Keyboard Rig Pics

[happyrat1]

Actually now that I think of it, the older the electronics, the easier they are to repair.

Point to point wiring and glorious socketed components were so simple to deal with.

As time progressed keyboards evolved from a few dozen active components to today's kajillion FETs on a chip and surface mount crap assemblies that only a Liliputian could possibly work with

Sometimes the simplest things are the best things in life

Gary

 

[rsm]

I'm the sort of guy that enjoys the DIY challenge

Restoring an old classic like that would make an excellent winter project

Gary

PS. And I'm old enough to remember changing vacuum tubes whenever the TV set blew out as a kid

I hear you, if that's something you can do, then it's a great option. Unfortunately, most of the organs that are free or low cost, are all local pickup only, and they all seem to be located far from me.

I'm not mechanically inclined, so getting a vintage Hammond that's been serviced was a better option for me, even though it cost more, the peace of mind was worth it, to avoid having a large organ gathering dust because I had no idea how to fix it lol.

I do have a few tube guitar amps around too, all are working last time I checked, and inside they're pretty straight forward; but looking at the insides of a Hammond tonewheel organ was enough to convince me this was beyond my level

The A-100 - A-105 usually cost less than the C-3, which are less than the B-3. For those who may not know, A-100's organs, unlike the B's and C's, have an internal amp and speakers which are perfect for home use for me. I'd been looking for a good, clean A-102 in fruitwood for a long time before finding this one.

I did get spoiled by the digital organs having many more presets; now I actually have to work the drawbars, chorus, vibrato, etc., and I'm having a blast.

I have a few digital organs, two are portable (Hammond SKx and Vox Continental 73), one really isn't (Hammond A-3); I originally purchased the A-3 because I didn't want to deal with maintaining a vintage organ. After doing more research, I learned enough to take the plunge on the real tonewheel.

 

[happyrat1]

Awesome. Keep remembering that you are now entrusted with preserving a piece of musical history.

You probably bought it from some old geezer like me, who'd spent a winter restoring it

Play it with pride son

Gary

 

[rsm]

Awesome. Keep remembering that you are now entrusted with preserving a piece of musical history.

You probably bought it from some old geezer like me, who'd spent a winter restoring it

Play it with pride son

Gary

Exactly.

What I know about it: It was manufactured in '62, purchased new in '63 (my birth year) by the original owner, who was a doctor. It was in his house until his death a few years ago; I was able to find information about him since I have a digital copy of the original purchase receipt. The family sold it to a local dealer who serviced and cleaned it, and I purchased it from the dealer - who specializes in Hammond organ only; he delivered it personally, for a reasonable fee, from halfway across the country, set it up in my house, and made sure everything was working perfectly before he left. Amazing customer service experience IMO. The price was more than fair IMO.

 

[mjmmlm]

Going old school:

View attachment 2290

'62 Hammond A-102 with matching Leslie 142, fruitwood. I'm the second owner. It was purchased new in 1963 by the original owner.

That is a piece of musical history, that appears to be in great condition. Very nice!

 

[Duffman]

Going old school:

View attachment 2290

'62 Hammond A-102 with matching Leslie 142, fruitwood. I'm the second owner. It was purchased new in 1963 by the original owner.

My Mother had one with a leslie just like that in the 60's....Parents belonged to the Hammond Organ Club in Scarborough at that time.
Parents had evenings with members on weekends with player after player stepping up and destroying songs of the day......I can't hear Lady of Spain or Yellow Bird, Girl from Impanema or others without cringing today ......apparently none had ever heard of tempo or timing .

Wish I had that rig now........

 

[dburt2]

My current rig

Did you do the work on that old piano case yourself? This is such a brilliant idea!

 

[happyrat1]

Well sometime in the next two weeks I'll be receiving a Korg Wavestate and a Korg Prologue 8 for the living room studio

Pics and updated flowchart forthcoming as soon as they arrive and I've set them up.

Gary

 

[Jeremykeys]

Well sometime in the next two weeks I'll be receiving a Korg Wavestate and a Korg Prologue 8 for the living room studio

Pics and updated flowchart forthcoming as soon as they arrive and I've set them up.

Gary

Very nice!

 

[Jeremykeys]

I finally got my mixer on Thursday. We ordered it in late May.

 

[happyrat1]

I finally got my mixer on Thursday. We ordered it in late May.

View attachment 2459

Good lord that looks complicated. Where are the EQ and FX knobs for each channel? Do the sliders switch back and forth in function or is it all digitally controlled by up and down buttons?

Gary

 

[Jeremykeys]

It has something called the "Fat Channel". Basically, if you look at the picture at the upper left hand side you have a full channel strip complete with input gain, panning, a gate, compression, and EQing. Above each fader you have 3 buttons with the top being "select". Tap a select button and now all of those features are active for that channel. It has 4 effects per channel. Motorized faders. 3 different types of compressors. The screen is a touch screen. You can save "scenes" which are like songs more or less. I have one right now called Test 1 that I'm learning on. You can have up tp 16 different mixes too. AND, you can record right onto an SD card with it. The mixer becomes your DAW. It's my second Presonus one so I'm not too far from figuring it out. Should be there in a decade or 3! There are multiple presets for EQ and effects too. Also for compression. And the lights change colour! That's very important!

 

[happyrat1]

Be careful that you don't end up coming home one night and it's skipped town along with your old lady

The thing looks like a Doctor Who Dalek

All kidding aside, once you master it it should prove very handy.

Does it perform any intelligent functions like ping pong pan or auto pan or programmable compression or FX curves as well?

Gary

 

[Jeremykeys]

I believe it does. Haven't got that far with it yet. The learning curve is a bit of a cliff in some ways. Fortunately there are a lot of YouTube videos. This is the smallest one of the series. I have a friend who has the biggest one but he has more money than me! And more room.