Originally posted by --Mac:
Here is a bit of a tidbit for you:
Booker T recorded the original Green Onions cut on a Hammond "M" series "schpinette" organ.
No Leslie.
Mic'd from the back of the open backed organ cabinet, which featured a single 12 speaker facing forward into the players legs.
What many think is the sound of a Leslie is actually the Hammond scanner circuitry at work.
Could it be that Booker T. just didn't have a Leslie at hand when this tune was recorded, so they did the next best thing, and mic'd the speaker?
The scanner vibrato, sometimes called, chorus vibrato, on my M-3 sounded remarkably like a Leslie on "fast"...my Leslie died one night, and I plugged the organ into my Twin Reverb (that was being used for my Polymoog and Wurlitzer piano)...the organ used a pre-amp/switch floor device to get to the Leslie, so I had a 1/4 jack cord coming from the organ, enabling me to go into the Twin.
It didn't sound half bad with the Chorus Vibrato switch in the "on" position, but it was pretty lifeless without it.
The other thing with Hammonds was that you had to oil them every so often, although a lot of them got by for many years without it...pretty tough instrument.
The M-3 was a nice Hammond, except for the shorter keybeds, and, of course, no presets, although the latter didn't matter that much, as I was always "shaping" the bars.
This thread brings back a lot of nice memories...stuff I haven't thought about in years.
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