, but they are few and far between, and expensive when you see them, my eyes are glued to local charity shops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1-Oxb22IjI

[tacitus]

Ah, yes,

I cherished the idea of owning a Hammond organ but as you point out, the sheer number of ageing parts militates against getting a usable one at an affordable price. And I already have a Yamaha YC25 two-manual combo organ heavy enough to be a major problem to take on the road.

The full weight of a C3 or similar Hammond model means if I ever had one it’d live at home, so I bought a Nord C2D instead. I have an old Boosey and Hawkes Sonorous Rotary speaker, and I think I’ll stop there.

[Arpangel]

Ah, yes,

I cherished the idea of owning a Hammond organ but as you point out, the sheer number of ageing parts militates against getting a usable one at an affordable price. And I already have a Yamaha YC25 two-manual combo organ heavy enough to be a major problem to take on the road.

The full weight of a C3 or similar Hammond model means if I ever had one it’d live at home, so I bought a Nord C2D instead. I have an old Boosey and Hawkes Sonorous Rotary speaker, and I think I’ll stop there.

The Nord and a Rotary sounds like a good live solution.
I'm looking at getting an old Yamaha C55 or similar, great sound.

[The Elf]

Been there, done that. I ditched my Hammond a few years ago and replaced with an XK5. MUCH easier to live with. I'll never look back.

I literally couldn't GIVE my old Hammond away. Not completely surprising, given its weight, size, need for maintenance and it not being one of the most desirable models. In the end I simply called in a disposal company, and hoped they'd find it a home. Such a shame.

All that work and hardware didn't come cheap. These things were eye-wateringly expensive when new. The price at which we can now conjure up a convincing Hammond is a snip. For a few years I was quite happy with a Yamaha reface YC - and I may yet pick up another some time.

[Arpangel]

Been there, done that. I ditched my Hammond a few years ago and replaced with an XK5. MUCH easier to live with. I'll never look back.

I literally couldn't GIVE my old Hammond away. Not completely surprising, given its weight, size, need for maintenance and it not being one of the most desirable models. In the end I simply called in a disposal company, and hoped they'd find it a home. Such a shame.

All that work and hardware didn't come cheap. These things were eye-wateringly expensive when new. The price at which we can now conjure up a convincing Hammond is a snip. For a few years I was quite happy with a Yamaha reface YC - and I may yet pick up another some time.

I’m not after a Hammond sound as such, I just like the cheesy sounds some of these old organs have, just as they are, I imagine putting them through effects.
I wouldn’t dream of buying one to gig with, that’s just out, completely.
The guy at Vintage Keys is in an enviable position, looks like he’s got lots of storage space!

[Hugh Robjohns]

I cannot believe, I’m absolutely blown away, by the sheer amount of components and wiring, switches and everything else, it’s a work of art, sort of.

Ha! Thst's nothing. That appeared to have 12 oscillators and then dividers to generate all the notes.

There was an organ (2 manual and 30 pedals) in the church hall where I lived as a kid, I think made in Dorset by a company called Bird, that had 96 free-running, independent valve oscillators! Now that had a LOT of tubes in it.

It took forever to warm up and stabilise, but it could sound wonderfully rich on a good day... and hideously honky-tonk on a bad one! The resident organist was ex-BT and was always diving in the back to tweak it... often during the service.

But he did the same to the village church pipe organ too, clambering round the back and up a ladder to tune individual pipes while the vicar gave his sermons! Don't get many characters like that today!

He had been a Lancaster bomb aimer in the War and embraced life very fully!

[The Elf]

...and let us not forget the Hammond Novachord. Now THAT thing was packed!

[tacitus]

Been there, done that. I ditched my Hammond a few years ago and replaced with an XK5. MUCH easier to live with. I'll never look back.

I literally couldn't GIVE my old Hammond away. Not completely surprising, given its weight, size, need for maintenance and it not being one of the most desirable models. In the end I simply called in a disposal company, and hoped they'd find it a home. Such a shame.

All that work and hardware didn't come cheap. These things were eye-wateringly expensive when new. The price at which we can now conjure up a convincing Hammond is a snip. For a few years I was quite happy with a Yamaha reface YC - and I may yet pick up another some time.

I could definitely live with an XK5 if funds ever permit. At the moment, I use the baroque organ on the Nord more than the B3; sounds lovely with a proper player, not so much with me driving. But if I have to stand in at church, I need practice …

[ajay_m]

The organs available as an MPC plugin for the MPC/Force (and bundled with the MPC61) are very good (although the modwheel mapping is a bit strange (midway = leslie off, low = leslie low, full = leslie high) which kinda makes sense IF you're using the modwheel but makes using an expression pedal to control the leslie speed a bit peculiar.
BUT
The drawbars etc. are all 'live' on the touchscreen and work in real time. Unlike NI's woeful 'vintage organs' where changes to the drawbars only take effect on the next note played. This is utterly wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start . There are also a bunch of plugins (not specific to the organs) that you can use to add speaker sims etc - you can get marvellously authentic results from stacking up a few of these in the effects chain for the channel.

[R_A]

...and let us not forget the Hammond Novachord. Now THAT thing was packed!

Yeah! Those things are insane. God bless D.A.Wilson of Hideaway Studio for restoring one and making sure that we've all got access to nice sets of samples

[Martin Walker]

Now I know you probably didn't intend machines such as this to enter the discussion, but since I was standing next to this one a few days ago and then getting a full majestic demo of its capabilities, I think it's a very worthy Vintage Organ to include!

Martin

[Arpangel]

I cannot believe, I’m absolutely blown away, by the sheer amount of components and wiring, switches and everything else, it’s a work of art, sort of.

Ha! Thst's nothing. That appeared to have 12 oscillators and then dividers to generate all the notes.

There was an organ (2 manual and 30 pedals) in the church hall where I lived as a kid, I think made in Dorset by a company called Bird, that had 96 free-running, independent valve oscillators! Now that had a LOT of tubes in it.

It took forever to warm up and stabilise, but it could sound wonderfully rich on a good day... and hideously honky-tonk on a bad one! The resident organist was ex-BT and was always diving in the back to tweak it... often during the service.

But he did the same to the village church pipe organ too, clambering round the back and up a ladder to tune individual pipes while the vicar gave his sermons! Don't get many characters like that today!

He had been a Lancaster bomb aimer in the War and embraced life very fully!

There used to be loads of people about like that, a few of them taught me lots as a kid, and kindly lent me things to take apart, and put back together again! Organs are a source of wonder, all types.

Now I know you probably didn't intend machines such as this to enter the discussion, but since I was standing next to this one a few days ago and then getting a full majestic demo of its capabilities, I think it's a very worthy Vintage Organ to include!

Martin

Dingles-organ-03.jpg

Street organs are fantastic, standing next to one in full flight is an experience to behold, I used to go out recording street organs with my friend Mike Skeet, I’d love to know where those recordings are now, like a lot of his other recordings, I think a lot got thrown away, unfortunately.

[sonics]

I've owned and worked on quite a few wiring beasts. I remember discovering the preset system on the Hammond and being amazed that it had been done some fifty years earlier (at the time).

One of my biggest "wow" moments was opening up the CS-80. That's quite packed.

If you want a great sounding Hammond which you can actually carry we now also have great options from Crumar and Viscount.

[Hugh Robjohns]

... and Hammond too!

Yes, the preset patching on the console Hammonds is a clever solution in the days when brass bars. screws and wire were the top technology!

And like you, I was gob-smacked when I first pulled up the rack in a CS80 to retune some oscillators. That was an awesome machine in every respect.

[The Elf]

Now I know you probably didn't intend machines such as this to enter the discussion...

You're pushing an open door. Love those things!

I was fortunate enough a few years ago to visit Baraboo, once winter home of the Ringling circus, and now a wonderful museum. The vintage steam organs there are amazing in both quality and quantity. A sneaky peek around the back showed a few MIDI connections going on too!

[The Elf]

And like you, I was gob-smacked when I first pulled up the rack in a CS80 to retune some oscillators. That was an awesome machine in every respect.

I've also been inside a CS-80. Once the lid was lifted I backed away as if I had disturbed an adder's nest! Terrifying!

[MarkOne]

When I was a kid in junior school, one of my friends had a mum that encouraged her son to pursue a musical stage career of some kind. He was quite a talented pianist, and she bought him a huge (well it seemed huge to me) Bird organ, and I gave to say it was a lovely sounding instrument. In a “the organist entertains” way. Not sure it would have ever found it’s way onto a prog album though!

[tacitus]

That’s why I love my Yamaha combo - apart from being more permanently built than a vox or farfisa, it has a great range of sounds, from cheesy to, er, less cheesy. But the Yammy tabs system gives much of the drawbar benefits and with a real rotary I can get a workable live Hammond-ish sound. And a bright red top, so I could flash my throbbing red organ even before I got my Nord!

[Arpangel]

And like you, I was gob-smacked when I first pulled up the rack in a CS80 to retune some oscillators. That was an awesome machine in every respect.

Hugh, do you sometimes suffer from something that afflicts us "elderly" synthesiser enthusiasts, it's called "GIRSI" Grief Induced Retro Synth Insomnia"
The symptoms are waking up suddenly perspiring profusely, after realising that you no longer have that CS80, or in my case, a VCS3.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Most definitely...

[kalvinb12]

I never thought of my B3 as a "vintage organ" since mine was purchased new in 1967! I had been playing a Farfisa mini-compact in garage bands and talked my parents (who also both played piano and organ) into buying the B3 and Leslie 122. It mostly sat in our living room, being too heavy to haul out unless it was a long term gig someplace where I could safely leave it (this after joining AFM, getting a union agent, and regular good paying jobs). We finally ended up just running the Farfisa through the Leslie, powered by a Fender Bandmaster head with speed control hacked to the side of the Farfisa for our gigs. After the band split I left the organ at my parent's house for them to play and when both were gone and I had to sell the house my dear wife said there was no room at our place for the B3 (she had a piano) so I sold it to a dealer (who would come to pick it up) for $2500 in 2002. Beast that it was I still miss it!

[Arpangel]

OK, a challenge, a portable "organ" keyboard, that is small, like a Melodica, that runs on batteries, has a 3 octave keyboard, is potentially capable of a decent reed organ sound, and a couple of good electrics, plus it has to have built in speakers.
The only thing I can think of is the Yamaha ReFace YC.

[Hugh Robjohns]

That requirement is not an organ... it's a toy!

[BigRedX]

At the weekend my band Hurstfall played at the Goth City festival in Leeds. On immediately after us was Promenade Cinema (who were great) whose keyboard player was using the smallest controller keyboard I have ever seen on stage (I think it might have been an Alesis Vmini) and was so tiny that his x-stand even at its narrowest required a "hammock" of gaffa tape to hold it in place. However he managed to play some impressive sounding things using it.

The minimalism and what he was able to play using it impressed our synth player who uses a Deepmind and Nord Wave on a big K&M stand...

[FrankF]

Did he do an instrumental version of "Suspended in Gaffa"?

If not, there's an opportunity missed.