Latest gear you've acquired.....

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat May 08, 2021 10:58 am

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:59 am
Picked up a 1958 Hammond M-3 organ.

Super stoked!!!

I got some oil for it, and once that is in, I can go through it and see if it needs any repairs.

It looks mint. One previous owner, sat in her living room for decades. She passed, her son had to get rid of it.

The oil cost me more than the organ, but I still need to fire it up and see what else needs replacing.
Great score! I found one for a norther Ontario studio I work out of a few years back. It was free to a good home. Same deal as yours, one owner who had passed away and the family wanted rid of it. The tonewheels we're seized when we got it. I spent an afternoon soaking it in WD 40 to free up and desolved the gunk. Then cleared out the WD with contact cleaner. Then oiled it up. All I could taste was solvents for a day or so afterwards. It's worked like a champ ever since.

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sat May 08, 2021 11:39 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 10:58 am
Great score! I found one for a norther Ontario studio I work out of a few years back. It was free to a good home. Same deal as yours, one owner who had passed away and the family wanted rid of it. The tonewheels we're seized when we got it. I spent an afternoon soaking it in WD 40 to free up and desolved the gunk. Then cleared out the WD with contact cleaner. Then oiled it up. All I could taste was solvents for a day or so afterwards. It's worked like a champ ever since.
Just remember to oil it up once a year... or it gets messed up again.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat May 08, 2021 1:18 pm

Yep. There's an ongoing maintenance log in the bench now.

drumsound
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by drumsound » Sat May 08, 2021 2:27 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 10:58 am
Nick Sevilla wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:59 am
Picked up a 1958 Hammond M-3 organ.

Super stoked!!!

I got some oil for it, and once that is in, I can go through it and see if it needs any repairs.

It looks mint. One previous owner, sat in her living room for decades. She passed, her son had to get rid of it.

The oil cost me more than the organ, but I still need to fire it up and see what else needs replacing.
Great score! I found one for a norther Ontario studio I work out of a few years back. It was free to a good home. Same deal as yours, one owner who had passed away and the family wanted rid of it. The tonewheels we're seized when we got it. I spent an afternoon soaking it in WD 40 to free up and desolved the gunk. Then cleared out the WD with contact cleaner. Then oiled it up. All I could taste was solvents for a day or so afterwards. It's worked like a champ ever since.
My story is similar to both of yours. Decesed church organist's family selling an M3 before they moved. $50 out the door. I'm about due to for an oiling. I have a Leslie 147 and a combo preamp to pair it with. Total prized possessions for me.

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by Nick Sevilla » Sat May 08, 2021 5:34 pm

drumsound wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 2:27 pm
My story is similar to both of yours. Decesed church organist's family selling an M3 before they moved. $50 out the door. I'm about due to for an oiling. I have a Leslie 147 and a combo preamp to pair it with. Total prized possessions for me.
Remember to use the "official" oil.

Here:

http://www.tonewheelgeneral.com/build_p ... erator+Oil
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by drumsound » Sat May 08, 2021 8:55 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 5:34 pm
drumsound wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 2:27 pm
My story is similar to both of yours. Decesed church organist's family selling an M3 before they moved. $50 out the door. I'm about due to for an oiling. I have a Leslie 147 and a combo preamp to pair it with. Total prized possessions for me.
Remember to use the "official" oil.

Here:

http://www.tonewheelgeneral.com/build_p ... erator+Oil
Cool, thanks. It looks like Goff is no longer in business.

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roscoenyc
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by roscoenyc » Sun May 09, 2021 8:29 am

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 8:59 am
Picked up a 1958 Hammond M-3 organ.

Super stoked!!!

I got some oil for it, and once that is in, I can go through it and see if it needs any repairs.

It looks mint. One previous owner, sat in her living room for decades. She passed, her son had to get rid of it.

The oil cost me more than the organ, but I still need to fire it up and see what else needs replacing.
An asset to any recording studio! Congratulations.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Fri May 14, 2021 10:31 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:23 am
$50 beater parlour guitar. I don't need it but can't resist 50s-60s American cheap-o guitars. I think it's a Jackson Guldan out of Ohio. Who knows though. It came without tuners but I had the right set in my junk drawer. Thinking about doing the Jeff Tweedy rubber bridge thing with it but will likely live with it a bit first.

Image
Further update on this guy. I gave it a quick and dirty neck reset (a big wood screw through a strap button in the heel and into the neck block), wired in an old Kent pick-up I had lying around and set it up with flats. The bolt behind the tailpiece is to pull it towards the body so the strings break across the bridge at a decent angle. It's pretty great this way. It's got a real Stella vibe acoustically but the longer scale length is much better for me.

Then today.....out walking the dog I garbage picked a bike tire and cut myself a rubber bridge. I've still got some finagling to do with it but I'm playing around with it for a while before I invest more time. It's definitely an interesting sound. Very much like strumming on a classical or baritone uke. I can see the appeal but I don't see it as something I'd use all the time. At the moment the bridge is just two strips of tire stacked together. I'll probably go down to one strip and glue it to a bit of wood so it's easy to swap in and out.


Image

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by vvv » Fri May 14, 2021 10:47 am

Rec'd the Audiosavings 50' XLR cords, red and blue. They'll work, decent XLR's, cord is flexible altho' thinner than some but just fine for in my house.

Also scored two round base mic stand on Moronic Deal of the Day. I already had folding triangle base stands and those are better and more stable but take a lot of room when set up, and folks trip on 'em when space is tight ... like in my living room when I have 3-4 guys jamming, especially when there's traps.

Because I think of others' work as a resource, I'll mention I picked up The Cult's Sonic Temple box set. Very interesting to compare that with the remastered Love and the two versions of Electric in it's box set. Steve Brown/Spike Stent vs. Drakoulias/Rubin/Wallace vs. Bob Rock.
bandcamp;
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by losthighway » Fri May 14, 2021 9:45 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Fri May 14, 2021 10:31 am
Then today.....out walking the dog I garbage picked a bike tire and cut myself a rubber bridge. I've still got some finagling to do with it but I'm playing around with it for a while before I invest more time. It's definitely an interesting sound. Very much like strumming on a classical or baritone uke. I can see the appeal but I don't see it as something I'd use all the time. At the moment the bridge is just two strips of tire stacked together. I'll probably go down to one strip and glue it to a bit of wood so it's easy to swap in and out.
Cool. You getting that Ode to Joy vibe from it?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat May 15, 2021 8:28 am

It's funny, I don't know that record at all. I'd read about the rubber bridge thing but had never really heard it in practice before this.
It's an interesting sound. I don't love it enough to leave this guitar set up for it all the time but it takes seconds to swap out the bridge. I could probably even swap it on the fly in a live situation.

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winky dinglehoffer
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by winky dinglehoffer » Sun May 16, 2021 8:56 am

So my wannabe mixer/8-channel preamp doesn't have phantom power, so I needed something external. I picked up a Stewart 4 channel phantom box on the cheap, thinking it couldn't be that bad, right? Well, it was. Besides have super-crappy electrolytic caps installed, it delivered a different voltage on each channel--ranging from 50V up to 62V. Unacceptable. But I already had it, so.....

I dug out an old linear 48V supply that had been sitting around for a while, and an old project box I've had for even longer, and I got to work. I recapped the Stewart, removed components I didn't need, & rewired it to receive 48VDC instead of 24VAC. Installed the power supply in its cute little box, with connectors for up to 4 devices. (I may mod the PS a little further--a power indicator would be a useful touch.)

The Stewart is still a little cheap feeling, but it gives me 48 volts now, which is vastly better than it did originally. And I have one or 2 more crappy phantom units that I may make over to use with this setup. There's certainly an element of the ridiculous to this project, but it works, and I had the parts lying around, so why not?
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CraigS63
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by CraigS63 » Sun May 16, 2021 9:27 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 8:28 am
It's funny, I don't know that record at all. I'd read about the rubber bridge thing but had never really heard it in practice before this.
It's an interesting sound. I don't love it enough to leave this guitar set up for it all the time but it takes seconds to swap out the bridge. I could probably even swap it on the fly in a live situation.
That is a new idea to me. I wonder if you could just get a piece of rubber tubing (the length of the bridge), slit down the side and wrap over the top of the existing saddle?
Might be interesting on electric bass as well.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon May 17, 2021 5:44 am

CraigS63 wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 9:27 am
That is a new idea to me. I wonder if you could just get a piece of rubber tubing (the length of the bridge), slit down the side and wrap over the top of the existing saddle?
Might be interesting on electric bass as well.
In researching it I came across this guy's work (and his fantastic blog) -
https://jakewildwood.blogspot.com/2019/ ... ridge.html

He started by putting shrink tubing over a traditional floating bridge but I don't think it was getting him where he wanted to be. He ended up cutting a new bridge from a truck tire. I think getting it to work by putting something over the existing bridge would jack the action a fair bit.
There were also all those import guitars from the 60's that had felt mutes you could engage. They tended to screw up the intonation though.

On bass, a bit of foam or sponge under the strings in front of the bridge does the job for me.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by losthighway » Mon May 17, 2021 11:59 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 8:28 am
It's funny, I don't know that record at all. I'd read about the rubber bridge thing but had never really heard it in practice before this.
It's an interesting sound. I don't love it enough to leave this guitar set up for it all the time but it takes seconds to swap out the bridge. I could probably even swap it on the fly in a live situation.
I'm a super fan so I was quite taken with it. Even if it's not your jam the combination of heavy, mulitlayered, minimalist percussion parts and hushed instruments is fascinating for an engineer/arranger/producer.

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