Hammond Piper

Very easy to use. Turn it on and it goes.

Lovely keyboard action, good for doing glissandi. A nice old organ sound. Actually, I was thinking of gutting the thing, and placing my old Yamaha DX21 keyboard inside (with midi capabilities), then plugging a new Hammond organ module into it. That way I can have a cool retro looking organ, and a modern, fat organ sound.

Like most have said, the drum beats are fun, very retro/disco-ish.

Must be 30 years old, so it must be reliable!

I've always wanted a Hammond, so this is brilliant. Plus it was free, like a few others who commented, I also rescued this one from someone who was throwing it away.

No software available
Reasonable sounding presets
No editting allowed
Good manual

Total polyphony (analog) Average keyboard action
Banjo and sustain easy to use
No expansion
No Midi

Organ sounding instruments
Works well as an auto play organ for eight different styles
Analog effects make it good
Reacts great to playing
No velocity or aftertouch

Still works great after 28 years
Would use to back up others

Hammond doesn't exist, No support Dont need any
No uprades....WYSIWYG

Good little console autoplay organ for general fun use

Pre-sets sound typical for this type of instrument. The Lowery and the Thomas versions sound so much the same. Tonal range is limited, but fun to listen to. Mine came with a complete set of Music books and instruction manual.

Polyphonics limited to the Chord tonal ranges, setups. The Melody section of Stops is "Next Highest Key overides" (monophonic). Several different Auto Rhythm setups possible, and Auto-Chord also. No Expansion or Midi capabilities, or Sequencer. Easy to play single Keyboard.

The machine sounds a lot like some of those "Magic Organ" albums that were available on the "Ranwood" label a few years back. Auto-Chord Organs were very popular when they were introduced by Hammond in the late 60's. It is strictly a Family instrument made for Family Sing-a-longs. Playing this organ is a lot of Fun. The Built in Recorder is a Plus.

I also own a large Hammond model E Concert organ, but rarely play it anymore since this little Hammond came into my life.

Having it repaired would be no problem for me. (should it ever need it) I am a Broadcast Engineer (retired) and can repair most electronic devices. I also have a complete service manual for this instrument. The Hammond company is now owned by the Japanese Suzuki electronic company. I do not know if they provide service for this organ, but several parts can be obtained at BB Organ company.

I saw this instrument on the Roadside waiting for the Trashman to take it away. The Owner saw me looking at it and said I could take it if I wanted it, and that it has not worked in 20 years. It looked dusty, but complete and not even a scratch on it. He helped me to put it in my Blazer and I hauled it home. I founf the Power chord badly chewed up, so i took the back off and put on a new one, turned it on and everything worked except the Tape recorder. I put a new belt on the recorder, cleaned it up, and have been having a lot of fun with it ever since. I play it more then my Big model E Hammond now. The only thing I do not like is how cheezy it was built. I modified several moduels to get the slight Hum and contact pops that could be heard. Now it sounds brand new. It has a complete set of factory supplied Music books that are easy to read. My 12 year old just loves this organ. I would definatly buy one if I did not already have this one.

A monkey could be a maestro on this thing. Piece o' bleedin' cake. The presets, of course, sound nothing like their namesakes, but that's the name of the game here, and it's a wonderful thing. This is your typical bargain basement cheez machine, and for what I paid for it ($5.28 incl. tax on 1/2-price day) I can't miss.

Very basic but very groovy. It's a neat-looking machine too, with fab colors on the preset keys and a curved fabric front panel. It is fully polyphonic. Be aware these weren't built to the most demanding quality specs, and over time, these things can get pretty filthy inside. Clean the contacts and you're on a good track to rehab, if yours is on the fritz.

The "Western" beat is almost comically simple, but at a high tempo, it sounds very vintage Disco. The sounds are very lo-fi; the drun beats have that organ-accompaniment analog drum machine cheezeball sound, which I dig, so bully for me. It's not a terribly expressive machine (it wasn't built for that) but the "Dynamute" preset, like another reviewer said, can give interesting results, especially when coupled with the Mallet Vibraphone on hi-speed vibrato.

It's kinda heavy, but not in the way of monster organs, but then again, it's not real roadable either. I hauled it home in the back of a VW Rabbit (with the hatch open) so it can get around if you must, but I bought it for a studio oddity, which is what it's best at being.

Huh?

It's a BARGAIN. Bargains make the world go round, and for a goofball rinky-dink machine that doesn't do anything tremendous but certainly has its own charm, I'd grab another at the same price in a heartbeat. I love how cheap & cheesy it is.

it's too simple of a machine to give even the novice any troubles. all the controls are right in front of you and labeled clearly.

i can't recall the polyphony of this instrument right off hand, but i know i can hold down at least 8. it has a vibrato on/off switch for both the bass keys and the solo keyboard. it has a slider to control built in reverb and on on/off switch for that. the on board drum machine gives you a choice of 8 different beats with a slider for tempo control. you can choose to have the beat play automatically or just when you hold the bass keys. you can also choose to have the bass keys follow the beat or just drone.

the sounds are what you would expect for this laughably affordable machine: switches for trombone, piano, sitar, banjo, etc. none of which sound much like any of those instruments at all. but when you see this instrument at the thrift store you won't buy it because you are looking for a replacment for your sax player . . . its sounds are great if you are looking for simple leads. all the sounds can be layered, also. it has an interesting "dynamute" function that is basically the trombone patch with an interesting envelope applied to it.

another useful (maybe/maybe not) function is the built in tape recorder.

depends on where you got it and how its been treated. it's pretty chinsy.

i rate it so high because i love it and for a lousy 8 bucks, there is no reason not to buy one if you find one.

The actual use coudn't be easier, though finding just the right voice setting can take time. YOu just select a voice by flipping its switch down. Everything actually works by moving it down, (that's right kids, down is louder on this thing, down means more reverb, down means faster rhythms.) which is weird, but no big deal. Black key=bass, white ones=solo. You can't customize or tweak much of anything, so it never gets complicated, except from a taste standpoint.

There are two bass settings (Bass and String Bass), and the only difference between the two is that String Bass doesn't sustain, while Bass does. There are a bunch of different voice setting, grouped into two categories, solo and percussion. The solo voices also will all sustain if you hold the keys down, and your choice of Trombone, Accordian, Flute, Violin, Trumpet, and Dynamute. NOne of them sound anything like real instruments, but they're pretty decent sounds, and you can combine them in any way you like. Dynamute is a sort of way-envelope sound, but it only works as a new attack, so if you're holding down any key, it's just a normal tone. The purcussion stuff decays at varying rates, and there you can choose Piano, Harpsichord, guitar, sitar, Mallet Vibraphone, and Banjo. These last two also sustain indeifnitely, and have a controlable repeat rate. You can choose Vibrato, and delayed vibrato. THere are bucnh of really cheesy rhythms, and you can either have it play a bass and chord pattern alongside, or you can just play the bass keys while the drums play. It's fully polyphonic, but they keys'a re pretty plasticky and not real sensitive. It mostly works for drony stuff. My only complaints are that turning on the reverb puts reverb (which does sound great, I'll admit) on everything, including the bass and drums, which kind of make them sound weird, and you can't control the vibrato at all. It does have separate volume for each section and then the whle thing is controlled by a pedal volume as well, which is cool. It's got a pretty limited range of stuff on it, and the keyboard is pretty small, which kind of sucks, but it's still decent.

Not one instrument sounds like the real thing, but they all sound pretty cool amd you can stack them any way you like. Piano+Trombone+flute gives a nice mellow pipe organ-y sound, especially with vibrato, and the vibraphone sound is really cool. Harpischord and sitar are pretty harsh, which is cool, and adding reverb to them, you can get some pretty retched tones, but it never screams or anything. It's loud, but it never sounds like it's being pushed at all. It's not real sesitive to your playing, but I'm not a great player either, so whatever. It's one of those "anyone can leasrn to tplay the organ" organs, and it sounds like one, but they're all definitely usable tones. Youre just not going to get a huge freak out out of it

It's too heavy to bother takig to a gig, and it's a little bit broken down right now - some of the keys don't work on certain voices &c, but for something that's going to get put in your living room and record, it's more than enogh in terms of durability

It would be kind of hard to lose, but if somehow I did, I'd miss it. I don't use it for writing music so much as I just play around on it. I feel a lot more creatvie when I play my Crumar, which sounds a lot better and has a lot nicer touch, but having something like this to play instead of watching tv is awesome, and my housemate has sampled it and gotten some really nice stuff from it. I'm more into free-soloing than I am into songwriting anyway, and even though this is capable of tru e madness, it's nice. At 10 dollars it couldn't be anything but an amazing deal, but it's hardly a professional calibre instrumwent. BNot like I usually tend to be into professional caliber instruments anyway. I bought it for the name, and it doesn't have the sound that made the name famous, but it still sounds pretty damn cool mand it looks awesome, and it's self-contained - nothing to hook up every time you want to play - so yeah, I'm totally psyched to have it. Every home should have one, just to fiddle around on.