From davido@lynx-wms.com Tue Oct 17 13:18:59 2006
Subject:UK Hammond Tech - Much Praise!!!

Just thought i'd praise up a UK based Hammond technician/supplier on
this group for a change, for those of us that can't just stick our
rig in a car and take a drive to Dover PA! :)

If your here in the UK (or even Europe i guess?) and you need
anything Hammond or Leslie related, then have a look at
http://www.retrokeys.co.uk/.

They recently gave me a happy ending to a very sorry tale, such that
i thought i should share with the group. I know it's not real
relevant to most of you, but it's an interesting story all the same.

I had some work done by another UK tech (i'm not going to say who,
but if your in the market for a split leslie, be very, very
careful!!!) The job was to split my old Leslie 760 cab and replace
the amp with a "custom" made 147. After waiting nearly 4 MONTHS and
listening to copious excuses, the end result arrived via UPS.
Unfortunately, the leslie had more faults than the guy had excuses,
the chief problems being:

the amp wasnt fitted in the cab, it arrived wedged between the
baffle and the back of the cab..seriously!!!.
The lower baffle was split, with the weight of the amp crashing
against in transit,
the so called custom made amp was a piece of junk, with too many
faults to even bother to describe here.
the crossover was broken and the relays were all incorrectly wired,
such that the Leslie was attemtping to defy the laws of physics by
connecting up the upper rotor with only 5 pins and crimping the +
and - slow motor leads into a single outlet from the
motor control in the amp.!!! ?
The wiring in amp was also totally dangerous, in fact there was
more chance that i would spin on tremelo had i ever plugged into it.

So, i contacted Retrokeys instead, after getting some VERY qualified
reassurances i might add, and i gave them the job of sorting it out
for me.
Well, Mark, the owner, personally collected this sorry piece of wood
and wires from my house, replaced the custom amp, with a brand new
stock 147, replaced the baffle, rewired the cab, replaced motor
bearings and belts etc, fitted the relay correctly and built a speed
switch pedal with a connector for my XK3 and delivered it back to me
inside of week. What's more, he charged me less than i'd paid in
deposit for the original "work".

I took this Leslie out to a couple of gigs this weekend and it
sounded really, really good. The rest of the band applauded me after
the soundcheck, i'm not kidding... but they were applauding the
sound rather than the playing i might add! I know everyone's
experiences vary, but i've never had this high quality of service
from anyone in this particular market place before, such that i just
had to stick something up here to both show my appreciation to
Retrokeys for a first rate rescue job and to give a heads up to
anyone who might have need of a good tech here in the UK. Mark also
has some very nice C3 chops for sale at an unbelievable price, he
had one in the van when he delivered the Leslie and it's attractive
and built well. I could even lift it (well one end at least..)...
i'm saving my gig money already...

Before i upset anyone, let me say, for sure there are many good and
qualified technicians here in the UK, but unfortunately, there is at
least one that is extremely dodgy also, so tread carefully folks.
Mark and Retrokeys are without doubt, fore runners in the former
list... Brilliant Job!

UK Dave - spinning and smiling :)