Bob Ralston 22 All Time Favorites - Hammond Organ , Versatone Footnote

[@Wurlitzer2ify]

Jesse Crawford had to work using his musical ability since the days of the theater organs had passed. He went with Hammond and in the biography of him he mentioned that Hammond kept him in groceries for years. Apparently it was either the popular Hammond vs. the Wurlitzer ES organs that were avaiable for him. Hammond was the most popular and the Company was glad to have him as an employee teaching and promoting their organs.

[@BingCherry11]

Sweet!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for posting this!!!!!!

[@patagoniaaustral5749]

Hermoso, un bello sonido de instrumento. Saludos desde el sur

[@paulj0557tonehead]

@patsaxon I'm going to post a record of Jesse Crawford playing a Hammond tone wheel organ. That guy was a total genius. First of all he mastered the real Wurlitzer pipe organ, then as a supporter of Hammond TW organs he went on to write instruction literature for the Hammond. So many great Hammond TWs. Versatone Footnote - "The Versatone Footnote was a string bass unit similar to the Krueger unit. It added its tone to 20 of the pedals and sent its signal to one of the lower manual drawbars".

[@DonsChocolate]

Played Hammond for years My first one was a A with a DXR 20 speaker. My last two were a B3 with Jr20, w Leslie145 then A100 then I got a Thomas Celebrity 810. One of the best organs I ever played on. Boy do I miss it.

[@Wurlitzer2ify]

Laurens Hammond preferred his organs be called electric instead of electronic. They were mechanical as mentioned, but had electric amplifiers. Bob Ralston played the Hammond on the show when Jerry Burke was ill, and the latter years of the show he played Hammond. Note the difference between the Thomas and Hammond on here. The Thomas has more variety, and the sound is more rich and full. I do miss the Thomas 263 I had. It had some flaws, but most electronic organs are prone to those anyhow.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

I like how Bob pans the upper manual left to right, obviously a post production thing, but they did have to run separate manuals to their own channels. Then again, Bob with that phenomenal memory probably did a second take and cued a solo over dub exact on one take.

[@rebusher]

To William Kenny:The song is "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland," published in 1909.

[@mikebracchi]

paulj0557 What makes the X-66 all together remarkable is the revolutionary technique used in its tone generation, the X-66 was a mixture of tone-wheels and solid state electronics where the 12 note tone generator (normally 91 notes) plays no part in sound production, but instead it's signal is used solely as an 'anchor' or 'reference' for pitch by an entirely different kind of tone generator .... in other words, the generated signals from the X-66 tone wheel generator are not heard. Interestingly the X-66 tone wheel generator is not located in the main body of the console but is down in the bottom pedestal section along with the pedal contacts, reverb unit and main console power supply

[@paulj0557tonehead]

+Mike Bracchi Yeah I've owned and serviced many organs since that comment 3 years ago. Including a mint condition X-66 and series 12 cabinet I traded my Bonvicini Electrochord for. The buyer prompted me with the offer of the X66 not even knowing if I played organ or not. It came with the Leslie 122 kit and black 1/2 moon switches. He bought it working and was frustrated when it didn't function when he drove it home 3 or 4 States. When I got it I quickly investigated the Leslie adapter. Sure enough the Leslie mini-din socket had a cold solder joint. Shame on you Leslie! The pedals had trouble when I got it too. Just some bad switching capacitors. The previous owner switched out the 12 tone wheel generator and replaced it with the TREK TRANSPOSER. The flipflop tone generation of the X66 is really nothing unique in principle, other manufactures like Thomas, Wurlitzer, and Baldwin also used a 12 tone generator divided flipflop system, which then became a single Master Oscillator tone generator system. I also have a Gulbransen Rialto II from 75'-76' that uses 12 IC tone generators for the draw bars and a Single Master Oscillator for the non-draw bar voices. The X66 tone wheels are each individually distorted, or clipped into a single square waves and the output is STABLE BECAUSE WHEN CLIPPING JUST 1 FREQUENCY THERE IS NO CLASHING, JUST A PURE SQUARE WAVE SIGNAL IS GENERATED. Okay, this is when it all clicked for me. However, even though everyone says that this generated square wave is really of no consequence whether it is done using a master oscillator chip ( TREK TRANSPOSER and the mid 70's MASTER OSCILLATOR Wurlitzer, Gulbransen, Hammond, Thomas, etc organs), OR distorting a tone wheel sine wave into clipping using a transistor following that tone wheel like on the X66 ( times 12 for the 12 note scale, then divided down)...I STILL think that reference or not, that tone wheel DID originally generate that tone, distorted to a square wave or not. I realize it's 6 one way and 1/2 dozen the other, but I'd love to sit and play my TREK TRANSPOSER X66 right next to playing an original 12 TW system. In theory they should sound identical....but we all know about theory and music. Still for arguments sake I will now join the ranks of every engineer that swears they WILL sound identical...but I'd still like to do it. Regardless, my X66 is the most amazing engineering wonder I've ever seen or heard, and I own it! Have added Wurlitzer Brass Horns to the Orchestral Tabs ( non-draw bar). The percussion voice tabs ( Xylophone etc.) really are amazingly real sounding.

[@Wurlitzer2ify]

I was a very loyal Hammond fan for many years. You could say that I had a love/hate relationship with them. I just grew tired of them after so many many years of playing them in churches. The mainline church I played for nearly 10 years had the modern C3 bought new. I began playing it 5 years after it was purchased after a minister and his wife moved. It was the same as the organ was "hers." I have had 3 spinets by Hammond, and don't want any more. The record above is Ok. Thomas is best.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

@Wurlitzer2ify Laurens was a purist. The tone that was generated was pure voltage, albeit small. When I was a teenager I'd go to super loud rock concerts and stand there thinking, '' That little hair fine wire is carrying the signals of those guitar strings and that singers voice''. This is why amplification design is probably the most important step in the chain of electromechanical instruments like electric guitars and Hammond organs, and Wurlitzer ES organs. All 3 sound better w/ TUBE current

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Andy, I didn't know this about the X66. So there are just 12 higher pitches that are divided down? That is what the top octave synthesis that followed was all about except instead of tone wheels generating this fundamental frequencies it was IC's doing it. I'd like to take another look at an opened X66 to see the TW generator. So to sit down at an X-66 is a different kind of experience huh'?

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Isn't interesting that on a Hammond where the Leslie is only turned for for about 1/3 of the songs, it sounds more striking, and you also get to witness how AMAZINGLY VERSATILE THE HAMMOND ORGAN IS WITHOUT THE LESLIE! Hammond always offered SEPARATE VIBRATO/CHORUS for the Upper and Lower keys which is very awesome, but they really should have had SEPARATE KEYBOARD MANUALS- UPPER OUT, and LOWER OUT. It s very striking having a LESLIE on one keyboard and the other be without it. The STEREO EFFECT is awesome. And most organs like this allows either/or manual to go to the Leslie, or both together. My 65' WURLITZER 4300 is like this. It's an extremely professional sounding little fully transistor beast

[@skipcabrol3769]

I have this album that's great

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Cool! It's nice hearing Bob in his earlier days playing Hammond. I was happy to find this album that day at the Columbus, Ohio Salvation Army.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

@patsaxon I didn't know until I looked it up that the X-66 was introduced in 67' and the X-77 came out 2-3 years later. The X-66 cost twice as much as the X-77. Look this up on Google> 'scribd Hammond Organ Models' it has all the Hammond models and how much they cost and other stats all the way up to 1970. It was put out for the technicians.I'm with you on this Pat, I too would rather have a tone wheel organ with other voices too. So why would you rather have an X-77 than an X-66? I like 66

[@AndrewGilbert56]

Guess they wanted to do something with the stereo, as a one-take C3 and PR40 is pretty much mono! So two overdubs, one left and one right. As for the X66/X77 question, it's a matter of taste, and the Hammond purist wouldn't choose either! The X77 is not your standard tonewheel console, and the X66 isn't really a tonewheel organ anyway. Just 12 wheels generating top octave frequencies for the electronics to do the rest. Given the choice, I'd have the X66 in a heartbeat. Andy G

[@AndrewGilbert56]

OMG, yes! It's unlike any other Hammond. Drop me a direct email - it's on my website if you haven't already got it - and I'll send you some links that will give you more info than you'll ever need! Andy

[@williamkenny5267]

Does anyone know the name of the tune after "Ill Always Be In Love With You"? Thanks!

[@Wurlitzer2ify]

Hammond preferred their organs be called electric not electronic since they were mechanical for the most part, and didn't use tubes in the generators such as the other brand of organs.

[@michaelbogdanowicz5059]

Overall I still like the b3 for the rich organ tones you can always add an extra keyboard for different sounds

[@paulj0557tonehead]

And of course all Hammond Tone Wheel organ supply the same great Hammond tone wheel sound, but the '3's ( B3, C3, RT3 FULL CONSOLE MODELS, and M3 SPINET MODEL) and the 100's ( A100's full console models, and M100 spinet) models EXACTLY B3's, just less keys and pedals on the spinets.

[@obscuritymaster1880]

9:43

[@davidcarson4421]

Hammonds have the same issues as organs that divide down from master oscillators.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Well yes, in a sense. In that every tonewheel is a precise dead-on frequency. However, only the Hammond X66 has a direct parallel to the 12 oscillators divided down organs [see Jan Giradot Master Organ List PDF , for listing of all organs and their tone generator type] since it uses just 12 tone wheels for the highest octave then divides down, unlike traditional Hammond's with 91 tonewheels. My 1958 Conn 815-Classic has 166 individually-tunable oscillators at 8'. That's two 61 key manuals 32 pedals equalling 154 and one octave of the highest pitch on the upper swell manual. When tuning the organ I randomly adjust each note +/- four or five cents and some spot on. This gives the organ a nice ensemble effect. Also my Conn 815 Classic has the optional 'Celeste' tab. Most electronic organs after the mid 50's have some kind of Chorus/ Vibrato and sometimes Celeste (basically a slow chorus is similar), and or Leslie rotary speaker system.

[@davidcarson4421]

@@paulj0557tonehead I also once owned a Conn with a raft of vacuum tubes and an associated Leslie. I don’t recall model numbers, but I bought it because of the individual oscillators (previously had a Lowery). Strings were on a separate channel that used fixed speakers in the Leslie. The organ, with all its tubes, was the only electronic equipment I ever owned where the main problem was burnout of the tube heaters. In the twenty plus years I had it, it never seemed to need tuning, but maybe I have a tin ear.

[@michaelbogdanowicz5059]

What the heck is a verasatone

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Iirc it's a string bass voice for the pedals. In comments somewhere. I uploaded this years ago. Any single oscillator tone generator can be pitched into 13 to 25 notes if they are played only-one-note-on at a time. Then it's voiced like a string. However I'd personally rather put a real bass string and an electric bass guitar pickup ( like 2 string wide Fender Jazz Bass Pickup) under the pedal board and mechanically fret all 25 notes with linkage from each pedal. A solenoid could both pluck and dampen before and after the pedal depressed. You could get fancy and use an inner knee 'sostenudo' (sp?) lever to control dampening if you wanted to sustain a note.