1963 Hammond L-101 Project!
Here's the back of the
organ now that the connector box is complete.
I don't have any half-moon
switches around at the moment, so I dug around in my junkbox and
this is what I came up with. :-)
It's a kludge, but it'll
do for now. And yes, all terminals are fully insulated. Two of
the original back-cover brackets from the L-101 hold an old switch-plate
from an old CV, and its original run swtich. Not the most elegant
thing in the world, but hey, it's just a temporary kludge... ;-)
This little organ is coming
together beautifully. I cleaned all the tab switches and drawbars.
It sounds nice and strong, at least it did when I put the above
pics up. Unfortunately, the power supply filter caps were drying
out, and now have trouble reforming after being off. The result
is a pronounced 60-Hz hum that takes time to subside. I installed
the main amp, vibrato amp, and percussion amp chassis from my
old beater '66 L-112, making the organ usable until I rebuild
the original main amp. I may rebuild the original percussion amp
as well, but the later vibrato amp from the '66 is a little nicer
than the original, so I'll leave that one in it. I added an AC
outlet to facilitate easy changing-out of the main amplifier iin
case of failure.
I also removed the original
expression (volume) pedal and installed the one from the '66 in
it. Post-1964 L-100 series organs used a LDR (light-dependent
resistor) and a lightbulb for expression, the pedal moving a shutter
in between the LDR and lamp. Pre-1964 L-100's used a potentiometer
(variable resistor) for expression, which has less volume range
and is prone to becoming scratchy and dirty. Now I'm getting someplace
with this instrument. I added a bunch of zip-ties to make the
wiring neater as well. I also moved the reverb tank 6 inches to
the right, to get the pickup coil away from the AC lines at the
connector box to reduce hum and noise pickup.
The L-101's Maiden Voyage
