Sunn / Hammond organ - 1967 Conrad Sundholm Conversion - Need Help

[mmcintosh50]

Well, boys and girls, here is something you may have seen or heard about. 

A tiny but fascinating part of Sunn's history... and I need your help with it.

A serious Blast from the Past!  Please email our Sunn-loving friends to take a look at this!
A Hammond organ - Leslie speaker conversion - by Conrad Sundholm himself - circa 1966-1967.



I whupped up a web page with plenty-o-pics for your viewing pleasure, and a little of the history as I know it.  (I've begun to build a page related to my business, not Sunn, and it won't be recognized by the search engines for another 6 weeks or so... so I used this site to create a Sunn page to make these pictures available until the end of January 2007.)

I promise, you'll enjoy these pics:

http://www.wellness-people.com/sunn.html

Can any of you help me fill in the blanks on this?

I would be honored to have you all take a look, and then dig deep through the cobwebs in your memory chips to help shed a little more light on this.

Seriously, I want every one of you young Sunn-Lovers AND your grey-haired garage-band buddies to look at this... you might have some of the missing links. 

So - Thanks in advance for looking - I really appreciate any and all comments and replies!

Martin

[rick.heil]

That is pretty sweet lookin'.  I would love to get my fingers on a rig like that!  I'm interested in how much you're selling it for (not that I could afford it in the first place, just lusting after it).

[fatlizzard]

Great looking stuff! Conrad does occasionally look at this site! You could look for his profile in the members link,His user name is Sundhy,I would try e-mailing him with your story and he will probably respond,I have recieved replys from him through this site, or you could visit his web site for his new amp company www.conradamps.com and contact him that way
Good luck!
I would be interested in the gear if the price is right!!!!

[Soundmasterg]

I would bet Conrad would find this interesting! I'll talk to him about it and maybe I can get him to pop in and offer some comments. More later.

greg

[mc2]

VERY COOL!

I owned a very similar Leslie 122 that was formerly owned by the Eagles. A friend of mine was one of their roadies in the 70s-early 80s and I got it in the 80s. Flat black with aluminum roadcase edges & corners and JBL loaded to handle power. I sold it in the 90s when I got tired of moving it but sort of miss it (I play bass and double on keyb & guit.)

I'd be interested...What's the difference between a Hammond M3 and a B3???

mmcintosh50...drop me an email!!

[mmcintosh50]

Hey, mc2,

great story of your own!  The 122's are bulky and heavy and with JBLs they are totally unbreakable!

B3 and M3 are both of the same motorized tone-generating family.  The essential difference is the B3 has an additional octave of keys at the lower end on both manuals - these extra keys have reversed colors - white keys are black, black keys are white.

Some M3 trivia:
Known in the Hammond world as a 'Baby B'.
Tonewheel Organs are as polyphonic as you can get.
No presets.
Built in 11 Watt amp driven by two 6V6 tubes and 12" field coil speaker.
Spinet sized and about 250 pounds in factory configuration; the conversion by Sunn weighs in at about half that.
"Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs was recorded using a M3.
Keith Emerson used one while performing with "The Nice".
They don't call the M3 the "Baby B" for nothing.  Same sweet mellow tones, less lower end.
Internally, it's very much like the B3. It just has fewer keys and no presets.  Internal wiring channel is different,
If a B3/C3 isn't available, or too danged big to move, the M3 has nearly everything you'd want. It'll be as nasty or as sweet as you like, from 'Procol Harum' to 'Deep Purple', Steppenwolfe or 'Eagles'... it's all there.

-----------------------------
UPDATE AS OF RIGHT THIS MINUTE:  I have received word The Kingsmen did, indeed, have the first conversion, probably 1965 or earlier.  Current location unknown.  Any help with this?

I really, really, appreciate corrections to my poor history of this.  With your help, I'll get it cleaned up and as right as rain!

Please let me know if any of you have photos, maybe in a shoebox at your mother's, or an ex-girlfriend has a picture of garage bands or even the Wailers or Kingsmen playing one of these.

Thanks again, the folks on this forum ROCK!

Martin

[mmcintosh50]

mc2

duh... how do I send an email?

My techno-nerd-geek sector just blacked out.

Dang.

Martin

try me at sunn -at- wellness-people.com

[Soundmasterg]

Well I talked to Conrad about this conversion of yours. Here is what he said:

" I did about three of them.  I also converted the Leslie to JBL components, including the JBL 375 2” driver.  It was ridiculous."

He said he'd be more than happy to explain the process to you the best that he can remember. He suggested you email him at info@conradamps.com.

He's been sick here recently for a couple weeks so you may want to give him a little while to get better. Perhaps another week or so.

Hope that helps.
Greg

[Isaac]

mmcintosh50, you're wrong about the B3. True, it does have some extra keys. Look at the keyboards of an M3, and you'll see that the upper and lower manuals are offset so that one can play bass with the left hand on the lower manual and the higher pitches with the right hand on the upper manual. On the B3, both manuals are full length, extending from the bottom of the lower M3 manual to the top of the upper manual.

The reverse colored keys are not actually keys as such. They are switches for tone presets.

[Soundfur]

  OK. I lived 32 miles from the sunn Factory. I was just starting to play in a band. I went to as many shows as I could. First sunn organ ( M3) was to my knowledge used by Don of Don and the Goodtimes. He was the original keyboard player for the Kingsman and most likely had it made when he was with them. This was 1966. The covering was they're old style tolex. The sunn logo on the organ was they're first style. He used a Tolex covered Leslie (old style tolex) with Old style name plate.  Just after this the keyboard player for the Wailers (Seattle) showed up with one. This had the new style tolex. He was also playing this on the front cover of they're Sunn catalogue 1967. After this the Gentleman Wild (Portland) got one. Next Don of Don and the goodtimes had a B3 converted (1968). That was the only one made. The last Sunn organ (M3) was made for my bands keyboard player, Dan Waters. His was being made as Sunn got the notice from hammond. They finished his and that was it. He still owns his to this day. BTY the legs for all the organs were made at midus from muffler pipe. They had the best way to bend the legs. Unlike the other organs Dan's had a volume peddle. You will notice that the other organ had the amp on top of the organ. That was how they controlled the volume. Another fact was the Silver disks that were on the back of the organ that held the 1/4" plugins were from the hardware store and were used in sliding closet doors. Also several of them on the back of the organ were fake and just for looks. Hope this fills in some gaps.

[Soundfur]

Just to add something I left out. Don of Don and the goodtimes had a new tolex style M3 in 1967-1968. After that he had the B3 version made. This was just after they had finished Filming where the action is for Dick Clark.