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CUSTOM SETS - Tone Wheel

340

Creating your own Custom Tone Wheels

As stated earlier, the first three Drawbar Voice Modes - “A-100,” “B-3” and “C-3” - are designed to reproduce the
sound of traditional Hammond Organs. Within each of these three Voice Modes are three different settings
designed to reproduce specific characteristics of vintage Hammond Organs.

During the time the vintage Hammonds  - B-models, C-models, A-100, etc. - were being manufactured, each
individual organ was subjected to a very rigorous series of checks and tests to insure the quality of each unit, and
to insure that all the units representing a particular model series, such as the B-3, all sounded alike.  However,
since the very newest B-3-type organ is at least 46 years old - production of tone-wheel organs having ceased in
1975 - and since the vintage instruments long antedate digital technology, they are dependent for their sound
on analog components.  Several factors such as the rate at which different components age, the fact that similar
components used different materials throughout the lifespan of the model series, etc. may affect the sound of
a particular unit. Thus, a B-3 manufactured in 1959 may well have a slightly different tone than one made in
1969, not necessarily because of the year but because of slight differences in component values among other
factors.

Over the years, a great deal of arcane folklore - a great deal of it falling into a category best described as “old wives’
fables” - has sprung up regarding such topics as the superiority or inferiority of this or  that period of time
during which vintage Hammonds were manufactured, the superiority or inferiority of types of materials for
certain components, etc.  Some of these differences do exist, but as noted above, they are more likely to be
the result of factors not necessarily having anything to do with the age of the instrument.  Many characteristics
of  the  Hammond  Organ,  especially  as  heard  in  much  jazz  and  rock  music,  have  to  do  with  the  overall
condition of the instrument - whether it has been in a home for the bulk of its life and played only rarely,
whether it has been used by a touring musical ensemble and been moved frequently, perhaps even dropped
occasionally, or even whether it has sat in a recording studio with sporadic or no maintenance, etc.

Because of these many factors - again, some real, some contrived - and because different people therefore
mean different things when they say “Hammond Sound” or “B-3 Sound,” the Custom Tone Wheel feature is
included to allow you to find the nearest approximation of what you want your “Hammond Sound” to be.
The following pages will explain the feature in more depth.

SPECIAL NOTE:

The characteristics of Drawbar Voice Types “Btype1" and Btype2" apply equally to all

Hammond Organs based on the B-3 design, which includes models B-3, C-3, A-100 series, RT-3 and D-100 series.
Contrary to popular myth, there is NO inherent difference between a B-3 and a C-3 - they were manufactured to the
identical specification except for the cabinet design.  The A-100 and D-100 had slightly different circuitry due to the
need to drive self-contained speakers; however, they were calibrated  the same as the B-3 and C-3 so that they
sounded identical when connected to either an external Hammond speaker or an external Leslie Speaker.  For the
sake of brevity, “B-3" will be used to refer to all models based on the same platform.

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