Bob Ralston 22 All Time Favorites - Hammond Organ , Versatone Footnote

Okay, what's a Versatone Footnote ? The back of the record states that Bob was given one to use straight off the assembly line before anyone else. Wonder if anyone else evr got one. I've looked everywhere to find out what a Versatone Footnote even is or what it looks like, to no avail.
Bob's playing a Hammond organ here, not the usual Thomas organ. Maybe because it was earlier in his Lawrence Welk days, or maybe because Bob was just as fluent on both organs.It's pretty well established that there are electronic organs, and then there is the Hammond electronic organ! The Hammond uses spinning discs with serrated edges that spin- each in front of it's own electromagnetic pick-up, not unlike the type found on electric guitar. Instead of a long oval shaped bobbin wrapped with hundreds of turns of hair-fine wire, the Hammond bobbin is like a small sewing bobbin for thread. In the center of the bobbin is a length of a cylindrically shaped magnet which is placed in front of the spinning disc. The magnet goes through the chassis through a collar which has a locking bolt to anchor the magnet. The tuning of the spinning disc is determined not only by the amount of serrations of cut-outs on the edge of the disc, but also by how close the magnet is to the disc. The Hammond tone wheel organ is tuned at the factory and essentially never needs tuned again.The rotations of all of the discs are governed by one central synchronous motor- one of Laurens Hammond's many inventions that would be seen in every electric clock with a second hand that moves smoothly. The motor operates by the accuracy of the 60 hertz frequency that comes from the electric company- 110 volts AC at 60HZ. Some Hammond's operated at 50 HZ, and of course the Hammond organs in the UK operate at 220 volts,. Not sure of the HZ- probably 60 HZ?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hammond Organ
• Lawrence Welk
• Hammond tone wheel organ
• Versatone Footnote
• what is a versatone footnote?

[paulj0557]

@patsaxon I didn't know until I looked it up that the X-66 was introduced in 67' and the X-77 came out 2-3 years later. The X-66 cost twice as much as the X-77. Look this up on Google> 'scribd Hammond Organ Models'

it has all the Hammond models and how much they cost and other stats all the way up to 1970. It was put out for the technicians.I'm with you on this Pat, I too would rather have a tone wheel organ with other voices too. So why would you rather have an X-77 than an X-66? I like 66

[paulj0557]

@Wurlitzer2ify Laurens was a purist. The tone that was generated was pure voltage, albeit small. When I was a teenager I'd go to super loud rock concerts and stand there thinking, '' That little hair fine wire is carrying the signals of those guitar strings and that singers voice''. This is why amplification design is probably the most important step in the chain of electromechanical instruments like electric guitars and Hammond organs, and Wurlitzer ES organs. All 3 sound better w/ TUBE current

[Wurlitzer2ify]

Hammond preferred their organs be called electric not electronic since they were mechanical for the most part,  and didn't use tubes in the generators such as the other brand of organs.

[paulj0557]

@patsaxon I'm going to post a record of Jesse Crawford playing a Hammond tone wheel organ. That guy was a total genius. First of all he mastered the real Wurlitzer pipe organ, then as a supporter of Hammond TW organs he went on to write instruction literature for the Hammond. So many great Hammond TWs. Versatone Footnote - "The Versatone Footnote was a string bass unit similar to the Krueger unit. It added its tone to 20 of the pedals and sent its signal to one of the lower manual drawbars".

[patsaxon]

This must had been long before went to playing on a Thomas organ. I am not crazy about the old Hammond tone wheel organ, unless it is the Hammond X-77 organ.