The year, 1970 – the search for an affordable Hammond – the place, London, Hammersmith, the Hammond Organ Center. The result: a “spinet” model, the T-200 with built-in rotating speaker. Nice tone-wheel sound yet compact size for a small apartment, and not so difficult to move to the 5th floor (quite a task some years later when the B-3 and the Concorde had to be moved out !)

T-200 1970

Revox A700 2-track with the Hammond tone-wheel T-200

Again, some of the early “learning to play” recordings have survived – only had to search though the tape archives and order a new drive belt for the TEAC A3440
(Note: recording is direct, so the Leslie is not captured – and the audio files are here to demonstrate the sound, not the progress of the learner!)

Among the T200 recordings, there are two with an added guitar-like sound which brings back memories of another piece of gear, long since forgotten: – a Roland SH-5 suitcase synthesizer (1975).  It was purchased in London’s Tottenham Court Road and brought back to Switzerland as carry-on luggage. This sound, added by multi-track tape sync, is probably our only surviving record of it – the photo is from the Roland Synth Chronicle website.