Things that can be done with old Hammond parts?

[AloneInTheDarkRecords]

Hey folks, I'm new here and generally pretty new to the world of building any DIY electronics. I have built my own drumset from scrap drums, had to do a number of DIY fixes on guitars and other instruments, and done a few simple mods on amps and built a couple basic speaker cabs. Nothing too advanced.

 

Well, I've found myself with a mess of Hammond organ parts; not that the parts are a mess but that I have a good bit of spare parts from parting pieces of one organ into another. Tone generator was practically shot in one and the other needed a new Motor but turned out to still not work (I'm still scratching my head on that one..). Anyway, I had a couple ideas for the pieces of this old unit which are still salvageable and wanted to hear what other folks with more knowledge than me had to say. I'd really like to make a spring reverb unit, obviously utilizing the reverb tank and probably the switch from this unit. What else do I need to make one? I'm assuming a pre amp and additional low wattage output amp, a gain control pot, pretty much what I would expect to see in a very very low wattage amp but with the reverb being somewhere in the middle. If I could help to make it tube driven that would obviously be a plus. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated! All I could find video and article wise was building an actual spring reverb tank and then a few of people who plugged the tank in by itself and were using the springs percussively. Neat, silly, not what I'd like to use this for lmao

 

My other thought was, I have a cordovox speaker cab and tone generator. I posted a topic on it in the amp section yesterday and found that the tone generator is basically a tube driven synth in and of itself. Has anyone heard of someone combining spare parts from an organ (ie maybe a scrapped Hammond? Lol) and a cordovox tone generator to make combo organ? It's probably a little ambitious for me to do on my own, but I have always always always dreamed of owning a combo organ but have never had the cash it takes to get one that doesn't sound like if a video game sound card had a baby with a portasound.

 

There's lots of parts in this L112 and I'd rather have to smash as few of them as possible. I didn't want to part this organ out but had to because I couldn't find anyone to take it when they found out the entire tone generator was pretty much capoots. 😕

 

I'm looking at it the Native American way, if I have to kill something then I feel obligated to use everything I can off of it; I hate the idea of wasting it.

 

 

 

Another side project if anyone is interested in shedding some insight is an old ampex reel to reel; I'm talking old, 1950's, 2 track but only records a single track.. Basically found to be worthless (except for the $200 worth of west Germany telefunken 12ax7's 👌😎). I've been sitting on it for a while and am heavily contemplating turning it into a tape delay after I fix what ever gears are in it that are jammed. Being a one track recorder, it doesn't do me much for me to keep for studio use, and I traded the nice ampex 620 speakers for a 147 Leslie so it's just been collecting dust. However, since guitar effects units are generally mono, one channel, anyway.. And it's older with simpler mechanics than say.. A tascam or TEAC. So I figure maybe it would be a worthy tape delay.

 

 

 

Anywho, any insight on making a spring reverb unit, combo amp, or tape delay would be graciously appreciated and like I said.. I'm a newbie, so go easy on me

 

👌

[Phil O'Keefe]

Depending on the model, some of those old Ampex tape deck preamps can be converted into a very usable tube mic preamp... but it's going to need those old Telefunken tubes to work...

[daddymack]

not sure this helps, but a while back I stumbled on a kit to convert a Epi VJ 5w amp into a spring reverb unit....if you search 'converting Valve Junior to reverb unit' you will find it. I may give yo usome ideas how to proceed.

Cordovox' are a bear to convert; all those tubes...I don't know if there is a wiring diagram available for them, but I have seen inside one. The preamp is part of the Tonegen chassis, and in a separate cabinet from the power amp..

Must have been a grunt and a half hauling two cabs everywhere just to play accordian. But it was like having a Leslie or a Vibratone.

I have rebuilt a Fender Vibratone, just the cab/rotator/motor, and it was a challenge to interface with...I've done some Leslies as well, but they are pretty well documented.

 

Years ago [maybe 1974] I used my Wollensak mono R2R recorder as a tape delay, making my own loops, adding posts to allow for longer delays, eventually adding 3 additional R2R recorders to the point I had them all leveled out on a sheet of 3/4" plywood with a tape loop about 39" [a meter] long, with a homemade on/off switch bank for the 3 machines outputs...each output fed to a 4 channel EHX mini passive mixer, and out to an amp...pure madness...

I am still a delay junky, and have more delay pedals than anything [except tuners]...