Hi hammond peeps,

An acquaintance says his friend says he needs to tune his Hammond, and they wondered if they could do it using a tuning app of some sort.

(we're very used to tuning harpsichords, using PitchLab, tuning forks, and years ago by getting up at 4 am when it was quiet and counting beats)(we prefer a=415, quarter comma meantone).?

I played B3 a lot for 13 years, intermittently after that, but it never occurred to me that a B3 could go out of tune, without having something be broken/needing adjustment.

We had occasional problems that a Hammond tech needed to address, one time during a gig the whole organ's tone suddenly ran down (and I immediately turned off the B3!).?

Anyhow -- my impression has been that normally one does NOT mess with tuning on a Hammond.? Appreciate any thoughts/info on this, thanks.? Gesine?

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A Hammond never needs tuning as such. The relative pitch of the individual tone wheels is set by the internal gearing of the tone wheel generator, and the overall pitch is set by the frequency of the AC mains supply. There is no easy way for a user or organ technician to change either of these. If a Hammond organ is out of tune, the most likely cause is that oiling has been neglected, and the friction of the unoiled bearings is causing some tone wheels to turn more slowly than they should. The tone wheels are grouped in pairs, with a spring loaded clutch preventing jammed or partially seized tone wheels from stopping the the whole generator. Very often, oiling a neglected Hammond and waiting some time (could be weeks!) for the oil to reach the bearings will free up any sticking tone wheels.

Hi hammond peeps,

An acquaintance says his friend says he needs to tune his Hammond, and they wondered if they could do it using a tuning app of some sort.

(we're very used to tuning harpsichords, using PitchLab, tuning forks, and years ago by getting up at 4 am when it was quiet and counting beats)(we prefer a=415, quarter comma meantone).?

I played B3 a lot for 13 years, intermittently after that, but it never occurred to me that a B3 could go out of tune, without having something be broken/needing adjustment.

We had occasional problems that a Hammond tech needed to address, one time during a gig the whole organ's tone suddenly ran down (and I immediately turned off the B3!).?

Anyhow -- my impression has been that normally one does NOT mess with tuning on a Hammond.? Appreciate any thoughts/info on this, thanks.? Gesine?

--

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PS. As a corollary to Hammond tuning being locked to mains frequency, it is not possible to tune a Hammond to anything other than A = 440 without messing about with variable frequency power supplies.

A Hammond never needs tuning as such. The relative pitch of the individual tone wheels is set by the internal gearing of the tone wheel generator, and the overall pitch is set by the frequency of the AC mains supply. There is no easy way for a user or organ technician to change either of these. If a Hammond organ is out of tune, the most likely cause is that oiling has been neglected, and the friction of the unoiled bearings is causing some tone wheels to turn more slowly than they should. The tone wheels are grouped in pairs, with a spring loaded clutch preventing jammed or partially seized tone wheels from stopping the the whole generator. Very often, oiling a neglected Hammond and waiting some time (could be weeks!) for the oil to reach the bearings will free up any sticking tone wheels.

On 08/11/2022 19:00, Gesine wrote:

Hi hammond peeps,

An acquaintance says his friend says he needs to tune his Hammond, and they wondered if they could do it using a tuning app of some sort.

(we're very used to tuning harpsichords, using PitchLab, tuning forks, and years ago by getting up at 4 am when it was quiet and counting beats)(we prefer a=415, quarter comma meantone).?

I played B3 a lot for 13 years, intermittently after that, but it never occurred to me that a B3 could go out of tune, without having something be broken/needing adjustment.

We had occasional problems that a Hammond tech needed to address, one time during a gig the whole organ's tone suddenly ran down (and I immediately turned off the B3!).?

Anyhow -- my impression has been that normally one does NOT mess with tuning on a Hammond.? Appreciate any thoughts/info on this, thanks.? Gesine?

--

--

THANK YOU Chris!? I'm emailing the person, quoting your post, and suggesting they oil the Hammond.?

I really appreciate your expertise and willingness to advise here.? Gesine?

And a corollary --

where to order Hammond oil?

I see B&H and other places have a Hammond Suzuki product that says it is Hammond oil -- want to check with you peeps, since this looks very different than the Hammond oil in the long thin tube, that we bought for many years from Hammond --

Thanks!? Gesine ?

?

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I like tonewheel general hospital

And a corollary --

where to order Hammond oil?

I see B&H and other places have a Hammond Suzuki product that says it is Hammond oil -- want to check with you peeps, since this looks very different than the Hammond oil in the long thin tube, that we bought for many years from Hammond --

Thanks!? Gesine ?

?

-- 
Rich Reid
208-861-9263