The Hammond B3 is additive synthesis in hardware. Set nine drawbars to a jazz registration and feel the same tonewheel stack Jimmy Smith swung on.
In the world
The Hammond B3 organ of 1935 is a purely additive instrument: nine mechanical drawbars mix nine sine-like wheel tones into every key.
Each drawbar controls one harmonic. The footage labels (16', 8', 4', 2-2/3', 2', 1-3/5', 1-1/3', 1') name the partials the way organ builders name pipes. Pulling out the 8' bar emphasises the fundamental; the 4' bar adds the first octave overtone; the 1-3/5' bar is the 5th harmonic, which colours the tone with a nasal, reedy edge.
Jazz players memorise registrations, fixed drawbar combinations that produce classic sounds. 88 8000 000 is a flute. 80 8000 008 is a jazz comp. The drawbars are a vocabulary.
Did you know?
Laurens Hammond built the B3 in 1935 using spinning metal tonewheels near electromagnetic pickups - the same principle as an electric guitar pickup. Each wheel had bumps machined into its edge to produce a near-sine tone. The organ contained 91 wheels spinning simultaneously.
Explore
A pipe organ gallery fills the 3D scene. Drag any of the 9 drawbar handles up or down to set its level. As you pull a drawbar out, its corresponding pipe extends taller and begins to glow with the harmonic's color. Push all drawbars to zero and the gallery goes dark and silent.