Tubes in "Free" Hammond organ, circia mid 50's?

[tonio19]

I found a guy with an 50's vintage Hammond tube organ missing the power chord, and has a broken key. Free, or best offer.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to check it out in the next day or 2, what little gems "Might" I find lurking in there?
And while we're at it, what "Might" said tubes be worth?
Now I am not really looking to part this thing out for a few tubes, but rather looking for personel use in my own 2 amps.
What were commonly used in these, Mullards-Telefunkin-G.E.?
Am I likely to find anything in the power tube range like 6L6-EL34-KT66, etc..
Or will it more likely have usuable pre amp tubes like AT7-AX7 etc..?
The guy said that he had someone interested in it under the "Free" deal.
I said hey, if it has some tubes that I can use I'll make you a cash offer.
Would you prefer to give it to the first person for free, or the 2nd, who will pay you something?
I'm waiting to hear back from him on this tough ethical decision.
I always understood that a paying customer jumped straight to the front of the line over even 10 people waiting for a "Give me" freebie.
I'll know soon, so what should I be on the lookout for in there?
Tony

 

[studiodunn]

likely a couple 6v6's and some 12ax/ay/at7's

maybe some gems for sure.

 

[Thinsocks]

Sometimes the cabs have some good Jensen alnico speakers. I've got some nice (and cheap) P15N's from old Hammond cabs.

 

[Jason Myers]

The amps can be modded into some smoking guitar amps if you have a good tech around.

 

[Telebluze]

AT7's and AX7's are definitely not "unusable"

.....on the contrary my friend!!!

Good luck!!!

I hope it's loaded with Mullard's, Telefunken's, RCA's, and Amperex's!!!!

Peace,
Ken

 

[8Painting]

Depending on what kind of "free" organ it is I'd check.

You might have hit a goldmine as far as the organ is concerned itself.

Not just the tubes.

 

[Smakutus]

I saw an old Thomas organ on the side of the road. The speakers were junk,1 but I pulled these tubes out of it and got well over a hundred dollars for them back in 07:

Jeff

 

[VintageKnob]

You will need to "dispose of the body" as well - just a consideration

 

[Structo]

I recently bought a 1958 Hammond M3 organ amp on ebay. It is a AO29.

It had a RCA 5U4GB rectifier, two silver top Sylvania 6V6GT's, two 12AU7's, and one lone 12AX7. And another handful of 6** tubes that I'll never use.
I built a push/pull Deluxe/Plexi bastard hybrid amp out of it.

The amps before 1960 mostly have field coil speakers so the output transformer is pretty wimpy on them.
Additionally, they have very high voltage on the power transformers. Mine had 460v out of the rectifier.
I had to use a 130v 50 watt zener diode on the center tap to drop the volts down to 322.

 

[airwarrior]

Isn't the organ worth a bit more than the tubes? I wouldn't mind having nice Hammond organ kicking around. I guess the tubes could be better suited to your guitar amps, but will you replace them?

 

[Pietro]

It may be a money pit, not worth a whole lot actually, except to some hobbyist who wants to spend a lot of time getting it barely playable. Some of the repairs to an old Hammond are really hard and not many people do them well.

I do NOT miss my B3. big, heavy, and, sorry if I offend anybody, but there are emulations and modern instruments that get you there, imho.

Check out http://www.goffprof.com/info.jsp

 

[tonio19]

The guy with the organ just e-mailed me back and said that he is "Still" giving first crack at the organ (for free, mind you, and I offered $$$) to some lady who contacted him 1st.
He said, and I quote: "She has already established a strong emotional bond with the organ".
And then went on to say that he didn't want to cross her, because "he had seen fatal attraction"....?
What-ever?!?
I should know Sat afternoon, if she does not take it then I get it.
Better than flat out: Sorry, it is gone, I suppose.
BTW, how do you form a strong emotional bond with a non-operating old organ (with a broken key and no power cord)... sight unseen?
Maybe Shirley McLain is visiting my small town.
Of course that is just my out on a limb guess...

 

[billdurham]

Again.. the model of the Organ is key. The B and C organs didn't have an amp in them.. only a preamp. M's had speakers in them I think. Does it have speakers in the organ?

BD

 

[turtleheadblues]

The guy with the organ just e-mailed me back and said that he is "Still" giving first crack at the organ (for free, mind you, and I offered $$$) to some lady who contacted him 1st.
He said, and I quote: "She has already established a strong emotional bond with the organ".
And then went on to say that he didn't want to cross her, because "he had seen fatal attraction"....?
What-ever?!?
I should know Sat afternoon, if she does not take it then I get it.
Better than flat out: Sorry, it is gone, I suppose.
BTW, how do you form a strong emotional bond with a non-operating old organ (with a broken key and no power cord)... sight unseen?
Maybe Shirley McLain is visiting my small town.
Of course that is just my out on a limb guess...

LOL She has a strong emotional bond with HIS organ.

 

[Alligator > jam]

He said, and I quote: "She has already established a strong emotional bond with the organ"

Well you can't blame a guy for going with that!

 

[mc5nrg]

Lots of old Hammonds often only need to have the tone wheels oiled/reservoir filled and given some time to lube to work. Not only do Hammond organs sound great, you need minmal keyboard skills to have fun with them.

 

[brlfq]

The guy with the organ just e-mailed me back and said that he is "Still" giving first crack at the organ (for free, mind you, and I offered $$$) to some lady who contacted him 1st.
He said, and I quote: "She has already established a strong emotional bond with the organ".
And then went on to say that he didn't want to cross her, because "he had seen fatal attraction"....?
What-ever?!?
I should know Sat afternoon, if she does not take it then I get it.
Better than flat out: Sorry, it is gone, I suppose.
BTW, how do you form a strong emotional bond with a non-operating old organ (with a broken key and no power cord)... sight unseen?
Maybe Shirley McLain is visiting my small town.
Of course that is just my out on a limb guess...

Good for him. He's a stand up guy and his word is more important than a few bucks.

 

[gaspedals.net]

Nothin's free, sounds like he may want a crack at some nookie for his organ...so to speak. Thats worth more than a few bucks in my book.

 

[SarasotaSlim]

Again.. the model of the Organ is key. The B and C organs didn't have an amp in them.. only a preamp. M's had speakers in them I think. Does it have speakers in the organ?

BD

Don't get too excited about those old tubes. The key word there is OLD. There are very few tubes in a Hammond that have anything to do with guitar amps. Again the model of Hammond means everything. If it's an A100, B2 or B3 or C2 or C3 - those are the ones worth having. Of course if it's an actual B3 you won the lottery but would be better off selling it as is to some Hammond refurb place than spending the money it would take to fix it up. No car - amp - organ from the 50's works perfectly - they all need something. Caps dry out - felts are worn - you name it - it needs it. However - the keys are still needed for transplants so don't toss them - offer it's body parts to a restore place for free before you toss another M model on the fire.

 

[twinrider1]

good for him. He's a stand up guy and his word is more important than a few bucks.

+1