Hammond Organ - Keyboards and Pedalboard

Keyboards and Pedalboard

The manuals of the Hammond organ have a lightweight action, which allows for very rapid passages to be executed with more ease than on a weighted keyboard, such as a piano. "Waterfall" style keys of early Hammond models had sharp edges but starting with the B-2 these were rounded to allow effects such as palm glissandi possible. Later models, starting with the M-100 and L-100 series, featured traditional organ-style keys, colloquially known as "springboard" or "diving board" keys.

Hammond console organs come with a wooden bass pedalboard for the feet, so that the organist can play bass lines. Hammond organ bass pedalboards typically have 25 notes, with the top note a middle C as Hammond found that on most pedalboards used in churches, the top 7 notes were seldom used. Hammond "concert" models, the RT-2, RT-3 and D-100 had 32-note American Guild of Organists (AGO) pedalboards going up to a G (3rd leger line above the bass clef) as the top note. They also contained a "Solo Pedal Unit" that provided several 32', 16', 8', and 4' voices for the pedal. The solo pedal unit used oscillators, similar to those used in Hammond's "Solovox". Hammond spinet models (L, M, T, etc.) had 12 or 13-note miniature pedalboards with stamped steel pedals. These models were manufactured by Content Organs in The Netherlands.

Hammond did offer a model with a 32-note radial arc pedal clavier. It was the Grand 100 (G-100) and was manufactured from 1963 to 1965. It was the biggest organ Hammond ever made.