There are few modern musical instruments that define their own genre, whose sound transcends the original purpose of the design and becomes part of the performance. Leo Fender's clean and clear Stratocaster, the Fender Rhodes electric piano, the original Moog synthesizer: these have all become more than "just another guitar/ keyboard/ synth". And one of the greatest of all modern instruments is Laurens Hammond's B3 tonewheel organ, matched with a Leslie speaker cabinet. Just thinking about that whooshy, gurgly, fat, smelly sound gets my fingers twitching. Here at the igStudio we have a Hammond C3, which is a B3 in Sunday clothes. The open lower part of the B3 was considered too risque for church use, lest the congregation be inflamed by the sight of the organist's legs. Wooden side skirts were added to the B3 to hide the saucy nether regions, and the organ was rechristened the C3 ("C" for church). Here's Harriette, the igHammond C3 (minus her pedals):

The B3/C3 is a 200kg/400lb monster of heavy-duty 1940s American engineering. Look in the back and you'll see glowing valves (tubes if you're from the USA), spinning wheels, and miles of bundled coloured wires running everywhere. There's even an oil sump, which delivers machine oil to the moving parts via fine copper tubing. Harriette also has an inbuilt heater, which puts out as much warmth as a low-wattage electric light to prevent dampness.

The Hammond sound starts with the tonewheels. An extremely precise and steady motor rotates 91 of these tonewheels as they electromagnetically produce tones across the organ's seven and a half octave range. By adjusting nine drawbars (above the keys) you can combine and mix the tones to create an almost limitless array of classic organ sounds. The inverted black and white keys on the left of the keyboards provide 18 preset drawbar combinations, just like calling up different sounds on a modern synthesizer. In the photo above, that bundle of wires on the right is the matrix used for setting the presets: 162 holes (18 presets x 9 drawbars) and a heap of connecting wires. Harriette even has a lovely little cloth bag for storing unused wires. How thoughtful.

The other important part of the Hammond experience is the Leslie speaker. The Leslie is a loudspeaker which rotates at fast or slow speeds, creating a modulating doppler (pitch) and tremelo (volume) effect. The story goes that Don Leslie was trying to invent a speaker which replicated the sound of a pipe organ in a large church. He failed dismally, but once someone had hooked up his new invention to the Hammond organ a classic sound was born. Officially, Laurens Hammond didn't care for Don Leslie or his speaker, saying he never intended his organ to sound that way. At home though it's said he had his Hammond connected to a Leslie just like everyone else.

Over the years there have been many attempts to recreate the Hammond sound using synths or samples, but nothing comes close to the organic (haha!) experience of climbing behind the Hammond keyboard, initiating the startup procedure, and getting all those wheels and rotors spinning. After half an hour or so the temperature in the room has risen by several degrees and the air is filled with the delicious aroma of oil, wood and electronics.

That musicians are still willing to cart these behemoths to gigs is testament to the unique sound and power of the Hammond. Although initially intended primarily for home entertainment (see the ads below), the Hammond has been used in every genre of music, from the space-age lounge of Juan Esquivel to the groundbreaking jazz of Jimmy Smith, from the folk-rock of Dylan to the heavy metal of Deep Purple, from the 60s pop of the Animals and the Small Faces to the modern pop of Matchbox 20 and the Wallflowers, from country to gospel to reggae to soul and all stations in between.

Hammond Advertisements

Besides the bliss of playing a Hammond, there is a certain joy to be had from looking over the advertisements that Hammond ran for many years promoting the organ to family buyers. Here's a page full.