Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Hammond is working!

Started it tonight. At first, I was getting no sound except for a slight hum from the reverb channel. Checking, I found that two tubes in the preamp were cold -- the 12BH7 and the 12AU7. And I thought I had them packed very carefully. However, it got me thinking: I've had problems before with tube sockets not making good contact. So I pulled the offending tubes and pushed them back in, very firmly.

Started it again, and it works! Some of the drawbars are a bit crackly, but I think that will work out with some playing. As usual with this unit, it takes two or three tries with the start switch to get the start motor to engage, but that's no big deal. Everything works and the rotating mechanisms are all quiet.

To celebrate, I hereby present some Hammond-guts porn. The preamp:




The power amp:




The reverb amp:



The run motor, scanner, and flywheel, illuminated by the pilot light:




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