My New Hammond Organ - 328322 Commodore with Leslie
Well, new to me. I am so jazzed. A local organ repairman told me several months ago he’d keep an eye out for an organ for me. I told him I wanted a Hammond with B3 style drawbars and at least a two octave pedal board. He called this morning and SHABAM, here it is.
This is a Hammon 328322 Commodore. It has a two octave pedal board, real Leslie speaker built in, string section, rhythm and all the accompanying cheezeball effects. I told him I’ll never use the other stuff, just the leslie and drawbars and he said that’s typical of “real organists” and “purists”. So I guess I’m a “real organist” and a “purist” by that definition.
I’m conducting Seussical the Musical in November and I was going to cover the B3 organ parts on my Korg CX-3, which is a Hammond B3 and Leslie clone digital keyboard. But the repairman said he’d haul this organ up to the performing arts center, so I might just break it in onstage for that show. Too cool.
My friend Herb has been making fun of me for YEARS because he has a B3 with a Leslie and doesn’t even play keyboards. He’s been rubbing it in mercilessly. So Herb, if you’re reading this, and I know you are, I am hot on your trail buddy - getting closer to that B3………
And if someone is reading this and has a B3 or tons of money, I have an idea……why don’t you send me a Hammond B3. Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.
.
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:43 am
I happen to have tons of money and have emailed twice to donate, but have never received a response back. Sorry, I tried. Good luck with your Hammond B3.
December 11th, 2006 at 6:57 am
I have a Hammond Commodore 328322 which I would like to sell. Do you have any suggestions for me to help me? The organ is in wonderful condition. I live in the Detroit area, and I can’t find any dealers for these. Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.
Also, what would be a good selling price for this item?
December 11th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Hi Karen,
Organs are not much in demand these days. I need one because I play organ at church, but that’s fairly rare these days.
You may find a local dealer who will sell it on commission. I’m afraid you may only get about $500 for it. Granted it’s worth much more, but very hard to find a buyer for organs.
I can tell you I love the sound of the organ, it’s in the ballpark of a B3. You may be able to advertise it has a “Hammond organ with Leslie and B3 sound.” A real B3 with Leslie is going to be over $3,000 - so you may find a buyer who wants the B3 sound but can’t afford the real thing.
Also try Ebay with pickup only, no shipping.
Does that help?
March 7th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Hi there from down under - you know, set sail from the west coast, turn left at the equator and look for the big island.
OK now you know where I’m from I just thought I’d say hello and let you know that I just picked up an old Hammond Commodore myself on ebay. Haven’t actually fired it up yet as I’m still trying to figure out how to get it up the stairs - didn’t think about that when I bought it!
I’d like to know what you think of yours and how you rate it compared to the old tonewheel Hammonds. I can’t believe how many buttons and tabs it has over the B3 I had many years ago.
Any info you can enlighten me with, anything at all about it, I’d really appreciate it - it will keep me going until I finally work out a way to move it and get to play it.
Thanks mate
Talk later
Greg
March 8th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Hi Greg!
So would my greeting back to you be from the “up over”? I’m getting ready to get down to your neck of the woods in Macau, China and a lot of Aussies are on are crew. We have one in our band and it’s been very fun working with her. She has fun trying to teach us the Aussie accent.
On the Commodore. I LOVE IT! I sold a lot of things before getting ready to move to China - but not my Commodore. I gave it to someone to look after in case I make it back stateside someday.
Now you should know I love the Hammond B3 - but I don’t consider myself a “pro” Hammond player or anything like that (I’ve played the Hammond at BB Kings in Universal Studios and at the House of Blues in Los Angeles for gigs, but Atlantic hasn’t been calling me to cut an album).
I have been told that the Commodore is basically a B3, but with added features like the drum machine. Can’t tell you 100% if that’s true or not.
Or another way to put it - if I opened a recording studio I would probably want a B3 in it. But mainly because that’s what clients want to see. Short of that, I would be very happy using my Commodore on recordings and calling it a “Hammond Organ” in the credits.
Ironically, someone hooked me up with my Commodore because I was studying classical pipe organ. I was music director at a Presbyterian Church and needed something to practice on. I was VERY surprised when they showed up with a Hammond Commodore.
Let me know how you like playing it. I would be very surprised if you were disappointed at all in it’s tone or action.
Conrad
March 16th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I actually recieved a Commodore just like yours and play as a hobby, I love the sound. I would really like to get a cabinet to go along with it but unfortunately i dont think i have enough room. I would like to know how much it would have cost brand new back in the day, any idea?