NewImprov Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 My band had an out of town gig the other night, and it turned out the club had a house Hammond rig, an A-100 and Leslie 122. The soundguy said I could use it, so we set it up, but on starting it up, no sound. I could hear that the tonewheels were spinning, and could see the Leslie spinning, just no sound regardless of preset, drawbar setting or pedal position. Soundguy said it had worked 2 nights before for a weekly gig. Since it looks like we'll be playing there again, any ideas for troubleshooting this situation? I'm no Hammond expert, but I have a basic idea of how it's supposed to work and where all the components are. Quote Turn up the speaker Hop, flop, squawk It's a keeper -Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 Look for dark or cold tubes in the organ preamp, and the leslie power amp. If you have a set of headphones and a couple of small jumper cables, you can hook them directly to the A A output terminals of the organ preamp, to isolate the problem to organ or leslie. Other than that, it never hurts to have a spare leslie cable with you. Quote Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 Have you started an old Hammond before? If it was a problem with the Leslie cable and Leslie amp I would expect the A100 internal speakers to still fire. Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewImprov Posted August 17, 2019 Author Share Posted August 17, 2019 Have you started an old Hammond before? If it was a problem with the Leslie cable and Leslie amp I would expect the A100 internal speakers to still fire. Yeah, I owned an M3 for years, and have a BCV/Leslie 30 that is currently being restored. The clubs A-100 was pretty funky, the internal speaker had been removed, and the start switch was replaced by a stompbox-style footswitch. But it seemed to be spinning up correctly. Quote Turn up the speaker Hop, flop, squawk It's a keeper -Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 I hate that crap. It would have been way easier to have gotten the correct switch from Tonewheel General or BB Organ but no ......, Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outkaster Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Yeah people are always doing bad mods on this gear. Quote "Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello" noblevibes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elif Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 IME trouble shooting "on the gig" has rarely succeeded unless it is something really simple, like something unplugged. Though under the pressure of a start time, even those have eluded me because - Why check it? I am sure I plugged everything in correctly! Going in to the club (or church) on a Saturday afternoon to go slowly through things has worked best for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Building my first Hammond chop in one week between gigs ended as you might expect. It was super ambitious, with a Combo Pianet built in underneath, generator and preamp in a separate box on the floor with multipin connectors, totally custom 3 tier box. I soldered all day and more than half the night for a solid week, loaded it in the truck for a trip to Wisconsin still unfinished, and soldered for an hour more right before the gig. When it came time to turn it on, it wouldn't start. I had to play the entire first set on the Pianet. Not good. I crawled back under it during first break and found one cold solder joint, which happened to go to the start motor. After fixing it I was on my way... Quote Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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