[sdiy] Scanners and Bravery

[Michael Ruberto]

As most of you are well aware I have been restoring and modifying my Hammond 
T524 spinet. Today, after much deliberating, I finally got up the nerve to 
take the scanner apart. Of course, the daily round of pointed comments about 
THAT MESS IN THE LIVING ROOM from my wife, helped with motivation. It took a 
great deal of cursing but I eventually got the unit removed. It's 
disassembly went pretty easily but now I really know what they mean about 
"don't break that wire" in the articles I read.

Here is the information I was able to find on the drum scanner unit:
http://www.dairiki.org//HammondWiki/HowToRebuildTheDrumVibratoScanner

My scanner was in pretty good shape overall. Very little dirt, shiny 
contacts and no signs of wear. It certainly doesn't look like something from 
the 70s conditionally. I spent about 20 minutes cleaning and lubricating the 
gears, bearings and bushings. I don't recomend spray on lithium grease for 
this because the results are messy and lead to yet more cleaning. Reassembly 
was somewhat tricky but went pretty smooth.

The hard part is reinstalling the scanner. Last week I had to put a new 
serpentine belt on my wife's friend's 97 Mazda. What a job. There was no 
room to swing the wrench more than an 1/8 of a turn. I cursed, bled, kicked 
things etc.
It turned out to be good practice though. Getting this damn scanner back in 
was even worse than the Mazda. I had to resort to bending the frame before I 
finally got it seated again. I hope I never have to do that again in my 
lifetime. Only thing I can think of that was harder was a particular piece 
of an F/A 18 Superhornet I worked on in the Navy but that's classified. Pure 
hell too.

Now the offensive scanner is whisper quiet. No more grinding and squeaking. 
Matter of fact the noise level of the entire organ has dropped considerably 
since I started working on it. All that can be heard now is the faint hiss 
of the generator (which sounded like a freight train before). The hum is 
gone. The rattles from the Leslie are gone. And now the scanner is finally 
silent.
And so I finally put the old girl back together.

I turned it on and activated the leslie and was completely blown away with 
the first chord I hit. The improvements to the upper frequencies from the 
mods to the recovery amp and preamp really pay off now. The leslie has a 
MUCH stronger effect on higher frequencies so now the organ just literally 
fills the room with massive movement. I am really shocked. The panel above 
the closet door in my living room now buzzes when I hit the lower notes. The 
windows rattle when I hit the bass pedals. If any of you thought it silly to 
be laboring so much on such a lackluster machine well YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS. 
It is simply amazing and worth every dusty, cobwebby minute of work I put 
into it.

Further enhancements are planned. I now have about 20" of panel space where 
the Rhythm III sat. I'm planning to design a new panel for this area. The 
panel will hold the controls for the tube preamp I have yet to build. That 
still leaves alot of space. The Talking Heads did some interesting things to 
Hammonds in in their songs like using digital delay and what sounds like 
either heavy EQing or a guitar cabinet or both. So maybe I will mess around 
with those ideas. A parametric EQ, digital delay and amp models can be found 
on many guitar processors these days. Wouldn't be a thing to retro-in one of 
these things.

Once I find the strength to move the organ into my music room I will make 
some recordings and post them for download.

M. A. Ruberto

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