Thanks for sharing! My music teacher used to have a Hammond B3 and he told me about the electro mechanical way that the instrument created its sound. Now is the first time I have seen those tone wheels in action. Thank you!
Very informative! One bit of false info, the drawbars don't actually move the pickups. They rather select between 8 different windings on what's called the matching transformer which attenuates the signal
@@StepDubit's a tuning step done at the Hammond Factory, they set the distance or every pickup to a sort of bell curve to give the organ a natural mid-range hump. Once these pickups are set, they don't move again. The modulation of volume for each harmonic is done electronically.
@@seconddaymusic8393 wow thanks so much for completing the picture. I have wondered just how tone wheels worked since reading about them in a magazine fifty years ago. A long wait, but worth the detail!
@@StepDub That piece of video is from another youtuber showing how the clutch on every pair of wheels work by jamming one wheel with a loose pick up magnet.
@seconddaymusic8393 I've always wondered how these work - my biggest question is - is there one rotating shaft for each note on the keyboard? Or is it fewer? I could see it being simpler to implement with one shaft per key, but then a lot of tones would be duplicated. When you say the drawbars switch between windings - are they actual switches or more like a wiper arm like in a variac?
The first nationally shown Hammond Tone wheel demo is from 1930's Paramount Pictures film short as seen in the video - *Legendary Theater Organists* . (The Hammond part starts at 40:00 ) Also, Laurens Hammond is pronounced "Laurenz". Also another excellent resource the *North Suburban Hammond Organ Society* site. On the site look at *Tech Articles* for the Hammond B3, X-66, and the great 1953-1963 Wurlitzer Electrostatic Continuous Free Reed model 4600. The 4600, it's 'spinet version' model 4410, as well as 44, 4420,4430,4800 models were very much in Hammond's neighborhood in terms of an electromechanical organ that never needs tuned, and the sound you hear is not an amplified reed, but instead the reed is zapped with 300 volts and the reed is used purely for it's harmonics, allowing filtering to produce FLUTE, STRING, and REED (in organ "horns" are the Reed family). The FLUTE is far smoother ( see the last part of my 4410 playing video, mentioned below) than Hammond's "clarinet"-like flute. But you'll hear Charles Paul play the Hammond convincingly of a pipe organ. Which is what a Hammond can do without a Leslie Speaker spinning away. Although the first Electrostatic reed organs 1946-1952 had a slower attack due to the reed being put into motion only when a key is depressed, the _continuous_ free reed organs 1953-1963 utilized soundproof containers in a thick fiber box, in which *all reeds" are put into motion from the instant the organ is turned on. This feat was Wurlitzer's answer to the success of the Hammond organ for popular music, with the tone wheels " instant key attack". Having all of the reeds in motion meant instant attack. Listen to Ken Griffin's 67 Melody Lane record, and don't trip out, but they actually made a Ken Griffin organ TV show in the 1950's called 67 Melody Lane. They are on UA-cam. BTW Ken was good friends with guitar virtuoso Les Paul. Check out ( search) KEN GRIFFIN SPECIAL EFFECTS . Unfortunately Hammond came back like a whirlwind two years later, in 1955 with the introduction of KEY PERCUSSION. Welcome the RT3,C3,B3 consoles, and M3 spinet of 1955. Maybe it was a side effect of the technology, but the Hammond Key Percussion only accepted the percussive accent of the first note struck ( or notes simultaneously struck). Once any key was down there was no new percussively attacked notes unless the keyboard was "empty" of held notes. Well it proved to be ideal for soloing! Finally the organ could have accents! interesting to note, the later Hammonds, the first Solid State Hammond Tone Wheel Organ, the T-series made a percussive accent on every note played no matter what. It seemed that Hammond was fielding lots of phone calls from older aged customers complaining that the percussion was broken because it _only_ worked when playing the first note. See, there is another side to Key Percussion. There are many percussive instruments like Xylophones, Marimbas, Choir Bells, etc.. Well the bigger Hammonds in the late 60's, like the H100, it had many percussion voices that you use differently. Hence the confusion. The Wurlitzer 4600 tech article also breaks down SUSTAIN. It just so happens that the 4600 console/ 4410 spinet organs were the first ever organs with Sustain. Now although round 'center plunger' solenoid used to make contact with all of the capacitor/ resistor networks on every key( see article) was unique, the DC Keying Sustain remained unchanged across multiple manufactures for years using Wurlitzer's perfect system. Although the mid 1970's brought different methods, none matched each and every key on the keyboards having it's own independent long, medium, or short sustain. Capacitor A is "Short", Capacitor B is "Medium", and A+B in parallel= "Long". Also see- My channel I play the Wurlitzer 4410 Electrostatic Continuous Free Reed organ through a Leslie horn, as well as a Wurlitzer SpectraTone. Btw Wurlitzer actually managed to fit a Wurlitzer SpectraTone ( of a smaller size) in the 4430 spinet ( The last, coveted Wurlitzer spinet Continuous Free Reed model). My video just UA-cam search " Wurlitzer 4600 , 4410 Hammond HR40 Tone Cabinet V21 Horn SpectraTone ". You'll hear the sweetness of the flutes at the very end of this adlibbed video. SAVE THE ORGANS!!!!
This is great! Gives me some ideas. He forgot to mention, though, “used every Sunday by nearly every Black American church for the past 70 years… to this day.” lol. They’re so prevalent here that, sadly, no registers that they are legitimately antiques & usually the oldest members in the church. Lol. Fantastic project!
Interesting indeed. I have a real flesh and blood tone generator, my cat! If I accidentally step on its tail it produces tones that vary in pitch perfectly and no fine tuning needed, truly amazing! 😅
I worked at the Boosey and hawkes factory in the late sixties, Q/C'ing Hammonds. I never thought that the drawbars moved the pickups, that seems all wrong to me. I thought they were variable resistors. Can someone confirm this?
you are correct, drawbars are like potentiometers that mix the amount of overtones (ie, signals coming from tonewheels other than the fundamental) going into the amplifier
That's right, every key has more contacts, one for the fundamental and others for harmonics. If you press a key, they will sound as loud as set up by the drawbars. That's also what adds to the unique sound of the hammond, the contacts don't switch at the same time. The pickup distance is only varied at maintenance, to set up the signal levels of the tone generator. There are some more mistakes in the video too, luckily he didn't try to explain the vibrato scanner. :D
Not exactly variable resistors, but definitely not mechanically moving the pickups. More like each setting of a drawbar selects a different length of winding on a transformer. Similar effect, but each setting has a step to it rather than being a smooth change in volume.
Octave selection is done by filtering different overtones of a particular wheel (sort of like a Wah pedal does). Note selection is achieved via a simple 6x16 switch matrix. Polyphony is achieved by a mechanical “key scan” motor and mechanism which (electronically) is akin to a car engine’s distributor cap and rotor. But the electricity flows the opposite direction through the circuit.
Bit of “assumption leads to disinformation” going on here: The drawbars DO NOT move the tone wheel pickup posts! They select which wheels and pickup windings are distributed to the preamplifier.. I’ve been a Hammond service center since the 1980’s.. And have only found it necessary to readjust the distance between a tone wheel and its pickup 7 or 8 times in all these years. Unless your Hammond has been through some immense physical disturbances? Please don’t mess with the pickup distances.. It’s a royal pain to get them back to factory spec!
actually seen a youtube video about someone trying to reprocude the hammond sound using a tonewheel driven by a steppermotor he did manage to make multiple tnespitches by varying the speed of the rotation but sofar only managed only one tone at a time (one finger) he was afraid that he had to make 88 tonewheels to get it poliphonic but should be able to get the same results with 10 tonewheels (10 fingers) if he can get the steppermotors to change speed fast enough
Pretty much every roller rink across the country had hammond organs. I played at a few …. I have the first 3 generations. The cv The A-111 and the H-111 to be absolutely sure i was exposed to these. So no matter where I play at. It’s covered …P.S. u own a Hammond. U better know how to service them. Not just oiling and checking the tubes….
Horrible, HORRIBLE take. NPR is one of the most respected and reputable sources for news and culture that’s actually left these days. And like the other guy said, NPR Tiny Desk is a huge honor for any artist, whether new or old. You must be a bit out of the loop there.
Thanks for sharing! My music teacher used to have a Hammond B3 and he told me about the electro mechanical way that the instrument created its sound. Now is the first time I have seen those tone wheels in action. Thank you!
Very informative! One bit of false info, the drawbars don't actually move the pickups. They rather select between 8 different windings on what's called the matching transformer which attenuates the signal
What’s happening at 3:44 ? It looks like the pickup is moving closer to the tonewheel. Is this some other kind of modulation?
@@StepDubit's a tuning step done at the Hammond Factory, they set the distance or every pickup to a sort of bell curve to give the organ a natural mid-range hump. Once these pickups are set, they don't move again. The modulation of volume for each harmonic is done electronically.
@@seconddaymusic8393 wow thanks so much for completing the picture. I have wondered just how tone wheels worked since reading about them in a magazine fifty years ago. A long wait, but worth the detail!
@@StepDub That piece of video is from another youtuber showing how the clutch on every pair of wheels work by jamming one wheel with a loose pick up magnet.
@seconddaymusic8393 I've always wondered how these work - my biggest question is - is there one rotating shaft for each note on the keyboard? Or is it fewer? I could see it being simpler to implement with one shaft per key, but then a lot of tones would be duplicated. When you say the drawbars switch between windings - are they actual switches or more like a wiper arm like in a variac?
The first nationally shown Hammond Tone wheel demo is from 1930's Paramount Pictures film short as seen in the video - *Legendary Theater Organists* . (The Hammond part starts at 40:00 ) Also, Laurens Hammond is pronounced "Laurenz".
Also another excellent resource the *North Suburban Hammond Organ Society* site. On the site look at *Tech Articles* for the Hammond B3, X-66, and the great 1953-1963 Wurlitzer Electrostatic Continuous Free Reed model 4600. The 4600, it's 'spinet version' model 4410, as well as 44, 4420,4430,4800 models were very much in Hammond's neighborhood in terms of an electromechanical organ that never needs tuned, and the sound you hear is not an amplified reed, but instead the reed is zapped with 300 volts and the reed is used purely for it's harmonics, allowing filtering to produce FLUTE, STRING, and REED (in organ "horns" are the Reed family). The FLUTE is far smoother ( see the last part of my 4410 playing video, mentioned below) than Hammond's "clarinet"-like flute. But you'll hear Charles Paul play the Hammond convincingly of a pipe organ. Which is what a Hammond can do without a Leslie Speaker spinning away.
Although the first Electrostatic reed organs 1946-1952 had a slower attack due to the reed being put into motion only when a key is depressed, the _continuous_ free reed organs 1953-1963 utilized soundproof containers in a thick fiber box, in which *all reeds" are put into motion from the instant the organ is turned on. This feat was Wurlitzer's answer to the success of the Hammond organ for popular music, with the tone wheels " instant key attack". Having all of the reeds in motion meant instant attack. Listen to Ken Griffin's 67 Melody Lane record, and don't trip out, but they actually made a Ken Griffin organ TV show in the 1950's called 67 Melody Lane. They are on UA-cam. BTW Ken was good friends with guitar virtuoso Les Paul. Check out ( search) KEN GRIFFIN SPECIAL EFFECTS .
Unfortunately Hammond came back like a whirlwind two years later, in 1955 with the introduction of KEY PERCUSSION. Welcome the RT3,C3,B3 consoles, and M3 spinet of 1955. Maybe it was a side effect of the technology, but the Hammond Key Percussion only accepted the percussive accent of the first note struck ( or notes simultaneously struck). Once any key was down there was no new percussively attacked notes unless the keyboard was "empty" of held notes. Well it proved to be ideal for soloing! Finally the organ could have accents! interesting to note, the later Hammonds, the first Solid State Hammond Tone Wheel Organ, the T-series made a percussive accent on every note played no matter what. It seemed that Hammond was fielding lots of phone calls from older aged customers complaining that the percussion was broken because it _only_ worked when playing the first note. See, there is another side to Key Percussion. There are many percussive instruments like Xylophones, Marimbas, Choir Bells, etc.. Well the bigger Hammonds in the late 60's, like the H100, it had many percussion voices that you use differently. Hence the confusion.
The Wurlitzer 4600 tech article also breaks down SUSTAIN. It just so happens that the 4600 console/ 4410 spinet organs were the first ever organs with Sustain. Now although round 'center plunger' solenoid used to make contact with all of the capacitor/ resistor networks on every key( see article) was unique, the DC Keying Sustain remained unchanged across multiple manufactures for years using Wurlitzer's perfect system. Although the mid 1970's brought different methods, none matched each and every key on the keyboards having it's own independent long, medium, or short sustain. Capacitor A is "Short", Capacitor B is "Medium", and A+B in parallel= "Long".
Also see- My channel I play the Wurlitzer 4410 Electrostatic Continuous Free Reed organ through a Leslie horn, as well as a Wurlitzer SpectraTone. Btw Wurlitzer actually managed to fit a Wurlitzer SpectraTone ( of a smaller size) in the 4430 spinet ( The last, coveted Wurlitzer spinet Continuous Free Reed model). My video just UA-cam search " Wurlitzer 4600 , 4410 Hammond HR40 Tone Cabinet V21 Horn SpectraTone ". You'll hear the sweetness of the flutes at the very end of this adlibbed video. SAVE THE ORGANS!!!!
This is great! Gives me some ideas. He forgot to mention, though, “used every Sunday by nearly every Black American church for the past 70 years… to this day.” lol. They’re so prevalent here that, sadly, no registers that they are legitimately antiques & usually the oldest members in the church. Lol. Fantastic project!
Wonderfully informative & concise.😃
Interesting indeed. I have a real flesh and blood tone generator, my cat! If I accidentally step on its tail it produces tones that vary in pitch perfectly and no fine tuning needed, truly amazing! 😅
Does this also explain about the Telharmonium's working principle? More or less.
I worked at the Boosey and hawkes factory in the late sixties, Q/C'ing Hammonds. I never thought that the drawbars moved the pickups, that seems all wrong to me. I thought they were variable resistors. Can someone confirm this?
You are correct. position of the pickups was set at the factory and locked into position based on a "calibration' curve.
you are correct, drawbars are like potentiometers that mix the amount of overtones (ie, signals coming from tonewheels other than the fundamental) going into the amplifier
The Hammond organ was an amazing instrument. What this kid has made sounds like crap.
That's right, every key has more contacts, one for the fundamental and others for harmonics. If you press a key, they will sound as loud as set up by the drawbars. That's also what adds to the unique sound of the hammond, the contacts don't switch at the same time.
The pickup distance is only varied at maintenance, to set up the signal levels of the tone generator. There are some more mistakes in the video too, luckily he didn't try to explain the vibrato scanner. :D
Not exactly variable resistors, but definitely not mechanically moving the pickups. More like each setting of a drawbar selects a different length of winding on a transformer. Similar effect, but each setting has a step to it rather than being a smooth change in volume.
Nice video, but the drawbars don't move the pickups.
Great video, very informative!
Very interesting. It would be interesting to see how the sound was affected by making the pick ups curved to match the radius of the tone wheel.
I wonder how polyphony and note selection is achieved. Is there a tonewheel set per note on the keyboard?
Octave selection is done by filtering different overtones of a particular wheel (sort of like a Wah pedal does).
Note selection is achieved via a simple 6x16 switch matrix.
Polyphony is achieved by a mechanical “key scan” motor and mechanism which (electronically) is akin to a car engine’s distributor cap and rotor.
But the electricity flows the opposite direction through the circuit.
The best sounding tonewheel organs has to be the really early ones, 1890s up to 1920s
Muy buen video y experimento! Gracias!
I used to repair them in the 80's and 90's. People would call and ask for the Organ Mechanic. LOL
Bit of “assumption leads to disinformation” going on here:
The drawbars DO NOT move the tone wheel pickup posts!
They select which wheels and pickup windings are distributed to the preamplifier..
I’ve been a Hammond service center since the 1980’s..
And have only found it necessary to readjust the distance between a tone wheel and its pickup 7 or 8 times in all these years.
Unless your Hammond has been through some immense physical disturbances?
Please don’t mess with the pickup distances..
It’s a royal pain to get them back to factory spec!
Didnt Hammond also invent spring reverb?
Very Intresting
actually seen a youtube video about someone trying to reprocude the hammond sound using a tonewheel driven by a steppermotor
he did manage to make multiple tnespitches by varying the speed of the rotation but sofar only managed only one tone at a time (one finger) he was afraid that he had to make 88 tonewheels to get it poliphonic but should be able to get the same results with 10 tonewheels (10 fingers) if he can get the steppermotors to change speed fast enough
Сенькью. Вери мачь. Вери гуд лессон!
What??? No mentioning of Jon Lord and Rick Wakeman???
Dremel tool with tone wheel
Pretty much every roller rink across the country had hammond organs. I played at a few …. I have the first 3 generations. The cv The A-111 and the H-111 to be absolutely sure i was exposed to these. So no matter where I play at. It’s covered …P.S. u own a Hammond. U better know how to service them. Not just oiling and checking the tubes….
It’s a shame to see Booker T. on NPR; appearing on NPR it seems to be the last dying gasp of a drowning career. Booker deserves better than that.
Mac Miller, Thundercat, Mitski, IDLES, etc. Became more popular from their tiny desk sets, very wrong!
Horrible, HORRIBLE take. NPR is one of the most respected and reputable sources for news and culture that’s actually left these days.
And like the other guy said, NPR Tiny Desk is a huge honor for any artist, whether new or old. You must be a bit out of the loop there.
NPR tiny desk is huge
NPR isn't too bad but i also get what you mean that he's not doing huge concerts with other great artist
@@TundieRice Horrible HORRIBLE? drama llama 🦙🥰
Black screen transitions are annoying and unnecessary and even dysfunctional.
Lame
LoL. It's a lot better than your three videos!