Free Hammond M3... good idea or money pit?

[trodden]

I've been offered a Hammond M3, with leslie.... I have little space.. but damn that would be so bitchin' to have... I've already spent A LOT of money getting the FREE one inch tape machine up to working order... Will this be just another money pit? And instead of spending the money and the space, just get one of those schmancy NORD keyboards that supposedly does all kinds of fun organ sounds?

I've not checked it out yet.. but of course i'm told "yeah, it works fine, its awesome, been gathering dust for years though" which the "been gathering dust...." aspect raises my brow....

Any similiar experiences out there?

[Electro-Voice 664]

i say get it. i have an m3 leslie 145 combo and it is pretty great. hell for free ditch the m3 in the front lawn of yr enemy and just keep the leslie. i dont see it as a money pit as much as a space hog. i have actually owned several m3's over the years and they are built really well. most just need a little help rotating the tone wheel if anything ... but a nord would be nice ... just not free

[drumsound]

Take it. The nickname of the M3 is the Mini B.

[llmonty]

Heck yeah Trods! Agree that the leslie is the thing that you should be more interested in. For the music you record a hammond may or may not be cool. A leslie is a space hog, but they sound awesome, really there isn't much to them expect a broken belt, and they double as an entertaining end table. Put a lamp on it. A computer monitor. Speaker? Classy.

[Nathangrn]

I just got an M3 for $60 off of craiglist a couple weeks ago. They sound great and are pretty much bulletproof as long as they are oiled. If it's been sitting for a while, some oil (Hammond oil only) and a little time should be all it takes to get that organ running. There are a lot of mods out there to make it more B3 like. You can also part it out on ebay because a lot of parts work on B3s. They are really heavy (250 lb) so you may have to bribe a friend with some beer to move it. Harbor Freight has a piano dolly for around $10 that you may want to pick up. The Leslie alone is worth it.

[accordion squeezist]

You're cramped for space, but get it. It doesn't take up that much room. You'll pile shit on top of it when it's not being used, no big deal. A lot of records were made with that thing.

[trodden]

Awesome. Thanks everyone.

And those of you who mentioned the "furniture" "stack crap on it" aspect... TOTALLY..
I've already started relocating a few things that sit on some rather large shelves, and some of those things can EASILY rest on the organ/leslie.

I also just started playing in a band, doing keys/samples, which is based on Dario Argento's movies, mostly Susperia and Inferno.... so yeah, some cool organ will be great on the recordings... now just gotta save for the NORD on stage version!!! however i think i have some CDROMS for my EMU E-IV that may work..

[accordion squeezist]

ad hoc. Here's the thing...
Hammond M was not designed for a Leslie; you've been offered a Leslie with it, so somebody's obviously done the work for you...making it compatible.
There are a few ways they could have done this. Without going into details, one way allows you to put a gain device (in my case I used a cheap ART tubePAC) before the power amp. That gave me an incredibly driven sound, already compressed for recording.

[Sean Sullivan]

Take it. I picked up a free M3 off of Craigslist that had been sitting in a garage for several years and it fired right up. Sounded really great. If it works with a Leslie, it's been modified to do so. I think it's a can't miss.

[Bill @ Irie Lab]

If you don't record music that suits a Leslie - well, get hip!

Seriously, gear like that should be preserved.

If you don't see it as an asset in your pursuit of the muse, that's cool.

Keeping an old Hammond in playable condition is a specialist job anyway but maybe you could let it live in your garage for a while and offer it for free on Craig's List to a deserving keyboardist or donate it to a music school.

The right musician can make danceable magic or bring tears to the faithful,

Bill

[Bill @ Irie Lab]

BTW - I found the M3 manual on the webernet here:


http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/pdf/h/ham ... e_info.pdf

[Nathangrn]

Here is a much better manual.

http://www.archive.org/details/HammondO ... MM2M3M-100

[trodden]

If you don't record music that suits a Leslie - well, get hip!

Seriously, gear like that should be preserved.

If you don't see it as an asset in your pursuit of the muse, that's cool.

Keeping an old Hammond in playable condition is a specialist job anyway but maybe you could let it live in your garage for a while and offer it for free on Craig's List to a deserving keyboardist or donate it to a music school.

The right musician can make danceable magic or bring tears to the faithful,

Bill

oh trust me.. i'm gonna bring in some sweet organ into even undanceable music!

[0-it-hz]

Good idea = YES

Money pit = YES

have fun.

[Yosh]

Yeah, the M3 that resides at my studio was quite a bit of work to get running well. That's because at some point it was moved carelessly and the tonewheels were nudged out of position, some wires were broken too, but now its working great. I put money into new tubes and that's about it, so it was really just my time.