Jim Alfredson

I was wondering the exact same thing.

Ok, here you go, the insides of a Hammond BCV circa 1940. The lineage of the B series goes Hammond BC, Hammond BCV & BV, Hammond B2, Hammond B3. If you see an old Hammond A (the first model, not the A-100 series, but just plain "A") the first thing you'll notice is that the case is physically less deep. They increased the depth of the case for the BC. Why? In the picture you can see a long metal box with all these metal "knobs" sticking out. That's the tonewheel generator. That where the sound comes from. It's a bank of 92 discs spinning at various speeds with various amounts of teeth on them. Above each one is an electromagnetic pickup, much like a guitar pickup. As the wheels rotate at various speeds, they create a disturbance in the magnetic field of the pickups at a steady rate, thus creating a sine wave of a certain pitch (depending on the speed and the number of teeth). In the picture of Reuben, the tonewheel generator is behind the preamp (the thing out in front with the tubes and transformers on it). Starting from the B2s, Hammonds had one tonewheel generator. The BC's actually has two complete tonewheel generators in it. The one you can see in the picture is number one, and directly behind it is another. Why? Because Hammond hadn't yet figured out how to create the chorus effect electronically, and so they expanded the A-style case (increased the depth) in order to add another entire tonewheel assembly that was slightly detuned from the primary tonewheel generator. When you add the two signals together, you get a chorus effect. Later, they figured out how to do vibrato electronically with the aid of a scanner system (and soon chorus, too) so they started making the BV's which had chorus and vibrato and offered a retrofit kit to add vibrato to older BCs. The vibrato line is that silver box up at the top. It consists of inductors and resistors. When they started doing chorus electronically as well, they dumped the second tonewheel generator, but kept the cases for the organs the same dimension (since they already had a bunch made). That's why there is so much empty space in the back of Reuben's B3 as compared to a BCV. The electronic chorus/vibrato system became much smaller, too. On the B3 pic, it is attached to the back of the upper manual, in the upper left corner. You can see a row of capacitors (they look like little teeth in that shot, standing straight up). Much smaller than the big long silver box in my picture. The BCV also has more tonewheels per generator than the B2s and B3s. That's because it does not have octave foldback. But that's a discussion for another time. More information than you ever wanted to know!

I was trying to explain that to Joe. The way he forms his basslines, his comping, and his soloing is all very difficult and very unique to his organ playing. I understand completely why Jimmy Smith considered DP to be the only threat to his throne.

It is common practice to replace all the capacitors in an old Hammond since they can range anywhere from old wax capacitors (which dry up and change value) to paper ones that are not much better. Putting military grade Sprague caps does make a difference. I did it to mine, although I did not mess with the preamp, I only changed the tonewheel generator caps. But it made a profound difference. Much cleaner highs, much more even tone across the keyboards and drawbars, and much easier to get that gnarly overdriven sound. Resistors haven't really changed all that much in the last 50 years. Sure, you could put higher tolerance ones in, but I doubt it would make much of a difference. As for the tubes, they are usually old RCAs, which sound better than anything you can buy nowadays. The preamp does not drive them hard, so they last forever in that circuit. No need to replace. I try hard as I can to put NOS RCAs or Tung Sols in my Leslie preamp, since they sound so good. The new tubes of today cannot compete. The preamp is actually very well designed and uses very good transformers. Keep in mind that the Hammond is hardly a "hi-fi" instrument. The top of its range only goes to 6kHz or so, so there's no need for a wide frequencey response. In fact, some of its charm is in the filters and volume control that are anything but h-fi. Btw, if you want to see crazy inards, you should see the inside of my Hammond BCV! Maybe I'll take a pic.

Sounds like a goodun' to me!

Up to the skies because I was listening to Gene's album "Back On Track" the last few days, with his killer version of Monk's "In Walked Bud". In taking that one apart, I realized what a hard tune that is to play on the organ. The melody with the bassline is hard enough. Then when you add the bassline Ludwig is playing (which isn't hard on it's own, but is different than what I would normally play), it gets harder! I almost have it nailed! Fun tune to solo on and Gene tears it up!

Throwing this one up on the pile because I was listening to some heavy DP today while practising. Learned his "Freddit Tooks, Jr." (bad tune!) and some others and was bopping with Booker Ervin and Houston Person. Don's sense of swing in his solos is intriguing to me. He is almost playing straight 8ths, very staccato. I was listening LOUD and having a blast playing along.

eBay has really become a haven for scam artists. You have to be very careful from whom you buy. I do not buy anything of any value from anyone with less than 100% feedback.

Nope.

Sorry, but the article on the boy really upset me and after reading it, this story just seemed so small. I mean really... the horse is dead. That sucks. But the owners are still rich, the rider is still here, none of their family is dead. 2 1/2 year old boy with broken bones and bruises all over his body. It just puts things in perspective.

I just don't see why it has to be on every newspage and then here as well. It was a horse. It made it's owners a lot of money. It was a horse.

Yeah, boo hoo. I mean, sure... nice horse. But go read the story on the front page of the Free Press about the 2 1/2 year old boy in foster care who died a horrible death last August. And that shit is happening every day, all over the country, probably all over the world. That's a little more newsworthy and tragic.

It's gonna blow it all WIDE open, dude.

You've been added.

I don't think its hard to believe. He's trying to right some wrongs in his hometown. He's playing for a purpose with a team that has a legitimate shot at a title. The 76ers have been horrible for so long, its understandable that he would burn out there pretty quickly.

It's not bad... 12ms response time isn't that great nor is the contrast (600:1). But as long as your not playing video games on it, it will probably be fine. With LCDs, the specs are very important.

Here's the thing about rebates, though: The prices online are usually lower than the stores in your hometown, even without the rebates. Pay shipping and you're usually paying what you would if you walked into the store and bought it. However, when the rebate comes, you just saved yourself a nice little sum of money. I only buy from local stores if it is something I need that day.

Officer Shaq on the beat!

I don't know if they are crap as I've never heard of the brand. However, most monitors these days have the same insides, just different names slapped on the front. That said, I think you paid too much. For $140, you can get a nice 19" LCD these days. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...4&CatId=170 Word to the wise: Don't buy computer stuff at CompUSA, Office Max, Staples, etc. You can always get it MUCH cheaper online. Newegg, Tiger Direct, MWave, etc.

C-Webb is having a big impact on the Pistons. With him and 'Sheed playing well, Detroit is very tough to beat.

Chopsticks.

Yes, let's rehash what's been done before on countless other organ records. Not in my book.

With all the hatred directed at ECM in that other thread, at least they are staying true to their original vision. Blue Note's lineup is pretty laughable at this point. But hey, all things must change.

He's on the national scene and records for Mel Bay. He has a new CD out with Vic Juris and Jimmy Bruno that's doing quite well and features some really nice re-interpretations of standards: http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?productid=10312CD

Cool! That was a fun night.