From clarkeguitars@yahoo.ca Mon Jan 09 09:08:20 2006
Subject:Re: Found: A Tonewheel Hammond

A couple of thoughts:
I have an old Aurora spinet at home for practicing, with the built in
Leslie. When you start it up, that Leslie rattles a LOT like a
tonewheel, so make sure you pop the back off and ensure there is a
real TWG in there.
IMO the best deals can be found on an M-3 or A-100. A friend recently
picked up 2 M-3s - a perfect '58 (literally in an old lady's house),
with bench, barely a scratch on it for $250, then a couple of months
later scored a '55 "roadwarrior" that needed some refinish work, for
$100. Yes they are spinets, but they are the 'real thing'.
And I just missed an A-100 for $1500. BTW, these are Canadian prices too.

> >
> > I know the Concorde, looked at one last year, and it was not tone
> wheel. It bore little resemblance. I tend to trust my ear memory more
> than my eye memory, and I heard the tone generator start up. If I
> hadn't heard it, I would have certainly walked away... fast. I'm
> probably dead wrong about the pre-sets. Thanks for the comeback
> >
> > _A_
> >
> > holsen5629@a... wrote:
> > << The R-series does NOT have preset (inverse) keys, IIRC. If it
> had
> > reverse keys and four sets of drawbars PLUS colored tabs, I'm
> thinking that it's
> > something more along the line of the Concorde or Elegante. In that
> case --
> > caution: I'm not sure that these were tonewheel Hammonds (vs.
> solid-state
> > oscillator Hammonds). >>
> >
> > Bruce:
> >
> > The R-100 was the only tonewheel console with a built-in Leslie
> module. H
> > owever, Hammond apparently thought the Leslie was an adequate
> substitute for
> > vibrato, so this series does NOT have a scanner. Of course, this
> means there is
> > NO chorus vibrato either. The R-100 was an "entry-level" home
> console for
> > previous spinet owners, pro users will be disappointed by it's lack
> of usable
> > features. Don't pay a premium for one.
> >
> > Harvey Olsen
>