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A factory model of the Hammond B3

The Hammond B3 organ is a tone wheel organ made by the Hammond-factory. 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 theater organ. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was designed and built by Laurens Hammond in April 1935. ... Image File history File links A picture of the Hammond b3 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links A picture of the Hammond b3 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was designed and built by Laurens Hammond in April 1935. ... The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was designed and built by Laurens Hammond in April 1935. ... A theatre organ is an organ installed in a movie theatre, most often modelled after the style originally devised by Robert Hope-Jones, which he called a unit orchestra. Such instruments were typically built to provide the greatest possible variety of timbres with the fewest possible pipes, and often had...

It was originally produced to be a portable alternative to the unportable church organs. The church organ developed originally for congregational singing, and is found in many houses of worship. ...

The tonewheel system

For the main article about tonewheels, see the tonewheel article. A tonewheel is a relatively primitive apparatus for generating electronic musical notes. ...

Diagram of how a tonewheel works

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 electomagnetic 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. Image File history File links A image, created by user OverDriv3, to illustrate the tonewheel system in a b3 article. ... Image File history File links A image, created by user OverDriv3, to illustrate the tonewheel system in a b3 article. ... A tonewheel is a relatively primitive apparatus for generating electronic musical notes. ... The layout of a typical musical keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which cause the instrument to produce sounds. ...

The drawbars

Layout of the drawbar system

The drawbars add harmonics to the original note that each key produces. This is mainly fifths and octaves, and one major third. Image File history File links A diagram of the tones of a Hammond drawbar det. ... Image File history File links A diagram of the tones of a Hammond drawbar det. ...

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. For the Cusco album, see 2002 (album). ...

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. This article refers to Jimmy Smith the jazz musician. ...

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. Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links

• Article on the Hammond Organ
• Description of Hammond Organ
• History of the Hammond B-3 Organ