Recommendations for a pianist switching to B3?

[Soul Stream]

I've been wanting to find a junker myself and figure it out (almost got an A100 for $40 a couple of weeks ago, but missed it by about half an hour ). It's hard to get up the nerve to tinker with a B3 you've got to play gigs on, or a real nice organ.

What the B3 is doing.... Starts off fine, but the volume drops from say 10 to 3...slowly fading out. It seems like it may drop faster if I'm laying on the pedals more or play full organ, pedals and full organ really would bring it down fast. Then if I stop playing it for a few minutes, it will recover itself back up to 10 volume and be fine. Then the whole cycle starts again. I've switched tubes, but nothing helped.

I'll let you know what the tech says on Monday.

[Jim Alfredson]

Might just be a bad capacitor in the pre-amp. Have you changed the caps yet? I bought the cap-kit from Goff Professional which replaces all the caps in the tone generator. Man, it made a huge difference with the sound of the organ. Before, each key was different from it's brother. For instance, one would be dark, the next one lighter sounding, one soft, the other loud. Changing the old caps made everything even.

The kit doesn't cover the pre-amp but I did that myself. Even if you have the last of the B3s, that means it's at least 25 years old and those old caps lose their values and start getting really funky after awhile.

[Soul Stream]

hey jim, how did changing the caps in your pre-amp do? What did it affect?

Like you, I got the Goff kit and did my generator and vibrato/chorus and noticed an EXTREME difference. (not really on the chorus/vib however). But it seems to me that my pre-amp has always been on the week side compared to other organs. Would changing the caps make it stronger????

Also and update...turns out a screw fell out of the arm that connects to the volume pot on the preamp to the pedal....it was slipping and righting itself....thus, the huge drop in volume at unpredictable times.

Learn something new every day.

[Jim Alfredson]

I found the biggest difference wasn't really the tone of the organ. Changing caps on the pre just made it quieter. Less noise and fuzz and such. It seems to bark a little better too, if you know what I mean.

Glad to hear it was nothing serious. I'll remember the solution if that ever happens to me on a gig!

[Jim Alfredson]

Mike,

I've been thinking about your problem with the action on your B3. I recently cleaned a friend's B3 and fixed some minor problems. As part of the cleaning, I actually took off every key on both manuals, cleaned them, cleaned the tray beneath, and put them back in.

I instantly noticed a change in the action of the keyboard. Each key is held on by a 1/4" hex screw and over the years these loosen and the keys shift. The keys can also lose some of their bounce, since the screw is what holds the spring (the back of the key) to the chassis. If you adjust these screws it might help the action of your manuals.

On another note, I just changed out all the caps in that Leslie 21H amp. Man, I thought it sounded good before... holy moly!!! That things just sings now. FANTASTIC bass response... way better than my 122. And the highs, with that original Jensen V-21 in there, are so sweet and punchy without being shrill. I love this Leslie!

Tomorrow I'm going to replace the caps in the vibrato line on my C2, which is what I have hooked up to the 21H. I should do the tone generator too, but the notes are actually very even across the keyboard. When I first got my B3, each note was different... one was darker, another brighter, one softer, another louder, etc. Changing the tone generator caps solved that. The C2 is fairly even, so I might hold off on that for awhile.

Anyway, think about that tension screw on the back of the keys.