SK-1 and 2 Tips, Tricks and Other Cool Stuff.

[Pa Gherkin]

Thanks

[Spider76]

Just noticed that there's a recent system update (March 27th) on Hammond.eu website. The US site seems to be down, or else I have problems accessing it.

 

Can't find any description of the new firmware (bugfixes? New features?), anybody has news about it?

[JMcS]

There is a readme file in the zip file that covers several releases since the last one on the Hammond US site.

 

Remember to save a Whole Setup before installing the update.

[larryj]

I just downloaded an update from the Hammond USA site and it seems to me that the only different file is called mainV1621.sys which replaces mainV1619.sys

I wonder what It does... if anything. Any clues, JMcS--you font of all wisdom!

[JMcS]

The Hammond EU website has a newer release (8.7) than Hammond US. The readme lists a few bug fixes and improvements between 8.4 and 8.7.

 

http://www.hammond.eu/Support/SystemUpgrade

[Agu]

Hi everybody, I am Agustin, from Agentina. I have an SK 1 hammond digital organ and i am thinking of buying an Ocean Beach midi drawbar controller to add it to the keyboard ( maybe I d attach it somewhere at its side ). Mi idea/need is: playing organ in split mode, to control each drawbar configuration with different sets of drawbars.But, before I face this plan : Can this be done? To internally assign it on the SK1. Thanks a lot in advance.

Best

[Delaware Dave]

Hi everybody, I am Agustin, from Agentina. I have an SK 1 hammond digital organ and i am thinking of buying an Ocean Beach midi drawbar controller to add it to the keyboard ( maybe I d attach it somewhere at its side ). Mi idea/need is: playing organ in split mode, to control each drawbar configuration with different sets of drawbars.But, before I face this plan : Can this be done? To internally assign it on the SK1. Thanks a lot in advance.

Best

The MIDI implementation is not well explained as it focuses on NRPN implementation rather than CC#'s. I THINK that you set the drawbar unit to channel #1 and set each drawbar 1-9 to cc#'s 21-29 respectively. I got it working using my Voce Midi drawbar unit, it just took some experimenting to figure out Hammond's weird implementation.

[Agu]

Hi Dave. I will explore that; when you say youve got it working, do you mean you've achieve the same thing I intend to do?.

[Delaware Dave]

Hi Dave. I will explore that; when you say youve got it working, do you mean you've achieve the same thing I intend to do?.

yes. i used the 9 drawbars on the hammond for upper and the midi drawbar unit for lower manual drawbar control.

[Agu]

[Spider76]

Sooo...my old SK2 was beginning to show the signs of time plus, I never really liked the purple sides. I had a few days to spend in quarantine and some spare contact paper.

Put these factors together, and the result was...

[Dockeys]

Jeez that’s a lovely colour. Oak/American oak? Was it hard to do around the corners? Was looking at doing something similar to my legend live but you can’t take off the end cheeks without major effort unlike the sk2. Nice job. 👍

[Spider76]

I don't know the color, I had this roll of wood-grain dc-fix lying around, yes probably oak or light walnut.

The rounded corners are the worst, I couldn't manage to do them perfectly, but good enough I think. The flat parts and sharp corners are easy and come out great.

 

But it took me a couple of days to do everything with the sides disassembled, I can't imagine having to do it on the fully assembled instrument...it must be a nightmare and probably the result won't be as good, unless you're a master wrapper (which I'm not).

[Dockeys]

It’s a great job all the same. I got a custom B3 style stand made for the legend. It’s still that very pale wood like the end cheekS but still too pale for my liking. Will attempt to sand and stain a hidden section to see how it turns out before doing the whole lot. Fine work. 

[Mighty Motif Max]

That looks fantastic! Definitely an aesthetic upgrade!

[Pa Gherkin]

Looks really great. Outstanding work.

[Spider76]

Thanks guys, but it's not really the flawless work I'd have liked. The are more than a few creases on the rounded parts and some junctions and overlaps are quite visible from up close.

But from a meter away it looks very decent, and from an audience perspective a few meters away, it looks great!

Oh, and of course there are no gigs now so problem solved!

🤣

[Charleston]

Nice!

[Joe P]

Hey Folks,

I want to screw a half moon gigger switch to the front rail of my SK1 down by the lowest notes.  Has anybody done this?  In particular I am wondering if there is space for a screw to penetrate without damaging something.  The screws will be short, they will probably only penetrate about 1/8".

 

My gut tells me there is nothing there.  Also, if anybody has opened their SK1 and knows what, if anything, is in that area that would be helpful too.  I couldn't find anything on SK1 but here is a video on an SK2, and the front rail of the top manual looks a lot like the SK1:

 

https://youtu.be/h7prIaDvFOY?t=3

 

Thank you,

Joe

 

[Spider76]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:13 PM, Joe P said:

 I am wondering if there is space for a screw to penetrate without damaging something.  The screws will be short, they will probably only penetrate about 1/8".

 

My gut tells me there is nothing there.  Also, if anybody has opened their SK1 and knows what, if anything, is in that area that would be helpful too. 

 

I think there should be plenty of space, but the best way is to remove the left side panel of your SK1 and look and measure yourself. It's just a matter of removing a few screws, no need to disassemble the whole instrument.

If you're willing to drill holes in the chassis, unscrewing the panel should be the least of your worries.

Especially because you'd have to to it anyway afterwards, to clean and remove the debris and metal filings: you definitely don't want that stuff messing with the circuitry and keyboard contacts!

[Joe P]

Spider,

Thanks, I think I'll do that.  And removing the filings didn't occur to me, thanks again.

[Spider76]

36 minutes ago, Joe P said:

Spider,

Thanks, I think I'll do that.  And removing the filings didn't occur to me, thanks again.

 

You're welcome, no problem. YEs I think it's very important to remove all debris from drilling, and in general clean the inside of the instrument once you take the trouble to open it.

First of all, any small particle can get inside the bubble contacts of the keys. Every key has two contacts that regulate high-low trigger point and velocity. If one of those contacts is inactivated by something getting inside it, you will lose one of the two trigger points and velocity for that key. If both contacts get dirty you will lose all functionality from that key.

 

About metal filings, absolutely get rid of them! Anything small and metallic can go around the insides and end up on exposed circuits, possibly shorting them. While dust and non-metallic particles can at worst silence some keys, metallic/conductive debris may kill your whole instrument for good!

[FreshTrooperXBL]

On 3/7/2022 at 1:13 PM, Joe P said:

Hey Folks,

I want to screw a half moon gigger switch to the front rail of my SK1 down by the lowest notes.  Has anybody done this?  In particular I am wondering if there is space for a screw to penetrate without damaging something.  The screws will be short, they will probably only penetrate about 1/8".

 

My gut tells me there is nothing there.  Also, if anybody has opened their SK1 and knows what, if anything, is in that area that would be helpful too.  I couldn't find anything on SK1 but here is a video on an SK2, and the front rail of the top manual looks a lot like the SK1:

 

https://youtu.be/h7prIaDvFOY?t=3

 

Thank you,

Joe

 

 If you haven’t already done the half-moon switch add-on, it is 100% possible to do this on your SK1, I opened my SK1 up to see how I could go about making wood end cheeks for it and I saw empty space. Two concerns: dust (as mentioned by Spider76 above) and “tapping” your screw threads for machined screw …be sure your buying the right self-tapping machine screws.
 

Anyways, here are those wooden end cheeks from about 6 years ago (early 2016). I used red oak since it’s a hard wood and resists dings and dents. I stained with “Gunstock” by Minwax (I think just one coat did it) and then sealed with clear polyurethane. I found that this stain is very very similar to the stain Moog used with their Moogerfoogers when side by side with one. Moog forumites suggested that the Moogerfoogers were done with Ash since it is local to the Moog factory …but the stain pretty much brings all lighter woods to the same general ballpark (even my red oak found in hardware stores on the west coast).

 

My next project is turning the SK1 into a SK1.998 by chopping up a cheap 49 key MIDI controller or an Alesis Micron and Frankenstein’ing it to the SK1 as a lower manual.

[Joe P]

Thanks for confirming Trooper.  I'll probably take the end off anyway to vac out any filings.  Thanks for the tip on the screws.

 

You end caps look awesome! 

[Joe P]

Well, success on the half moon install.  This is a big deal for me because I've been playing my NE2 through a MiniVent controlled by a Gigger Half Moon for several years.

 

The job was easy, although the metal of the rail was a little soft, so over-torqueing the screws could defeat the tightness of the connection.  But it is solid.  Even if it did fail, I'm pretty sure I could fish a nut behind the rail and do a nut and bolt connection.

 

I'm gonna get another Gigger Half Moon for another project.  I'll be sending my Hammond M3 into a Fender Twin through a MiniVent with an Organ Grinder.  Sounds pretty kick ass and volume is unlimited.

 

[Rob Henry]

Has anyone hooked up a boss rotary pedal to the sk1.   If so, how was it?  I can get one for a great price, instead of the very expensive hammond Leslie pedal plug in.    Thanks.  

[dhmpan]

Hi

I am new to this forum, I live in Greece and I recently got myself a SK2.

I am not much of a keyboard player, I consider myself a guitar player, but it was a lifetime's dream.

My problem is that the instrument when shipped must have got some serious shocks.

It came in its black soft case, which was well extra padded but when I opened it I noticed something ticking inside, like something loose, the corners were chipped and two buttons were misaligned and stuck. One of the screws of the cu1 was missing-perhaps it was not even there from the beginning. (see pics and video).

I had to open it.

With ease I returned the switches to their positions.

Now I am left with 4 little plastic pieces and the chipped corners.

Where did those come off?

What do you suggest for the corners?

I guess I can find a screw somewhere, and for now the cu1 works fine with one only.

 

The instrument plays and feels great, apart from those optical and dubious problems....

 

[jpgxk3]

Sorry to hear about the rough ride it had in transport. Those 4 white pieces of plastic look like small excess tabs from the bottom of the white keys? I don't think it will affect the playability of the instrument. Hopefully someone with experience working on keyboards will chime in. 

[FreshTrooperXBL]

On 8/27/2022 at 9:47 AM, Rob Henry said:

Has anyone hooked up a boss rotary pedal to the sk1.   If so, how was it?  I can get one for a great price, instead of the very expensive hammond Leslie pedal plug in.    Thanks.  

I’ve only hooked up a DLS Effects Rotosim pedal (not the newer DLS Effects RotoSPIN) and it was an interesting alternative, but not better overall than the SK-1’s internal Leslie. The Rotosim was already somewhat old by the SK-1’s time IIRC. Also hooked up a Neo Ventilator 2 (ie “Vent 2”) …of course amazing. Even with a little reverb from the SK-1 (which gets Leslie’d by the Vent 2) it sounded amazing. The Boss RT-20 twin pedal was 2005-2006 Leslie algorithms, already old by the time the SK-series was released in 2011. It might still be an interesting sound.

 

 

dhmpan …some of the plastic pieces may be from the “standoffs” of the button assemblies (ie your 2nd, 3rd, Fast, & Soft buttons). Pretty sure the grey buttons are elevated above a simple switch mechanism and it looks like the switches are still working. The 3rd button looks like it is broken however. I’d open it up and see what it looks like. The plastic pieces may be able be super-glued back on so that the Fast/Soft buttons are at the correct heigh again. OR those 2 buttons are stopped / jammed up at the moment. 
I had a similar issue with my Fostex MR-16 hard disk recorder a few years ago …the buttons “fell in / got squashed in” when I stupidly tossed a microphone stand over the top of it after a jam session. I took it apart, looked at the assembly, and used standard superglue to fix the 2-3 buttons (it’s held and been working since that fix in 2015). The Fostex MR-16 is on borrowed time overall since I bought it in 2007-2008.

 

If I were in your shoes I’d consider doing a “wrap job” like Spider76 did with their SK-2 or consider making wood end caps (as I did for my SK-1). It looks like only the corners are damaged and it looks the caps are 100% functional. If they are cracked near the screws are then this is not the case …then it would be time to consider finding replacements or go the custom route. The SK-1 has metal sides underneath it’s plastic end caps, with machine screw threads (I seem to remember the OG machine screws were 1/2” in length, I replaced with 1” or so). I took the screws to the big-box hardware store and found where my screws matched their fittings. I think the SK-2 may or may not have metal mounting brackets on the side of the plastic caps, but it should still be a doable job with some planning.

[Ewilson]

I am new to this forum.  My SK1 will not sound from middle C down.  Has anyone else had this issue.