Hammond Organ
There were literally dozens of makes and hundreds of models of electric organs on the market during the 70's, most of them built in a slew of factory's in Italy.
I played many brands of organs from the age of 8 years old but my life changed forever when I played my first Hammond organ. The drawbars of the Hammond organ had a unique tone to them like nothing I had ever heard before. And when paired with a Leslie rotary speaker the sound was just magical.
I was hooked forever!
Interestingly, (well, to me me anyway), the drawbars of a Hammond organ were, by their very nature, an early form of "additive synthesis" because by adding the sine wave harmonics of the drawbars together you could create different sounds.
Looking back, the Hammond organ was probably my first introduction in to the world of synthesis and it laid the groundwork for my later love of synthesisers. No wonder it had such a profound effect on me.
Below are a few Youtube videos of me playing my modern day Hammond SK2 organ and Roland PK5 bass pedals. You'll notice that all the songs I've chosen to play are 60's songs. This is because the late 60's was, to me, the golden age of the Hammond organ when record shops everywhere were awash with LP's of current pop hits of the day played on tone wheel Hammond’s hooked up to Leslie speakers (and often accompanied by a live drummer).
Each video shows me playing my Hammond SK2 and bass pedals entirely live except for the drums which I created first in Cubase and then transferred to a Roland BK7m sound module (which is sitting to my left, just out of camera shot).
For more in-depth information on stuff like the drawbar settings and Leslie simulator configurations I used (and the rather unusual way I set my bass pedals up), click on the link below. The link will take you directly to my Youtube channel playlist where you'll find all the info in the description under each video:
Enjoy!