I got it! The story and the questions...

[Theo Fokkema <badmuts@weirdness.com>]

Hi list!


After an easter weekend full of troubles i am glad to say that i am back on
the list. I'll tell you the story from the beginning...

The fever started on Thursday already... trembling hands, sweat, etc... I
was going to get my tonewheel Hammond on Saturday. After I finally had
arranged some strong friends, a car and a trailer, we left my home early on
saturday morning with beautiful weather. We drove for an hour and found our
destination quickly. The sellers invited all of us in and offered coffee,
and then the conversation was about classical organ music. One of my strong
friends had brought Bach music with him, and the sellers wanted to hear him
play before the organ left. We decided that it might sound better through
the Leslie on Chorale speed, so they went to get the Leslie from another
room while I fired up the organ...

I played a few notes, then stopped because the leslie was carried into the
room. A few seconds later: a VERY loud 50 Hz buzz for 1 second, then: nothing!
I did not think he would put the plug in the Leslie that fast, he had not
thought that the organ was switched on... he put the plug in the wrong way,
so the speaker got 220 V, 50 Hz for a while...
When we plugged in the Leslie the right way, the rotor did not turn anymore.
The sound coming from the Leslie was soft, way to soft, and crackly. When we
switched to the organ speaker everything sounded OK again. We had blown the
Leslie speaker and the (only?) fuse in the organ!

After a lot of "it was an accident, really nobody's fault" talk, i decided
to buy the organ and leslie anyway and to look for a new speaker. After we
had shorted the fuse in the organ (yes, I did put in a new fuse afterwards!)
the leslie started spinning again... pfew!

We had to move the organ down with an elevator, which went surprisingly well. 
Not even elevator overload problems!
After we secured the reverb springs and the leslie motor for transport, we 
loaded the organ and the leslie on the trailer, the organ lying on its back.
I paid and we were about to leave when i thought of: the bench!
Well, the guy said they wanted to keep the bench. I started staring at him,
i did not expect that. His wife said "take the bench, for the pain of the
blown speaker...".

We packed the organ and leslie on the open trailer in plastic. I told my
friends not to tape the plastic to the organ case...
We left and drove to the highway. Dark clouds began to pack above us and the
wind started to blow. The plastic came loose, so we had to stop. Then it
started raining. When I wanted to secure the plastic better, i discovered
that on one side the plastic was taped to the organ case... when i peeled
the tape off, some of the veneer came off with it... I really started to
lose my temper...
The same friend who wanted to play Bach had not heard me saying not to
attach the tape to the organ case...

Well, when i had finally attached the plastic better, the bad weather was
already over again and we drove home and unloaded everything. 
Then my friend and I started puzzling because two of the pedal tones were
swapped. We ended up with four swapped tones, then i did the puzzling on my
own and finally attached all pedal wires correctly. Then we started cleaning
30 years of sticky greasy dust from the inside of the organ... What a job!
We took apart the mechanism that cancels the other tabs when you depress one
tab for the "upper presets", because it didn't work well. Yet another
puzzle, but it works fine now. We swapped the Reverb I and Upper Drawbars
tabs and then found out why they had probably been swapped: the Drawbars tab
had been broken and glued together again, and then been swapped with the
Reverb I tab because the drawbar tab requires more force to push it down
(because of that mechanism...) and the Reverb I tab is not switched that much.
Still I hated the sight of a Reverb tab with the upper presets tabs, so we
swapped the lower and upper drawbars tabs and put the reverb tab were it
belongs. I still want a good tab, Steve L. do you have one for me?

When I started the organ again... an awful, screechy sound from the tone
generator! And the lowest G on the lower manual did not work anymore, it
only rattled a bit. The rest of the tones still worked fine. I didn't know
what that was. Maybe lack of oil? Judging from the oil cups, which had the
same amount of dust on them as the rest of the organ, it hadn't had oil for
years. I thought: Let me ask the Hammond List what to do.
When I logged in to my ISP's computer, i got "Account Expired"... WHY TODAY!
WHY JUST TODAY! And I couldn't call them, they were closed because of easter!!!

The screechy sound disappeared when the room got warmer, I have not heard it
since. Still that generator needs oil, but I don't have any. Not even sewing
machine oil. I had to find Hammond oil. Had to wait till after easter, when
the shops were open again. I decided to visit a friend who has 2 L-series
organs. He used sewing machine oil. I didn't want that... anyway, he had
just bought a beautiful Leslie 142...

He showed me how to oil the TG motor: his had two small cups where the oil
goes in. When I got home, I discovered that my motor does not have those cups...

I demolished an old "Hi Fi" (ehem!) speaker, and temporarily mounted its
too-small-but-full-range speaker in the Leslie, so at least i have a Leslie
effect. Have visited some shops yesterday and concluded that i can not
afford a new speaker for my Leslie at the moment. I am afraid that the first
cheapo cheezy organ that I see on the next flea market will not be safe in
my hands...

So here I am. I have switched ISP's, was tired of the lousy service of the
first one anyway. I can play the organ, it sounds great and I already enjoy
it, but i still have some questions:

- What kind of speaker can I best mount in my Leslie 110? Impedance?
- Is sewing machine oil really that bad? (Have to drive quite a few miles
just to get an expensive bottle of Hammond oil!)
- What can that screeching sound have been? One slipping tonewheel? How do i
solve it if it comes back again?
- How do I oil the motor?
- Why does my generator run that much noisier than my friend's? All oil?
- How do I remove one key from the manual? I have one key that seems to
stick. It feels like there is some sticky greasy stuff under it. I removed
the one screw that is screwed in a little copper plate at the end of the
key, the key comes loose then but i can't take it out to see what the
problem is.
- Does anyone have a tab saying "Drawbars" for me?
- What is the pinout of the Leslie? And what is the pinout of the organ? Is
the Leslie cable a 1-on-1 cable?
- What is the pinout of the Leslie output of an XM-1? I intend to build an
interface myself so i can use the Leslie with my XM-1 too. Any hints?
- How are the speakers switched when I put the switch to "ensemble"? Are the
two speakers in the organ and the Leslie speaker switched all in parallel?
Can the organ amp take that?
- Is it normal that some of the tubes light up very intense for a second
when i switch on the organ? They glow normally afterwards. Everything works
fine.
- Do european tubes have different type numbers than american tubes? Which
tubes do i have to look for when i need new ones?

I know, this is a lot... I am so glad this list is there... wouldn't know to
whom to send this mail otherwise!

Inspired and puzzled,

Theo Fokkema
Proud Tonewheel Hammond Owner!