Posted for Jooles:
Quote


What I've been offered for free is a Hammond X-66.

It has things wrong with it, according to the donor.

I've looked it up, and the X66 is a tonewheel organ that uses electronics to reduce the classic 96 tonewheels to 12 only. How it does so is doubtless facinating, but it is the tonewheel mechanism I am focussed on for the present.

By his description of the fault (it was in German, which is about my fourth tongue) it sounds either a simple bad contact or else a rewinding of a bad coil on one of the wheels. I think the organ has often had glasses of beer, if you see what I mean [Linked Image]

What I want to ask is whether anybody here has experience of fixing these things. I certainly don't, though I have a certain rapport with 1960s electronics because of mending old radios, audio amplifiers, restoring loudspeakers, and fixing turntables and tape recorders of that era as a hobby. I also liked tinkering with old 405-line B+W tellies when I was a kid :-) And occasionally I still mend small appliances too, because they are fun :-)

What would cause a "dreadfully out of tune" and a "bad sound" in certain pieces of music on that organ?

There is a Leslie Cabinet that goes with it, apparently, and I've wanted to poke about inside one of those for years. So the spare bedroom already has a "reserved" notice hanging on the doorhandle, and it stays whatever happens :-) If you don't hear from me after 07-Jul then do assume that Household Managment has completed Operation Purge :-).



[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-02-2005).]