help! my hammond M3 sounds like it has pigeons in it!

yes pigeons. i took the cover off of the tonewheel and it sounds like its a mechanical-type noise coming from in there somewhere. this happened to me about 2.5 years ago but it then stopped on it's own. now it's back! :shock:

Any ideas? also, i'm running out of 'hammond organ oil'. anybody know of something that i can use once it's gone let me know please. is it really that critical to have some special super oil on my tone wheel. will it improve my tone? :wink:

Baby, I'm trying to oil my organ up for ya! ow!

The hammond oil has no wax in it. Apparently wax is what makes the threads that carry the oil deteriorate, so you really should stick to the specific product. You can still get it from Goff and other places.

cool. thanks for the tip. i'm going to go fire it up right now and see what kind of noise it decides to make tonight.

ok. it's still doing this weird buzzing whirring pigeon sounding thing. also the Eb key is way out of tune it sounds close to the G that is lower than it. I didn't notice that last night. anybody? any thoughts? In the meantime i'm off to do some research myself.

no new developments. i read a little bit about the tuning. seems like it's based on 320hz something or other. which happens to be close to what the Eb should be I think. Still sort of confused. consider this a bump. I'll probably start actually taking things apart this weekend. If anybody knows any websites or has a schematic I would certainly appreciate the heads up. Like I said before it's an M3. It does this weird mechanical whirring and buzzing. That noise does not come through the speaker. However, one note is affected. the Eb. Thanks in advance.

joe

Take a look at those rods sticking out - those are the other end of each pickup, and if one gets hit it can push the tip into its tonewheel. The wheels are all kind of separated in the gearing by springs, so it wouldn't necessary slow down the whole generator.

Joe - I have a C3 and worked on my previous Hammond A100 so I got to know the innards quite a bit but its been a while since. I imagine the M3 is just a junior version of B3/C3.

Can you locate the source of the sound? Can you elliminate the motor?
Or the clutch? (as source of noise that is)

I assume it starts OK? The starter motor engages well and releases well?
The drive motor wines at a steady rate? If your other notes are in tune and you do not hear pitch varying then your motor is OK of course.

If its one note going off, that is weird because I believe (not positive) that the tone wheels are used by more than one note (fundamental and one or more intervals). Have you tried pushing all the drawbars in and pulling one out at a time? All notes sound on all drawbars?

Its hard to pin down without being there.

As far as the oil, only use recommended Hammond oil. One little bottle will last you years! Unless you have let yours run dry! That will result in noise and eventually the bronze bearings seizing (but it has to run dry for a hell of a long time before that happens. Hammonds are seriously built!).

Listen to try an locate source of noise then get back to us. I'm intrigued.

Jim

it's not the motor. from what i can tell it's coming from deep down inside the tonewheel. if your looking into the organ from the back it''s towards the left side of the tone wheel. It doesn't happen as soon as you power it up but as the wheel gets up to speed it starts to make the noise. As far as the notes and harmonics and stuff...it affects all the Eb keys. I can manipulate the drawbars and make it come and go for the different individual keys. It is the lower (fundamental for some?) tone. the problem is not as pronounced on the higher notes. maybe that helps?

joe

ok. i've got more oil on the way. I never really looked for it before. I was surprised how many people offered it. Is there service information about these guys on the web somewhere? i've yet to find any.

there's a Hammond Web Ring. If you dig into that you'll find a ton of stuff.

Also:

www.theatreorgans.com/hammond/faq/

www.b3groove.org/links.php

Good luck

ok. fixed. one of the pickups was rubbing against one of the rotating wheels. it's fired up now and running quietly. once i'm sure everything is ok, i'll put it back together. thanks all for the help. once i actually got a pair of extra hands on this thing and could look inside it, it was pretty obvious. all of the wheels have orange paint around the edges. the offending one did not. it had all rubbed off. we ended up removing the set screw on the pickup. we then pulled on it with some pliers, while rotating the wheel by hand on the inside until it was able to spin freely. lubed it, and put it together enough to test it. everything seems ok so far. i'm off to take a shower. i smell like hammond organ oil! :sad:

joe

[quote author="funkydiplomat"]
Baby, I'm trying to oil my organ up for ya! ow!
[/quote]

[quote author="funkydiplomat"]
cool. thanks for the tip
[/quote]

[quote author="Scodiddly"]
Take a look at those rods sticking out
[/quote]

[quote author="Scodiddly"]
push the tip into its tonewheel
[/quote]

[quote author="Bluzzi"]
so I got to know the innards quite a bit
[/quote]

[quote author="funkydiplomat"]
from what i can tell it's coming from deep down inside
[/quote]

[quote author="funkydiplomat"]
I can manipulate the drawbars and make it come
[/quote]

[quote author="funkydiplomat"]
ok. i've got more oil on the way
[/quote]

:shock:

OK, I'd better quit before CJ busts me for quoting again!!!

I win!

Those pickup settings affect the overall tone of the instrument - apparently there would be a whole voicing process by a single technician, and you can find that tech's initials on the generator somewhere.

i think i need another shower after all that dirty talk. :roll: