Clavia electro 2 Guida Utente

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NORD ELECTRO 2 V3.0x
9. History: The story behind the Electro 2 instruments
Page 51
Hammond filed a patent for the tone wheel organ in 1934, and one 
year later he introduced the first Hammond organ, the Model A. In the 
patent, Hammond catalogues the numerous objects that contribute to 
the complete design. He lists 29 different features. Among them you 
can find, for example, feature number 17, which states: "To provide an 
instrument of the type which is relatively light in weight and is porta-
ble." Wonder what roadies around the world have to say about that!
This patent is the backbone of the whole organ line made by Ham-
mond until 1974. The Model A was very expensive at the time, yet the 
sales were impressive. The company grew steadily and, over time, new 
models were released. Laurens Hammond was correct from the start to 
have focused his market for the instrument on churches. He saw a great 
potential there in sales, and many organ models had cabinets designed 
to fit the various religious services. Despite all-new models, they had 
more or less the same tone-wheel concept, but with different styles of 
cabinets, pedal board, speaker configuration, and amplification. Ham-
mond and his team continued to experiment with different ways to 
deepen the sound, adding effects such as tremolo and chorus.
In 1954, Hammond introduced the B-3 model to the market. It became the best seller of all Hammond 
organs. One of the secrets to the B-3's success was its sound, thanks to the integration of the newly devel-
oped chorus and tremolo features, as well as the introduction of the Percussion feature and reverberation. 
All this combined made musicians do a vast amount of new and exciting sounds to play with at the time. 
The B-3 is still a very popular instrument and still in use around the world.
The first page of the patent for 
the tone wheel organ filed by 
Laurens Hammond in 1934.
Here you can see the knob for selecting the A-100 organ's Vibrato 
and Chorus effects. There are six different positions. All of these 
effects are simulated in the Nord Electro 2. The rocker tabs con-
trol the Vibrato/Chorus on/off status for the upper (Swell) and 
lower (Great) manuals. The tab far to the left is a overall volume 
switch for the whole organ. This particular function is not exactly 
implemented in the Nord Electro 2. Instead, there's a Master level 
On the right-hand side of the A-100, there are the Percussion tabs. 
These are all simulated in the Nord Electro 2. The Percussion fea-
ture is a single-trigger/non-legato effect. Enabling the Percussion 
on/off switch disarms the 1' drawbar on the A-100. In the Electro 
2, the 1' tone will still be available if desired. The idea with this ef-
fect was to add an attack transient to the tone of the organ. There 
above the fundamental (8') -- named the "second" harmonic -- or the octave and a fifth above -- named the 
"third" harmonic. The Slow/Fast tab defines the release envelope of the percussion effect. This is a great feature 
that was released in 1954, letting the player give an extra little edge to the solo parts he or she is playing.