From mlongo@highmarkdesign.com Tue Apr 02 09:16:22 2002
Subject:Re: leakage?


> Leakage is the sound that is caused because each of the 91 TG's in
a Hammond Organ are not perfectly electrically and magnetically
isolated from each other. When one key is struck, a little of the
surrounding tones also bleed through.

Yes, and it's also noteworthy that on a real tonewheel organ this
condition tends to increase as the years go by. It may be that it's
the result of drifting capacitance values of the tone generator caps
as they age. Also, it is not a uniform condition. On my '59 C-3 the
Bb and Eb notes leak noticably more than the others. One presumes
that all the caps do not breakdown the same way or at the same rate,
particularly in older organs (pre-'64) whose caps use wax dielectric
which are more prone to age breakdown. Though some folks (including
me) feel that SOME older organs have more character to their sound
because of aging characteristics of the TG caps.

Mark Longo