What Are "Custom Tone Wheels - Hammond A-3 Playing Manual

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u WHAT ARE "CUSTOM TONE WHEELS?"
As stated on page 52, the first four Drawbar Voice Modes - "B-3," "C-3," "A-100" and "Mellow" - are designed to reproduce the
sound of tone-wheel Hammond Organs. Within each of these four Voice Modes are four different settings designed to reproduce
specific characteristics of vintage Hammond Organs.
During the time the tone-wheel 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
37 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 compo-
nents 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 folklore, much of it very arcane and most 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.
The XK-5 has 6 different Custom Tone Wheel settings. Three (3) of these are User settings (indicated by a "U") while the other
three (3) are Factory Custom Tone Wheels (indicated by an "F"). The Factory Custom Tone Wheels are permanently written in
memory, but the User Custom Tone Wheels can be overwritten with your own settings. You can even re-name them if you wish.
The first two pages of the TONEWHEEL Edit Menu allow you to select the Custom Tone Wheel you wish to use or modify,
as well as name a Custom Tone Wheel you have created. The remaining pages allow you to modify the specific characteristics of
the selected Custom Tone Wheel. After you have made all of your changes, you can save them as your own Custom Tone Wheel.
Please consult pages 90 through 93 for more information about creating, saving and naming your own Custom Tone Wheels. Also
consult the APPENDIX at the back of this Guide for a list of the preset Custom Tone Wheels.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Drawbar Voice Type designations "B-3," "C-3" and "A-100" refer to specific organ units which are identified
by their serial numbers. Contrary to popular myth, there is NO inherent difference between a B-3 and a C-3 - they were manu-
factured 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.
HA<O> XK-5 Owner's Playing Guide