Here are a few pictures and the story of my $129 charity shop find - a Hammond BV organ - I found it in the Fremont, CA St. Vincent De Paul thrift store. Apparently, it had been sitting there unloved for quite a while with the price gradually being lowered. When I picked it up, the fellow that helped me load it onto my truck told me he was the one who received it into the store and that there was no bench, but there was a speaker with it, but someone had bought it separately. I will set about finding a Leslie 122 speaker to go with her.
Click on any picture to see it full resolution.
The first three pictures show the BV as it arrived at my house in the back of my huge GMC Sierra truck. The BV was filthy dirty and had paint splashes on the top and legs.
I opened it up right away. Everything was pristene inside!
Serial number is 21815. That makes it 1947 vintage. I like to tell people "it's ten years older than me, and in better shape!".
The wood, switch panels, drawbars and keys all work great, but they were incredibly dirty.....
I set to with a damp soapy water cloth and spent the next 6 hours or so cleaning every bit of it, from head to toe.
Here, you can see the difference between the upper manual which I have cleaned and the lower manual as it came to me.
Here's what it looks like now. A lot nicer to look at!
Update 11/9/03 - I gave up looking for a decent secondhand Leslie 122 and ordered a new one instead (they are still made by Hammond/Suzuki and apart from a few internal materials changes, are exactly the same as they have been made for years - I'm told the motors and drives are quieter and much more reliable than the old ones too, can't complain about that!).
I tested the organ earlier today. I have had it soaking in Hammond oil for a couple of weeks to make sure all the bearings/gears were wet before I fired her up. I built a lash-up 250V DC power supply for the B+ feed to the pre-amp and wired up a simple 1/4" unbalanced jack feed to a small guitar practice amp to listen to her. Here's a picture of the lash-up power supply I made.
I crossed my fingers as I ran her up.....I already knew the motors worked, but I had no idea if I'd get any sound out of her until this moment.....guess what?....it WORKED!
I can't wait till the new Leslie 122A arrives on Tuesday from Bill Brown Organ. With it should be a Trek II percussion unit that I will install also. I will definitely be getting the Smooth Drawbars conversion kit - I really don't like the sound gaps in the drawbars between numbers as you push/pull them - doesn't make for a clean live performance IMO.
Update 11/10/03 - My new Leslie 122A arrived! It looks fabulous!! The tremolo/chorus switch and interface box didn't arrive though. I thought I'd have to wait to test the setup, however, after checking the schematics of the Leslie and the BV, I ascertained that I could simply plug the two together using the provided 6-wire cable and it would work fine, but the Leslie would be "stuck" on tremolo (fast spin) - not a problem - at least I'd be able to test it.
Of course, it worked just beautifully! The sound is awesome....what can I say.....this is a dream come true, and I have the other accessories/upgrades to look forward too!! Here's a picture of the new Leslie with the BV in one of my lounges, tucked in a corner out of the way for now, until we move the bedrooms around and I get my dream studio space! Note the pedal board behind the organ - that's where it's staying for now - it needs some attention - there are exposed metal studs on the underside that would seriously damage my beech floor!
My family teased me rotten about the new Leslie. They call it our "new bar" and kept threatening to put drinks and peanut bowls on it.....they know exactly how to get to me.....I will exact my revenge in time....
Update 7/24/04 - I performed the smooth drawbar conversion on my BV some time back. I am very pleased with the smooth action of the drawbars now - it makes them much nicer to use than the old ratchet ones. I just got around to putting the pictures of the conversion on my website:
I also did the Trek II percussion unit conversion. That works extremely well also. I love being able to get the full B3 set of sounds from my BV. I have some pictures and the story of the conversion on my website here:
Trek II Percussion Unit - Conversion
Finally, I had some issues with hum and noise, and weakening output/distortion creep with time (i.e. as the pre-amp warmed up). I was advised to re-cap my BV's preamp and re-seat the tubes (valves). I did this (capacitors are available from many sources - email me if you need hints) and found that my BV was VASTLY improved. It sounds like a brand new Hammond organ again!! I recommend doing a re-cap on any old Hammond organ - you won't regret it.
All I have left to do now (all, ha-ha!) is to finish making my replica walnut bench seat and foot rest (for the pedal board) and then re-finish the whole organ to match the new bench. More photos/updates later......
