I've gotten a lot of comments and questions on what's required to convert a Hammond organ from ratchet drawbars to smooth drawbars. One day I'll have to take some photos and put a page together that explains this stuff a little better. For now, this will have to suffice. I've cobbled what follows together from various emails I've sent and received, and hopefully it paints a reasonably clear picture of what's involved. I've deleted a few names and email address for the sake of the privacy of those involved. -----snip----- In upgrading the drawbars, I did all the work myself, and of course I learned a hell of a lot in the process. The job itself "only" takes 3 or 4 hours, but of course when you add in the learning process it took two full weekends. So, I'll be happy to give you the benefit of my experience. I really do like the new drawbars - the organ is much more fun to play. First some background - as you may know, in the world of Hammond organs there are two kinds of drawbars: the ratchet type and the smooth type. The ratchet type was used until mid 1954 when they switched over to the smooth type. This means that smooth drawbars can be found on any Hammond organ build after 1954, including the spinets which I think were introduced in the late 50s early 60s. Spinet parts are much easier to find. The individual spinet drawbars are the same as smooth console drawbars, but the drawbar assembly itself (the metal box) is completely different because the console has four full sets of drawbars plus two for the pedals. This is where some photos would come in handy, but nasty ASCII artwork will have to suffice for now. If you look at the drawbars from the side, with the handle on the left and the electrical contact on the right, the ratchet kind looks like this: XXX ^-_ XXX -_____ XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX the new (smooth) drawbars look more like this: XXX ^^\ XXX \ XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\ X\ X\ I guess the main difference visually is that with the old style, it's the contact that has a bend, and the new style, it's the drawbar itself that has a bend. The other difference is more subtle - the smooth drawbar has two contact points with a very low resistance wire connecting them. The ratchet kind only has one contact. So, one of the folks on the Tech List sold me two sets of spinet drawbars. What he told me was that you can simply unsolder the wire from each ratchet drawbar, undo the screw, pull it out and replace it with the smooth spinet drawbar. I'll save you some heartache right now - this DOES NOT WORK! I was pissed off at him for awhile, because he sold me these things saying it was possible, and now I know it clearly is untrue. When I called him on it he confessed that he'd never actually tried it before. So, Rule 1 is take everything you hear (even from me) with a grain of salt, especially if they're selling you something! ;-) Anyway, the reason this doesn't work has to do with the way the drawbar housing itself (the long black box with the busbars inside) is constructed. The busbars inside are completely different. I have theories on how this box can be modified to work, but at this point they're only theories. Maybe one day I'll have the inclination to explore that further. I got lucky - a local hammond tech had a spare empty newer-style drawbar housing that he gave me, and this with the spinet drawbars I bought got me where I needed to be. Here's the problem that you face - smooth console drawbar assemblies are very hard to find. [Famous tech's name deleted] wanted $350 for one, and he wouldn't remove it from a junker organ unless I showed up in person, not an option since I'm in California and he's in [deleted]. I would suggest trying to get one off a junker console near you, a thrashed A100 for example. The reality is that your best bet might be to buy a junker Hammond just for the parts. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but finding a newer style drawbar assembly is going to be the hard part. One you have that, you need to remove the old one. First, what you'll want to do is label all the wires going to the drawbars, and make a drawing showing the color order of the wires going into the sides of the busbars. Once you have this you unsolder all the wires. Next, you'll need to remove the drawbar assembly. In case you haven't seen the assembly, it's a long metal sandwich with steel top and bottom pieces with bakelite inserts in the side. There are about 40 million screws holding the thing together, only a dozen of which that hold the asssembly to the organ. You don't want to take it apart, you only want to remove it from the organ. How to tell which screws are which? Here's an old post I found that explains how to do that: >From: RickP@[don't spam him] >Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 20:48:46 -0600 >To: [a hammond list] >Subject: How to Separate the Drawbars from the Organ > >Fellow Hammond Addicts, > >I originally sent this message to Spence privately, but got to thinking >this may be something others might want to know for future use. It's a >lot easier knowing this stuff in advance because all those bolts look >pretty intimidating. > >By the way, this is referenced to my 1962 C3 which one day will be restored >from many pieces to just one. Other models and years may vary, but I think >the drawbar mounting scheme was standard. > >Removing the drawbars is not that bad. You don't have take all of those >bolts out. Most of them are there to hold the assembly together with nuts >on the underside. > >Here's the bolts you need to remove (with reference to my 1962 C3 which is >in pieces in the next room). > >Start on the left side of case (preset keys). > >Count four heads to the right. Remove both bolts. >Count six heads to the right. Remove both bolts. >Count four heads to the right. Remove the bottom bolt only. >Count two heads to the right. Remove the top bolt only. >Count six heads to the right. Remove both bolts. >Count six heads to the right. Remove both bolts. >Count six heads to the right. Remove both bolts. >Count six heads to the right. Remove both bolts. > >Note that some of the things sticking up from the surface of the drawbar >assembly are nubs or spacers, but I am counting them as heads for the >purposes of the above. > >If for some reason your assembly is different, you'll quickly be able to >determine which are the bolts that hold the assembly together and which >are the bolts that hold the assembly to the console by the way they come >loose. Just tighten up the nuts after you do get the thing free. [Thanks to Rick P for that great email.] Then you get your new assembly and work the process backwards to install it. It really is not difficult at all, just tedious as you have to solder several dozen wires while hunched over. I founded that every 5 or 10 wires I'd want to walk around and stretch and give my back a break. If you can't find an old assembly, there is a small chance that it's possible to convert an old assembly to a new-style one. This is only a theory at this point, but if you have lots of time on your hands and you're mechanically inclined, I can tell you what I know. The first step would be to get three complete spinet assemblies, which are not that hard to find. I think I paid $30 apiece for mine. Hope this info is helpful. Cheers, Dave