m3 hammond organ

hifijohn

Active Member
enjoying my bike riding a few days ago when I spotted this hammond organ by the curb.I quickly got a friend with a pick up truck and got it home. It needs some work but its not bad, I always wanted b3 and what I understand the m3 is a close cousin. who throws out a hammond organ???
 

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Wow, nice find. It's always surprising what some people decide to kick to the curb. I believe that the Hammond M3 was Keith Emerson's weapon of choice for many years. My advice is to find a reliable Hammond tech and get that thing back up to snuff.

enjoy.
 
The M3 is a scaled down B3 but still has the unmistakable Hammond sound. I inherited one about 25 years ago. The Hammond that Keith Emerson used as his weapon of choice was a C3 which is a scaled up B3. Nice find either way. You might have gotten lucky and it might have Jensen speakers in it rather than the Heffner speakers that some had. The Jensen P12Q 12" speaker, that could be in it, is a great guitar speaker.
 
OWe have a Lowery in the living room we have tried to sell and almost everyone has said it will not fit. We are at a point where it may just hit the curb. The amp is ss. These things are just old and not a collectible. New technology just hastrumped them it seems.
 
The M3 is a scaled down B3 but still has the unmistakable Hammond sound. I inherited one about 25 years ago. The Hammond that Keith Emerson used as his weapon of choice was a C3 which is a scaled up B3. Nice find either way. You might have gotten lucky and it might have Jensen speakers in it rather than the Heffner speakers that some had. The Jensen P12Q 12" speaker, that could be in it, is a great guitar speaker.

I beg to differ. Does this look like a C3 to you?
 

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I stand corrected. The L-100 was one of Keith's main show Hammonds. He also played a model C3 for the songs that required fewer acrobatics.
 
That is a might over the top. I am surprised it was allowed due to potential liability issues.
 
No Kidding!! I saw them live a couple of times back in the mid to late 70's. I swear that he almost got stuck under it when he did his theatrics with the Hammond. I also saw him on TV strapped to the bench with a full size grand piano that rotated above the stage. Crazy stuff indeed!!
 
Congratulations on your curb side find The M3 is the same as the B3 in sound, but there is a reason they call it the "Baby B". The upper and lower manuals contain only 44 keys each, as opposed to 61. There are no preset keys, and the case is a home style "spinet" cabinet. It also lacks what is known as "foldback" on the upper octaves - this is the repeating of higher frequencies throughout those keys. Again, this is a good starter organ, and in fact many notable recordings were made with the M3, including Boston's Smokin' and Booker T's Green Onions.

The Trek II corp manufactures many add on accessories to hot rod your M3 I used one of their OBL-2 line output kits on a 1958 M3 so we could plug it in to my DAW pulling the signal right off the tone wheel going through Avids DB33 plug in

http://davidfranz.berkleemusicblogs...8-db-33-your-own-b3-organ-and-leslie-cabinet/

Here is a great post on a M3.http://www.organforum.com/forums/sh...fference-between-the-M3-and-the-B3-(long-post)

Enjoy!
PQ
 
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Either way, you're talking classic Hammond tonewheel sound. Just make sure you lube it per the destructions. If you've ever seen one of those tone generators opened up and running, its a pretty complicated device. Tons of moving parts, all of them need oil. There are a couple videos on youtube that show it.
 
Had to pass on a 1940s baby Hammond at a thrift a couple years ago for something ca $20, no room for it.

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No Kidding!! I saw them live a couple of times back in the mid to late 70's. I swear that he almost got stuck under it when he did his theatrics with the Hammond. I also saw him on TV strapped to the bench with a full size grand piano that rotated above the stage. Crazy stuff indeed!!

I saw him do that in Charlotte, N.C. during the "August Jam" in 1974.

See here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Jam

Here is a short video from the "California Jam" the same year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSm5IQFaTZA

:D
 
And how about those authentic, Third Reich daggers that Keith used to throw at that poor little Hammond? As if being bounced around the stage wasn't enough.
 
enjoying my bike riding a few days ago when I spotted this hammond organ by the curb.I quickly got a friend with a pick up truck and got it home. It needs some work but its not bad, I always wanted b3 and what I understand the m3 is a close cousin. who throws out a hammond organ???

replaced the power cord today and took the tubes from my s6 hammond and fired up the m3.the only minor problem is the start motor rotates but doesnt plunge. so I have to manual push the shaft in and click the start motor ,other than that its perfect.it runs very quiet considering all the gears and there is no squeal noise so assume its been oiled properly.
 
Nice score and a nice little organ. The M3 isn't near a B3 and the C3 is a B3 in a different cabinet. C stood for Church. The B3 has 4 legs and an open base while the C3 has an enclosed base. The M3 is a spinet style organ and the B3 is a console style. The B3 has no internal speaker. What sets the B3 and C3 apart from the other Hammond organs is the percussion. That's what helped give those 2 models 'the sound'. A Leslie speaker, like a 122 or 147 is what you hear on many classic rock records a la The Rascals, Santana, Uriah Heep.....Deep Purple used the C3.
 
The Hammond signature tone with the distinctive burble is what nails them for me.

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Nice score and a nice little organ. The M3 isn't near a B3 and the C3 is a B3 in a different cabinet. C stood for Church. The B3 has 4 legs and an open base while the C3 has an enclosed base. The M3 is a spinet style organ and the B3 is a console style. The B3 has no internal speaker. What sets the B3 and C3 apart from the other Hammond organs is the percussion. That's what helped give those 2 models 'the sound'. A Leslie speaker, like a 122 or 147 is what you hear on many classic rock records a la The Rascals, Santana, Uriah Heep.....Deep Purple used the C3.

you're right the m3 is nowhere near the b3 in sound, i always loved the 50's jazz organ sound, this has more of a early 70's keith emerson rock and roll sound,which I still love .I think its more a L100 sound.
 
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