My organ is not full time present in the Schnauzer Studios, because of all the live-gigging going on. Last Monday I had to carry the thing in for a rock-project that had to be finished this week. To do a mic-check (and also to finally do some schnauzer-recording) I allowed myself to fiddle about for 2 minutes . I added a drumloop and added some reverb, and presto, the next summer hit for the Schnauzer Radio Orchestra was done.

Hammond Fiddling

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

My new years resolution is becoming true now. I bought this 1963 Hammond organ in January this year . And it took sjaak up until yesterday to finish it. So it was transformed from this lovely sweet lady:

into this beast:

The organ comes in two cases now. One for the tone-generator, and one with the keyboards and amplifier. All the contacts, soldering contacts, wires, -you name it- are brand new. The inside looks shiny, as if I walked into a music store in 1963 and bought this thing off the shelf.
Speakon connections on the back to hook it up to 2 leslie cabinets. All the keys have been painstakingly modified, felt and action has changed.
I’ve been playing it for 10 minutes and I played some lines that I normally never could do. (I swear this is true) The very first chord gave me goosebumps.

Of all the organs I played in my life, this has to be my nr. 1, and the good part of the story is: it is mine!

To clarify this story: this feels like playing a 50$ guitar for 20 years and suddenly you have a Gibson es335 1963 in your hands.

Now comes the funny part: I’ll be having an incredibly busy weekend, doing gigs all over, but I’m not allowed to bring a Hammond organ to those concerts: ‘Rob, we really need a philicorda sound this Sunday’ I couldn’t make this up.