Hammond tonwheel damage

i bought a 50's hammond m2 for 100 bucks at a thrift store. i talked them down from 500 they thought they had a gold mine

when i moved it to my house i diddnt lock down the tonewheel

i diddnt know very much about them at the time..

i notice im missing some tones on one or 2 of the keys.. the tones work on the rest of the keys just not on that certain key..

is this a broken wire? or did i permanently damage the tonewheel

did my pickup rods get bent..

how can i tell a broken wire from serious damage like a bent pickup rod?

thanks.

mike

where do you live?

on the boarder of Kentucky and Virginia

east ky near pikeville

These guys can help: hammond_zone@yahoogroups.com

major bump. still have the problem that yahoo group doesnt exist.

thanks.

thanks for the info ill start to go through it.. im also looking for a hammond M3

Pull out the 16' drawbar only. Play each key and see which one, if any, fail and make note. Push in the 16' and pull out the 8' only. Again play each key and note any failures. Repeat the the above process using the 4' and the 2' drawbars.

If the same tone fails on each of the drawbar settings, an octave apart, then you will need to have a look at the tone wheels in question. If the tone fails on only one or more of the keys, there is a continuity problem (possible broken wire or key contact) between the keybed and the tone generator.

Good luck.

Rick

A broken wire between the TG and the manuals will also cause the same tone to be missing from every contact on the manuals at which it appears, and oftener than not is the culprit when this symptom occurs. If the tone is only missing from certain keys/drawbars but present on others, there's a more localized break (usually one of the resistance wires running from the manual terminal strip to a keyswitch stack.)

I'd look at the generator-to-manual harness first, an unlocked generator flopping around can usually be counted on to have at least one wire get broken, which would cause the symptoms the OP noted. This is especially true of M-series spinets, which have the wiring harness directly above the generator with the wires connecting directly to the output filter coils rather than to a terminal strip as in consoles and L and T-series spinets.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

First thing to do is play it vigorously. The number one reason for not hearing a tone on a key is dust on the key contacts. Strike keys with missing tones rapidly a dozen times or so to try to dislodge debris. Hammonds love to be played, and if they sit unused for a long time will get scratchy.

If you do hear missing tones in the octave pattern mentioned above, this is usually wire pulled off between the generator and the keyboard. You can verify whether all the generators work or not by attaching a wire to the preamp input, and touching the other end to each terminal on the generator terminal strip. This bypasses the keyboard entirely.

If it is not a non sounding generator, it can be an individual key contact. You may have a dead spot on the bus bar, in which case you need to look into shifting the bus bars. At this point, you may be in for a disassembly.