Hammond E-312

I picked up a free Hammond E-312 since it did not work.  The E-3XX organ was produced from 1965 to 1969.  It has a single set of drawbars for each manual, presets, full pedal board, percussion, and reverb.

All of the chassis had significant corrosion as did the tube contacts.  The motor starting capacitor leaked and there was quite a bit of oil inside. The percussion did not operate and was due to a 700 ohm resistance between the percussion busbar and ground.  I did not want to remove the upper manual so I modified the circuit to operate with one side of the busbar grounded.

Leslie 25

I also picked up a Leslie 25 for free. The Leslie is complete but needed moderate work including refinishing the top.  I sanded the top to remove the bad finish being very careful to not go through.  I finished the top with eight brushed coats of gloss lacquer, wet sanded with 320, 400, 600, and 1500 grit, and then hand polished.

The Leslie 25 is single speed rotor with a 12" speaker and 20 watt amplifier. It was manufactured in 1963 as dated from several components. It was quite dirty,  covered with cigarette smoke and spills, but it cleaned up pretty well.  I've removed the Leslie 25 amplifier and installed it in my Leslie 45 which has both a lower and upper rotor.

The speaker is a classic 12" Jensen with a date code of 1959.

The Leslie type 28 control had one cracked 50R ceramic resistor and an open diode in the brake circuit.  I replaced the cracked resistor with two 25R 25 watt resistors.  Their case temperature gets well over 300º F when the brake is on.  Hot!

The Leslie 25 amplifier was also covered with cigarette smoke.  It cleaned up pretty well and needed no repairs.

back