SamuelBLupowitz

Yes, another idiosyncratic Hammond player question for the group! Does anyone have a throne or stool they like that gets to a good height for playing Hammond? I’ve sat on a drum throne when gigging on keys for years, and I have my boards set at a height that works for it. But my A100 at home sits a little higher up than is comfy for the throne, and I’d love to be practicing how I perform a little more. My A100 bench is great but it makes it a little tougher to turn sideways and play piano in rehearsal (also it’s the perfect height for a little computer shelf next to the organ). I know I’ve seen band keys players like Gabe Dixon, Kofi Burbridge, and Lee Pardini with comfy stools for this — even if sometimes they stand to play Hammond anyway. Anyone on the forum have reliable favorites?

Thanks all! I will try re-seating the tubes and doing a pass with deoxit. The tubes are all new since I got the A100 in 2020, but I do have backups of everything just in case. Though honestly I wouldn’t mind the extra gain if it were just consistent!

Hey all, Something I’ve noticed with my A100/147 rig is that sometimes (not all the time) when I start it up, I’m getting a higher volume output, and a much more overdriven sound (which I really like, even if it’s not appropriate for everything). Then after playing for a few minutes — not sure if it’s something I trigger or if it’s just the amount of time the organ runs — the volume drops down and the distortion goes with it. At both levels I can adjust with the normal/soft switch, so I’m not sure yet if it’s the organ or the Leslie or the cable or what… but I wanted to see if any of you more experienced Hammond folks recognized this issue off the bat. Thanks friends!

I really need to try the footswitch-on-expression-pedal method. No matter what keyboard setup I have, footswitch or hand switch, I always wind up being one limb short for changing the Leslie speed when I want to.

I was surprised and quite pleased when I recently discovered that The Darkness were active again (and had been for some time); I stopped following them after their initial split in the late aughts. They’re kind of ridiculous and embrace it and they rock so hard. Their debut, Permission to Land, came out when I was in eighth grade, and I wore it out the way you can only wear out a CD burned for you by a buddy who bought it on iTunes. Ah… memories. Also, their current drummer is Rufus Taylor, son of Queen’s Roger Taylor. Because… duh.

I’ve got my clav in my local shop right now and we’ll see if my guy can put some life back into the original preamp. But I have thought about getting the Vibanet one as a replacement… the built-in auto wah is a bonus temptation.

Love to see it — right now I’ve got Legend of Zelda over the back of mine. Also do I spy a Vibanet preamp installed in your E7?

My attic-rescue A100 has seen it’s fair share of dust and debris, and while it’s convenient that I can easily access the innards for oiling and such, I don’t love all those components being wide open to the air in my studio. I know they did make back covers for the A100 and I could probably find one online, but if I wanted to drape a band banner, tapestry, blanket, or something else across the back, do I have to worry about overheating or (god forbid) a fire hazard? Figured I’d ask (and potentially get some good stories out of it).

Add me to the list of folks who weren't necessarily big Foo Fighters fans in the diehard sense, but were just gutted by this senseless loss. Dave Grohl is one of the Good Guy Dads of Rock 'n' Roll, and Taylor Hawkins was so famously his partner-in-crime, whether it was bringing some levity and fan-like wonder to self-serious awards shows, or onstage at festivals and stadiums where they wholeheartedly embraced their roles as "music fans with the best job in the world." And in a time when it feels like a lot of folks in the public eye are unflinching in their attempts to divide and subjugate and invalidate people, it seems exceptionally unfair to lose someone who made his mark being joyful, and bringing joy to millions. The alternative music culture that the Foos emerged from (much like, you know, Dave Grohl's "other" band) was very concerned with cultural capital and "authenticity" and being a calculated opposition to an admittedly suffocating mainstream. And I get where that comes from. Nirvana's unexpected, enormous mainstream success was incredibly difficult for Kurt Cobain to contend with. But Foo Fighters -- and I've read that Taylor Hawkins and his unabashed stadium rock fandom was a big part of this -- didn't take themselves too seriously, they just loved what they did and had a blast doing it and never had to act cool to be cool. They were authentic in the truest sense: not staging some sort of version of what a rock band was "supposed" to be in order to make a statement, but simply doing what was fun for them, at the highest professional level. I just finished reading Dave Grohl's memoir a few days before Taylor passed, and he referred to Taylor as his "twin flame," a sort of musical and personal soul mate. It's been a few days, but I'm still mourning that loss for him, and for all of us.

Indeed; Bruce has gone onstage without a set list for decades now. The lineup of the Noisemakers has shifted a bit in the last few years and I can only imagine what training up a new member is like -- you really have to be ready for anything at any time as far as what songs are played and how they're arranged. Still haven't caught a show in-person myself, hopefully one of these days!

The dilapidated house I rescued my Hammond A100 and Leslie 147 from also had a Rhodes Stage 88 buried under piles of junk in the back room. Even I was like "ehhhhh maybe." I was glad when the owner of my favorite local studio picked it up instead. I wound up using it on a session for my wife's solo album, and even after it was cleaned up, boy did it have some issues -- I had to come up with a sparse, thoughtful part to get around all the dead and sticky keys! The song had one big climactic moment on an F chord, which was great, because the low F key stuck, so you got exactly *one* low F per take.

I've heard Kofi Burbridge use the clav to great effect on some gentler Derek Trucks Band material, he uses it with a slow wah sweep for a sort of diggeridoo (sp?) effect on "Already Free." You can get really creative with that instrument outside of the usual Stevie Wonder funk stuff, especially when you bring effects into play (phaser, reverb, delay). That can give a little more life if you're doing something like "picked" arpeggios or "strummed" held chords. You can wind up with kind of a Beatley clean, trebly electric guitar sound. So yeah, I love clav as a secret "where's that guitar coming from;" it really shines when driven hard through a tube amp. I know you'd be using a virtual instrument rather than the real thing and that tone can be harder to nail, but I often use it to trade or harmonize lead lines with the guitarist I play with (including a cover of Steely Dan's "My Old School") as well as more typical heavy guitar stuff like power chords and blues shuffle patterns.

I've been the only person in a rehearsal on in-ears. I do it whenever I can, even if I'm just wired to the rehearsal PA and only getting bleed from drums and guitars. It always helps me hear what's going on better than what's happening in the room acoustically, even better than when I use my molded ear plugs, especially since I'm usually right next to the drum kit. Honestly, if missing the between-song chatter is a problem (like when important band members don't have vocal mics), I just pull one ear out until we start playing again. Slightly related, I was just watching some Foo Fighters concert footage, and since I'd recently seen an interview where Dave Grohl talked about how he's been putting up with some hearing loss because he doesn't like in-ears, I was paying attention to the monitor situation. A few of the band members have the ol Arc o' Wedges, but the bassist, lead guitarist, and possibly the keyboard player were all on in-ears. Of course, when you're in a band at that level of success... you get whatever you want!

That's an awesome story! Can I ask where you're located? I'm in central New York state, and there are a few surprising Deep Purple connections in the area, one of them being my keyboard tech, who has a few pieces of gear that were once in the band's collection. According to him, he was on the short list for replacing John Lord when he retired; not sure how seriously I should take that but he did have some things to say about Richie Blackmore! 🤣 Anyway, true or not, it's cool to hear!

Thanks for sharing, I don't think I've ever actually seen a live performance of Kashmir from when he still used the Mellotron. By the Knebworth shows in 1979, he had the big Yamaha Dream Machine synth. Much like Rick Wakeman, he loathed the Mellotron for its unreliability and ditched it the first chance he got. Boy, the keys are mixed criminally low for most of this performance, though; makes the tune a little flaccid. I guess all you need to know about how important to the band John Paul Jones was is to mix him out!

Yeah, real, more portable rotary speakers are very enticing. I'm a big fan of the Motion Sound stuff; I played the old two-part Pro 3/low rotor cab combo in a band once, and I own the KBR-3D which is a solid compromise for a multi-board rig. They're much easier to move than my 147. But it's true, they don't quite sound the same... and also, it's still more stuff to carry. But I'll keep an eye on this anyway.

Here's JPJ grooving his butt off at the 2007 Zep reunion at the O2. Some great shots of him working the bass pedals (in some very stylish footwear!). This is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin jams; I have covered it in a LOT of bands. That clavinet part is so much fun.

As someone who doubles on keys and bass, JPJ has been one of my musical heroes since I was 13 or 14. I truly believe he was Led Zeppelin's secret weapon (there was nothing secretive about the other three). His keyboard contributions are always so thoughtful and deliberate... and boy, he can lay down that Motown stuff on the bass. I also blame him for my obsession with bass pedals and otherwise trying cover more parts than I should at the same time onstage. But he had a way of doing it that was solid, unobtrusive, and elegant. I'm still working on that part. I also enjoyed getting to witness a more modern take on his Zeppelin bassist-doubling-on-keys-and-other-weird-string-instruments role when he, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme teamed up for Them Crooked Vultures in 2009. I was always bummed they only made the one album, but they're all busy guys.

Dude, congratulations. May it bring you joy for many years.

My A100 is one of the most abused organs I've ever come across (it was a gig rig in 70s and 80s, and we're talking clubs, not stadiums), and I still love it!

Yes, John Mulaney, I am indeed hungry for my dreams to become reality. 🤣 Thanks for the share, Joe. I needed that laugh. I was expecting a joke about the Ukraine invasion toward the end, and instead, they doubled down on the ridiculous wish fulfillment.

So I've been having a blast with my new Prologue 8, and one of the unexpected things I'm enjoying about it is how great it sounds in stereo. I'm a sucker for voice spread, the onboard reverbs and delays sounds killer, and I run my piano and organ in stereo anyway. One thing about that, though, is that I use a talkbox on synth pretty often, and my box is mono. The Prologue only has the main left and right outputs (plus a headphone output); there's no way to route patches to different outputs, or pan a mono patch to one output or the other. It's not a huge deal to just roll with mono synth at a gig, but I'm trying to brainstorm ways (just for fun) I could have my cake and eat it in my live rig. A stereo A/B box switching between the synth's stereo outputs and the always-running talkbox? Some sort of effects loop (again, wouldn't need the return with the talkbox, just a way to direct the signal there instead of a mixer/amp)? Anyway just kicking some ideas around on a Friday afternoon. Interested in anyone's thoughts.

I love the idea of Behringer just iterating cheaper versions of sought-after music tech, including when the originals are ALSO clones of sought-after music tech. At one point does Behringer do a clone of their own clone of the Model D, at 1/4 scale, at 1/10th the price, but you need tweezers to twiddle the knobs?

Every now and then another musician, listening to my songs, will cue in on my semi-secret past life as a musical theater composer. Sondheim was and will forever be a creative giant of the 20th century. His New York Times obituary called him "without peer," and I believe that to be true. Thanks for sharing.

In this instance, I tend to heed the advice of the late, great Joe Cocker, and try not to sing on a Kia.