Hammond Skx PRO, Reference Manual, Page: 407 / 754

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CUSTOM SETS - Tone Wheel
t Creating your own Custom Tone Wheels
As stated earlier, the first three Drawbar Voice Modes - “A-100,” “B-3” and “C-3” - are designed to reproduce
the sound of traditional Hammond Organs. Within each of these three Voice Modes are three different
settings designed to reproduce specific characteristics of vintage Hammond Organs.
During the time the vintage Hammonds - B-models, C-models, A-100, etc. - were being manufactured, each
individual organ was subjected to a very rigorous series of checks and tests to insure the quality of each
unit, and to insure that all the units representing a particular model series, such as the B-3, all sounded
alike. However, since the very newest B-3-type organ is at least 46 years old - production of tone-wheel
organs having ceased in 1975 - and since the vintage instruments long antedate digital technology, they are
dependent for their sound on analog components. Several factors such as the rate at which different
components age, the fact that similar components used different materials throughout the lifespan of the
model series, etc. may affect the sound of a particular unit. Thus, a B-3 manufactured in 1959 may well
have a slightly different tone than one made in 1969, not necessarily because of the year but because of
slight differences in component values among other factors.
Over the years, a great deal of arcane folklore - a great deal of it falling into a category best described as “old
wives’ fables” - has sprung up regarding such topics as the superiority or inferiority of this or that period
of time during which vintage Hammonds were manufactured, the superiority or inferiority of types of
materials for certain components, etc. Some of these differences do exist, but as noted above, they are
more likely to be the result of factors not necessarily having anything to do with the age of the instrument.
Many characteristics of the Hammond Organ, especially as heard in much jazz and rock music, have to do
with the overall condition of the instrument - whether it has been in a home for the bulk of its life and
played only rarely, whether it has been used by a touring musical ensemble and been moved frequently,
perhaps even dropped occasionally, or even whether it has sat in a recording studio with sporadic or no
maintenance, etc.
Because of these many factors - again, some real, some contrived - and because different people therefore
mean different things when they say “Hammond Sound” or “B-3 Sound,” the Custom Tone Wheel feature
is included to allow you to find the nearest approximation of what you want your “Hammond Sound” to
be. The following pages will explain the feature in more depth.
SPECIAL NOTE: The characteristics of Drawbar Voice Types “Btype1" and Btype2" apply equally to all
Hammond Organs based on the B-3 design, which includes models B-3, C-3, A-100 series, RT-3 and D-100
series. Contrary to popular myth, there is NO inherent difference between a B-3 and a C-3 - they were
manufactured to the identical specification except for the cabinet design. The A-100 and D-100 had slightly
different circuitry due to the need to drive self-contained speakers; however, they were calibrated the same
as the B-3 and C-3 so that they sounded identical when connected to either an external Hammond speaker
or an external Leslie Speaker. For the sake of brevity, “B-3" will be used to refer to all models based on the
same platform.
To access the CUSTOM EDIT -TONE WHEEL FUNCTION Mode, do the following:
1. From any of the PLAY Mode Pages, press the MENU/EXIT button. The Information Center
Display should now look like this:
The “COMBINATION” box should be highlighted.
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SKX PRO Reference Guide