Cheap Hammond B3

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 23 Feb 2007 10:55 am

Bill,I have to hear it again,interesting?

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 23 Feb 2007 11:08 am

Bill..right you are WOW! go ahead and beat me with a Procol Harum record!
"Matthew Fisher himself told me about this FAQ, so it must be right". But the Hammond used is NOT a B3: Matthew says it was a M102.

Mike Black · Post by **Mike Black** » 23 Feb 2007 11:29 am

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 23 Feb 2007 11:56 am

I don't even play the organ but I have had several Hammonds from B3 models to M3. If I see a good deal on a Hammond that has the four percussion tabs, I usually get it and do something with it.
Right now I have a one owner L100 model that I found at an estate sale. NICE condiditon. Anyone here on the forum in the Atlanta area need it???

Bill Terry. I also found an M3 at a Goodwill store for $100. It was made in 1957 and looks just like the day it came out of the Hammond plant. I have used it on several recordings just micing the speaker like Booker T. did and it sounds wonderful.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 23 Feb 2007 12:29 pm

Hey Bill, mine is a 1961 I think. It came with original bench, maintenance records (starting in 1961), some sheet music, etc... A buddy of mine who is a real keyboard guy actually found it first on ebay, and it just happened to be in a little town about 75 miles from where we live. The seller, like most Hammond sellers, was listing it as 'pick up only, no shiipping'... so we borrowed a trailer and went and got it. My buddy paid the lady 50 bucks, and about two weeks later found an A-100 (or whatever the B3 in church clothes is called?) and bought that. His wife said one Hammond was enough, so I bought the M3 for $100, which was his cost including the gas to go get it. Money well spent IMO.

There seem to be a lot of these Spinet models that show up in amazingly good condition. At 300lbs + I guess they tended to stay in one spot for a while?

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 23 Feb 2007 12:46 pm

Mike, you most likely read the card right...the store just might have hyped the organ to sell it. And, while B3's are appreciating in a big way, 25G's for a B and 2 Leslies is way too much dough, even if it did once belong to Booker T.

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 23 Feb 2007 1:06 pm

...a fascinating thread about the instrument commonly known in the studios of Nashville as"the steel eraser"...

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 23 Feb 2007 1:09 pm

That's a good one!

Eric Jaeger · Post by **Eric Jaeger** » 23 Feb 2007 3:48 pm

Got a list of good examples of a B3 on country tracks? I've always thought of it in a blues/gospel/jazz/rock context.

Of course, I'm a rock head on some topics

-eric

p.s. why "steel eraser" ? (I can also be dense)

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 23 Feb 2007 11:34 pm

Eric, I think that most "country" tracks that have B3 aren't really country at all...like so much of what passes for country these days. And some producers will put an organ on a track instead of steel so the tune won't be too country for country radio. I'm as guilty as the next guy - maybe more so - of putting B3 on stuff like that...Fast As You by Yoakam comes to mind. But hey, if they want organ, I give 'em organ.

One track that does stay fairly country is Home For Sale, again by Dwight. There's a nice blend of organ and dobro, played to perfection by Al Perkins.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 24 Feb 2007 6:01 am

First time I noticed organ on a country track was Conway Twitty's "Last Date"-----yes, with the great Hughey intro. That was actually organ. Just kidding. There's a subtle organ pad running beneath the whole song. Not really the sort of thing being talked about here but it's there (unless I'm seriously misremembering). Who produced those sessions?

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 24 Feb 2007 12:19 pm

I own a M series Hammond. I tried the XK2 in the store, side by side with a B3. Close your eyes, you cannot tell the difference. The Leslie sim on the XK2 is great( but it doesn't spit around the room in 3D!!).

I was able to meet the late great Jimmy Smith, at a local blues festival. Simply GREAT. He stopped playing after 20 seconds, said something was wrong with the sound. Turns out they had forgotten to mike the top of the Leslie. They fixed that, he played a great set.

Etta James' B3 player was great. His name, oddly enough, is Dave Matthews. He had all the coolest sounds happening, I sat next to the Leslie.

The other guy that I really like is in R.Randolph's band, that dude can really play. JP

Rick McDuffie · Post by **Rick McDuffie** » 2 Mar 2007 9:48 am

The "church" version of the B3 was the C3... same guts, different cabinet.

Hammond made several organs that had the B3-style cabinet, but weren't much like the B3... older A's and M's, as I remember.

I spent a lot of hours in high school hauling my buddy's L-100 around. He had a 147 to go with it, and it sounded wonderful! I'm not downgrading the digital stuff, but nothing sounds like a real Hammond, in my opinion... hard to replace the warmth and distortion of real tubes, tone wheel generators, and huge spring reverbs with 0's and 1's.

Rick