The Hammond Organ

 

Looking more like your Great Aunty's sideboard than a musical instrument, the Hammond Organ is one of the most important and recognisable keyboard sounds in popular music. Invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934, the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a low cost alternative to the pipe organ. It's distinctive sound is produced by mechanical tonewheels rotating under an electromagnet pickup, and allied with the Leslie rotating speaker and the percussive key click, the sound of the Hammond has become a powerhouse of expression behind many jazz, blues, gospel and rock classics.

 

There were A, B, C, D, R, M, L, T, J, K, N and V series', but the most famous Hammond is the "portable" B-3. Other original models sharing identical components to the B-3 are the C-3 and A-100. Although production of the original finished in 1973, a new  electronic version of it was launched in 2002. An excellent software version is Native Instruments' "B4"