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I love organs...

Sam Cogley

Sam Cogley

Last of the Time Lords
Subscriber
Stopped at a garage sale one street over from my house this morning, found a 1967-ish L-1xx series Hammond at an unbeatable price. All but one of the tubes are the Hammond-branded originals:
Sylvania black-plate 5U4GB
GE 12BH7
RCA 12AU7A clear-top (RCA logo)
Amperex (Holland) 12AX7 x3
Mullard (Great Britain) 7247
unknown (Gt. Britain) 12AU7A (no seams on top, but the plate and getter look just like the standard Philips construction. the lettering doesn't look like anything I've seen from Philips, though)
Mullard (Gt. Britain) 12AU7
Amperex (Austria) EL84 x2

Now I have a quad of Philips EL84s, all Hammond-branded. :D

This one was plugged in and sounding good when I found it, so the tubes should be in good shape.
 
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Yeah, a friend's dad has an L-122. A couple years ago I took a peek around back and took some notes... the 5U4 and 12BH7 are RCA, the 7247/12DW7 is Sylvania... but the 12AU7's, 12AX7's, and EL84's are all Mullards. Pretty sweet.
 
Now the only question is: which will sound better in my SCA-35 when it's finished? A quad of Zenith-branded GE 6BQ5s, or a quad of Hammond-branded Amperex EL84s? :scratch2::music:
 
www.records said:
Congrats Sam, sounds like you found a good one!
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It seems like organs go in waves. The first two I found were Lowreys, and I haven't seen one since. Two of the last three were Hammond L-100s. Sandwiched in the middle was a very random Baldwin.

Speaking of 6BQ5s, I need to work on that Stromberg amp so I can listen to those GE 7189As... :music:
 
You are right about them coming in waves. Not only in the brand, but in their availability at all. One month they'll be 3 or 4 around, and then none for 3 or 4 months.

I've never had a problem gutting old Conns or Lowreys or Baldwins. Most of these are in pretty rough shape, and not worth the effort to try and refurb.

I usually can't bring myself to gut Rodgers or Allen or tubed Hammond units. The Rodgers and Allens tend to be so much better in design and construction, that they are worth refurbing. So lately I've been working with friends to refurbish and re-purpose them, often for religious groups that can't afford new church organs.

Keeping the tube-based Hammonds together is my give-back to wanna-be rock-and-rollers. The Hammond sound dominates the rock landscape, and these days the old L-series and M-series organs are the organs of choice for cash-strapped "newbie" musicians. These organs have the Hammond sound (except for the top octave, which lacks the signature foldback), and they aren't that hard to work on.
 
Funny, I picked up a L-101 yesterday as well, all original tubes and it still sounds great, even got the bench and all for a mere song, like the cost of hauling. When I got it home, I was wondering why I drug the thing back, its in perfect condition and everything works, cant bring myself to gut it for a silly amp and whatever those other two tube units are? Tremelo and vibrato???

Guess I need to find a church that needs it.
 
I won't gut a Hammond M-series, either, mainly because every one I've encountered has been way out of my price range for a parts unit. The L-1xx units are pretty common around here, and tend to be cheap. The first one I took apart sat in the SA for about two months before I bought it.
 
Sam Cogley said:
The L-1xx units are pretty common around here, and tend to be cheap. The first one I took apart sat in the SA for about two months before I bought it.
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You're damn lucky, I haven't seen a Hammond L or M around here in years (except for my own :D). Many thrift shops in this area quit accepting them as donations because they could never make any money on them. So they either end up on CL or get donated to a church. The day will come when you won't see them anymore even in MO.
 
Another one dropped into my lap tonight, and this source might turn into the bottomless pit of tube organs. Stripped my second Baldwin 30P, this one has been rode hard and put away wet. The original Baldwin/GE 6L6GC special service outputs are long gone, replaced by a pair of RCA blackplate fat bottle 6L6GCs. The original RCA blackplate 5U4GB rectifier was till in place, as were most of the Raytheon blackplate 12AU7s. The 12AX7s were a motley bag of Raytheons, RCA blackplates, RCA greyplates, RCA greyplate 7025s, and a couple of later RCA 12AX7As. Unfortunately one of the blackplate 12AX7s shattered as I tried to get the death grip socket to let go. :(
 
The GCs tested at approximately 4700 and 4900. While the transconductance is a bit lower than the pair of GEs currently in my Fisher 70A, the balance is about the same. I'll have to give them a listen.
 
It's funny you mention that they come in waves. I too seem to find one or two and then nothing for a spell? Mine are all very nice and not the ones to be gutting, I am running out of room for these though. I keep thinking I will show up and it will be a junker but people seem to care about these things as they were either there moms and dads or grandparents. I am on the look out every day so I get what I can find.

I am cheap though and only pay like $25-75 for them.

WO
 
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