Procol Harum

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Hammond registration

Comments on the AWSoP organ-sound


Matthew Fisher's registration is authoritatively explicated on this page ... some earlier speculations may be read below


Organ 'registration' on a Hammond refers to the art of selecting / creating different tonal qualities by adjusting the settings of the 'drawbars' which roughly correspond to footages on a pipe organ ... each drawbar is numbered from 1-8 and there are 2 sets of eight (?) drawbars for each of the two 61-note manuals on the B-3 (Note: Matthew did not play a B3 on all Procol albums or concerts)

The WSoP registration has been reported to be 6886 0000 ... 8880 0000 is a very commonly used jazz organist's registration, commonly combined with percussion. Sorry, I can't really recall right now whether there are 8 drawbars or 9; it's been a while since I've been behind a B3 ... I think it's eight ... but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong ... BigTex1976


The FAQ says 688600000 2nd harm soft, fast decay, but I've played it a million times, and I swear it's: upper 888600000 2nd harm soft, no vibrato lower 877000000 no vibrato Bruce A. Wahler bruce@ashbysolutions.com


Matthew Fisher himself told me about this FAQ, so it must be right. But the Hammond used is NOT a B3: Matthew says it was a M102.

    Typical Hammond B3 layout


A page of Hammond organ links


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