Organ growl?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:38 pm

ok i'm a keyboardplayer and yes i agree nothings like the real thing.... given that... a buddy recently bought a hughes and kettner pedal that's a tube overdrive and leslie sim.... and it's very surprising...

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:37 am

Im pretty sure there is more to it than just turning a B3 up loud as possible. I read somewhere something about adjusting the trimmer capacitor, but i really dont know for sure. I want something like Gregg Rolie's organ in early Santana (I only hope that he used THAT model, unlike everyone else apparently).

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:41 am

What did Gregg Rolie in early Santana do, because it can't just be turning it up all the way could it. Can't one perform an internal adjustment or something?

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:45 am

MadMax wrote:

Ahhhh yes... the allusive B3 growl.....

Traditionally, it's a natural overdrive of the Hammond and the Leslie... more overdrive of the Leslie amp than the Hammond.

You can try re-amping the audio through an external amp, or even overdriving a mic pre.

IMHO, doing the growl externally will have a more realistic "natural" sound than doing something like a ITB preamp, distortion effect, etc.

The "best" is to snag a Leslie and overdrive it's input.

X

Im somewhat confused on this overdriving thing could someone elaborate?

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:06 am

yeah he did the overdrive thing... much like a guitar amp if you hit it with too much signal it distorts in a somewhat pleasant way when your using tubes... i worked on them for awhile and never heard of a triming capacitor in them...

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:58 am

what is the "overdrive thing"? Am I supposed to turn the amp up all the way or something? I need the specifics.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:30 am

Every amplifier has a maximum voltage it can produce. Below that voltage, if you turn the volume up you just get a larger version of the input voltage. If you turn it up enough, the peaks of the signal hit the maximum voltage like your head hitting the ceiling (you have run out of "headroom"). Turn it up more and the peaks of the signal get "clipped" off. At this stage the amp is overdriven. Depending on the amp this can sound good or bad. On a Leslie it has a characteristic sound that people like. Listen to Steve Winwood in the Spenser Davis group doing "Gimme Good Lovin.'"

You can get an overdriven sound with low volume if you overdrive one stage or amplification (say a preamp) while leaving a later stage (say a power amp) at low volume.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:36 am

To add to what BR said, you do have to crank a Leslie pretty hard with the expression pedal on a B-3 to get that OD. Thia was pretty mandatory for organists who were competing onstage with loud guitarists. The reason players ended up replacing the internal amps oln the 122/147 with guitar amps (Hiwatt, Marshall, Fender, etc) was because they not only provided more power, but the input stages were more sensitive and easier to overdrive from the organ's output.
BTW, if you want some help on this, you might contact Richard Goodsell @ www.superseventeen.com and see what he can advise you on. These days he's making boutique geetar amps, but, he really has his roots in the Hammond organ biz.

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