Chord Organs

Hammond Chord Organs generate their tones using electronic tubes (a.k.a. "valves") and coils. These organs have 96 buttons on the left for playing chords with one finger, a three-octave polyphonic manual on the right, and two bass pedals for playing the tonic and fifth of the currently buttoned chord. The chord buttons are arranged in a 12 x 8 button array similar to that used on stradella bass accordions. One column in the array for each note in the octave from D# to Fb arranged in fifths. Each row in the array plays a variety of chords including (from top to bottom) maj 6, 9th, maj, min, 7th, dim, aug and min 7th.

There are tone tablets to modify the timbre of the sound and knobs to adjust the relative volume of the bass, chords, and melody (top key being played). A couple of relatively odd performance inputs are the rhythm bar, which allows the player to give rhythmic emphasis to chords with the bottom of the left hand, and the expression bar, which allows the player to change the overall volume with the right knee.

Chord Organs included Models S, S-1, S-4, S-6 & S-100

Model S-112 Traditional styling in Walnut

Model S-133 French Provincial in Cherry

Hammond Chord Organ Manuals at http://archive.org:

Playing Instructions

Owner's Service Suggestions

Service Manual

Source: TheaterOrgans.com

TopicHammondModels