Hammond B3
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-->The Hammond B3 organ is a tone wheel organ made by the Hammond Organ Company. It is considered as the most popular Hammond organ of all time, and has been used in a great number of popular rock bands and jazz ensembles. It is also a popular theatre organ.
It was originally produced to be a portable alternative to the unportable church organ.
The tonewheel system
For the main article about tonewheels, see the tonewheel article.
The sound reproduction system is based on tonewheels. There are one of these wheels for each of the ninety-one tones the organ can produce. Each key on the keyboard can control up to nine tones, depending on the drawbar settings or drawbar presets. Each tonewheel has a number of bumps along its edge. The number of bumps and the rotation speed of the wheel determines the tone's frequency. A synchronous motor turns the wheels through a set of axles and gears. The gear ratios determine each wheel's rotation speed. The entire gear train rotates continuously. An electromagnetic pickup is placed next to each tone wheel. The bumps in the edge of the tone wheel cause the magnetic field of the pickup to vary, generating a periodic voltage change in the pickup's coil—a tone. The organist selects these tones via the drawbar circuitry and the keyboards while playing the organ. The resulting tones are ultimately amplified and converted to sound by a speaker.
The drawbars
The drawbars add harmonics to the original note that each key produces. This is mainly fifths and octaves, and one major third.
| Pipe Pitch | Scale interval | Stop name | Note name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16' | Sub-octave | Bourdon | C (octave under root) |
| 5 1/3 ' | 5th | Quint | G (fifth over root) |
| 8' | Unison | Principal | C (root) |
| 4' | 8th | Octave | C (octave over root) |
| 2 2/3' | 12th | Nazard | G |
| 2' | 15th | Block-flute | C |
| 1 3/5' | 17th | Tierce | E |
| 1 1/3' | 19th | Largiot | G |
| 1 | 22nd | Sifflote | C |
The New B3
In 2002, the Hammond company (now known as Hammond-Suzuki) relaunched the B3 as the 'New B3', a faithful recreation of the original electromechanical instrument using modern-day electronics and a state-of-the-art sound generator system. At first glance the New B3 is indistinguishable from the original, as the external design is essentially identical.
Particular attention has been given to retaining all the subtle nuances of the familiar B3 sound, thus it would be a considerable challenge for even an experienced B3 player to distinguish between old and new. Hugh Robjohns' [review] in the popular recording magazine 'Sound on Sound' agrees:
"I don't think there can be any doubt that the New B3 is a true replica of an original B3 — both in terms of the look and layout, and the actual sound. I honestly don't believe anyone could tell the new instrument apart from an original if it was set up appropriately."The authenticity of the New B3 is attested to notably because of its take-up by famous B3 players such as Jimmy Smith and Joey DeFrancesco, who both played a New B3 on the collaborative album 'Legacy' released in 2005 shortly before Jimmy's death.
Hammond-Suzuki went on to release a portable version of the New B3 as well as a new version of the C3 model.
Trivia
- The sound of the Hammond B3 organ can be heard in 1960's surf music, where the spinning Leslie speaker created distinctive special effects.
- Hammond's C3 and A100 are internally and functionally identical to the B3 - the C3 has a console-style cabinet while the A-100 additionally has a built-in amplifier and loudspeakers.
- The B3 cabinet style is based on the original model A organ. The model A was for the home market, and was styled to resemble a writing desk, and to have roughly the same physical footprint as one. The B3 cabinet is deeper than the original model A, due to the addition and later removal of the chorus generator (with model BC), but Hammond did not retool the cabinet depth.
- The majority of full-size Hammond organs in the UK were C3 models, hence the popularity of that model rather than the B3 among British musicians.
- Co-inventor of the Eniac (first analog computer), J. Presper Eckert was inspired by Hammond's Novachord (first analog synth) in its use of 170 tubes. He therefore concluded that they would be able to develop the circuits for the computer, which took over 400 tubes.
External links
- [Drawbar Settings, Progressions, and Links]
- [Article on the Hammond Organ]
- [Description of Hammond Organ]
- [History of the Hammond B-3 Organ]
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