User Manual

9. History: The story behind the Electro 2 instruments NORD ELECTRO 2 V2.2x
Page 50
THE ELECTRO 2 ORGAN SECTION
The organ chosen for the task to be simulated was a
Hammond A-100. Except for its cabinet and the inclu-
sion of a built-in sound system, the A-100 works the
same as Hammond's almighty rock 'n' roll organ, the fa-
mous B-3. The Hammond organ was originally de-
signed to be an alternative for churches instead of large
acoustic pipe organs. In the '30s, there was a growing
demand for more compact organs that sounded similar
to pipe organs because small churches couldn't afford or
didn't have the space to install a big pipe organ. The
Hammond organ was designed with drawbars for
sculpting the harmonic content of the organ sound.
They function much like stops on a pipe organ. This was
the standard, and so it became (see figure to the bottom
right of this page).
T
HE HAMMOND ORGAN COMPANY STORY
Has any other keyboard instrument created as much in-
terest as the Hammond organ? The model emulated by
the Nord Electro 2 is the B-3, the most popular version
of all Hammonds produced. Between their release in
1954 and 1974 when they went out of production, near-
ly 275,000 B-3 and C-3 organs were built. (The C-3 is
identical to the B-3 except for its cabinet design; Ham-
mond didn't keep separate records for the two models.)
No other electric keyboard in the world has exceeded
that number -- so far.
It started in the early 1930s, when inventor Laurens
Hammond was looking for different applications
for a 60-cycle motor he had designed for his clock
factory. An earlier inventor named Thaddeus Cahill
had, at the beginning of the 20th century, made an
electromechanical instrument called the Telharmo-
nium, which later caught the attention of Ham-
mond. Although he wasn't a musician, Hammond
was attracted by the idea to build a genuine electric
musical instrument. Hammond had a degree in
mechanical engineering and had developed great
skill in mechanical design. In his lab, Hammond
and his assistants designed and built an electrome-
chanical organ based on Cahill's principles. The ba-
sic components of the organ were tone wheels and
electromagnetic pick-ups, and the instrument is ac-
knowledged as being of excellent mechanical de-
sign for its time.
This is the Hammond A-100 organ that is simulated by
the Nord Electro 2. The A-100 is electrically similar to
the B-3 and C-3 organs, but it features a different cabinet
and has a built-in amplifier, speakers, and spring reverb.
This particular unit left the factory on June 2, 1965. The
A-100 was taken out of production four months later.