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Just found a Hammond H-100... good deal?


eBayfreak

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Just for some background info, I'm a guitarist that likes to dabble in keyboards a bit, and I've always loved the sound of old Hammonds, but don't really know all that much about them.

 

Today I found a Hammond Model H at an estate sale (looks like a H-100 from what I can find). It's in great shape and seemed to be working great when I tried it out. It's a big console with two manuals & pedals. No Leslie cab included, but I know where one is I could pick up if I feel the need. They're asking what I considered a very low amount for the organ.

 

Does anyone know what these beasts are worth (average price and maybe what you would offer)? I know it's no B3, but is it all that different? Also, how hard are they to transport?

 

Thanks for any input!

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Thanks for the input guys... They're asking $250 but I think it may be negotiable some. I wouldn't give it a second thought but it's very very clean and fires right up. I guess I'll wait and see what happens.

 

Can you even hook this thing to an external Leslie?

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yes, it's definitely my favourite organ to be paid a hundred dollars to haul away.

 

Ouch...

 

So what makes it so radically different from the "good" Hammonds? They're all electromechanical tonewheel organs with tube driven amps, right?

 

You guys may have to dumb it down into guitar player-understandable terms :rolleyes:

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Ouch...


So what makes it so radically different from the "good" Hammonds? They're all electromechanical tonewheel organs with tube driven amps, right?


You guys may have to dumb it down into guitar player-understandable terms
:rolleyes:

 

B3 - tonewheel generator, scanner vibrato (classic "purr"), percussive "wooden" thunk, vacuum tube audio path (you guitarists understand the "warm" sound of tubes, no?), waterfall keys (rugged).

 

H100 - tonewheel generator, phase shift vibrato (too churchy), percussive "plastic" beep, solid state audio path (sterile and cold), diving board keys (prone to breaking).

 

They only thing they share is the tonewheel generator. All the other components are radically different.

 

Like I said - the furthest you can get from a B-3.

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About the best $100 organ around.

 

 

false.

This model is less reliable, and is more of a bitch to fix...and besides that, the classic tonewheel hammonds are the most reliable instruments I have ever seen. You don't have to recap ever if you don't want to. It does not have "the real tonewheel sound". Anyway, you can't even play it on shag carpet.

 

The only thing this organ has going for it is the slow vibrato :love:.?

 

 

and BTW, this organ is the best model to get paid $100 to haul away.

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also the H-100 is a complete abortion on the inside ... the amp chassis have a combination of tube and transistor electronics. it was rushed into production without a prototype being built first, and it shows.

 

these things were failing as soon as they were shipping. Groove Holmes tried gigging with the X-77 for a week and a half, and it fucked him so hard he kicked it outta the hearse while it was still moving and went back to his '58 B3.

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Hi.  All musicians have their own experiences with various insturments, and "purists" will always lay out the worse aspects of any insturment (been there and done that myself on occason).  I truly believe in the philosophy of "lesser and greater in all things."  The H-100 you speak of, if it is fully functional, will add to your keyboard experiences.  If you can negotiate the $250 down, all the better.  I have found junkers in every insturment venue I've ever played in, and can make the same sort of statements as found from other writers here.  But...there's a pony under every pile of dung, so don't be too hasty to walk away from the deal you've found. BTW, I've been a professional musician for +53 years, teach classic and electric guitar, acoustic and digital piano, and own/play a pristine 1959 Hammond C-3 with original JR20 speaker + a Leslie 3300 tied into the system with Trek reverb added. I was able to find a gentleman who had worked for the original Hammond Factory and for $100 each obtained copies of the owners manual and service manual.  I can now do all of my own work on the Hammond.  And yes, you can tie any number of Leslies into the H-100 including a reverb system (if it doesn't have one).  Depending on the Leslie model you purchase, you may need a pre-amp, but you can run that one to ground after you have the organ.  My advice?  If it's fully functional, buy it.  Learn to live with its ups and downs while you add to your keyboard experience. 

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I know this is a really old thread, but it came up when I Googled for information about the Hammond H-100. Since a Hammond B-3 or the like is in the neighborhood of $3000 these days, it would seem that a Hammond H-100, as it is a real tonewheel organ, would be a bargain even if you had to pay $100 for it, and maybe even $250. Of course, there is an excellent computer simulation of a good Hammond tonewheel organ (it even has a testimonial from Lonnie Smith, and they don't get any better than that) now available for an introductory price of $200, and you can also get MIDI keyboards cheaply.

(Of course, I was referring to IK Multimedia's B-3X, which has been discussed elsewhere in these forums.)

Early production models of the H-100 had a real vibrato; someone technically and electronically inclined might be able to replace the phase-shift vibrato of most H-100s. That it uses transistor amplification instead of tube amplication is something I'd tend to see as a plus - longer life, longer reliability, with minimal, if any, effect on the sound quality.

With only a limited number of Hammond tonewheel organs in existence, I would think that even the humble H-100 should be conserved, not hauled away to the scrapyard.

And, it may also be noted, that at least one noted recording artist used it on his albums: Klaus Wunderlich. All right, his music is in a different genre than that of Jimmy Smith, but I'd say that's still evidence that an H-100 is a musical instrument, not a piece of junk.

Edited by quadibloc
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There are tons of Tonewheel organs out there.....a ton.  Leslie speakers not so much.  I just helped a guy sell one of these last year come to find out.  The aren't sought after but if you hook it up to a Leslie they don't sound bad. It's just that they don't demand anything because people don't want them.  They were supposedly going to replace the B3 but Hammond got it right the first time. Tough to work on and tough to sell.

Edited by Outkaster
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I just got a free Hammond H-324 (of the H-series organ).   I have a Hammond B-3 and just wanted to try the H series organ.   I found it is really time consuming to fix.   I got it working, after taking out a million screws to break it down (I only put l/4 of the screws back). 

I also found numerous electrolytic caps are bad.   These are the expensive multi-cap can capacitors, of about $80 each.    

Another restriction is that service manuals that are on line are sketch and not readily legible.  The manual are piece meal and a complete manual does not appear to be available.   

I have spent 3-days 12-hour per day replacing all of the broken keys, including preset keys that, using recycled music keys, I actually painted to get the opposite color.  I also spray cleaned the drawbars.   After all the work and putting everything together I found that 1-drawbar is not working and I broke another key ( recycled keys were used to replace the 1st batch of broken keys).   At this point, if I choose to break the organ down again I will have replaced nearly all of the original music keys and preset keys.

The reverb tube is bad and it cost about $80 by itself - I have yet to buy the tube.

I do like the idea of the organ features, the integral rhythm machine is very convenient and helps timing of my playing.   So I like the unit and sound is fine.   But to make it right, I need to invest at least a few hundred in cash to replace caps and tubes.   

Is it worth it?   I can take it to the dump for $60.

 

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