Drawbar Dave
Vintage Valve Tonewheel Hammond Organ and Leslie Speaker Specialist. Valve Lowrey Organs, Vintage Keyboards Serviced and Repaired. Custom One Off Builds. Tour Preparation.
Don Airey and Deep Purple
I am delighted to be associated with this legendary band who are one of the original pillars of Hammond driven rock and are still touring the real deal to this day!
Paul Carrack
As well as being an established solo artist for decades, Paul has also been in some of the biggest groups of all time including Roger Waters' Bleeding Hearts Band, Roxy Music, Ace, Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics and is now a member of Eric Clapton's touring band.
Paul has a pristine late 60's Hammond B3 and an early Leslie 122 in his home studio. To keep it in perfect condition the Leslie has had a mechanical overhaul and the Hammond and Leslie amps health checked and recapped. You can hear this organ on Paul's new album "One on One".
I have been privileged to hear "One on One" ahead of it's launch and it is a fantastic record. Fans of Hammond organ and Wurlitzer Electric Piano will not be disappointed! Paul sang and played every instrument (except horns) and engineered and produced the record himself during lockdown.
In the UK you can pre-order it here: https://carrack-uk.shopfactory.com/
Steve Winwood
I am privileged to be responsible for Steve's UK collection of Hammonds and Leslies and synths for studio and live work. I carry out preventative maintenance, repairs and design custom mods and gadgets as required. Steve is the first person to use various combo preamps from my updated range. One of them is designed for guitar inputs and the other two take an 11 pin output from a clone and convert it to a 145 input.
In June 2021 I delivered the new B3 that I built for Steve. Like the famous Hammond C3 that was used on Traffic and Blind Faith recordings (and of course with Jimi Hendrix), this B3 has a second preamp to handle the lower manual and pedals in a separate channel which is what gave him his signature sound. It's always a blessing to sit with Steve in the studio and listen to his playing and there is a short snippet of footage on his Facebook page taken from that session.
Rory More/Les Hommes
Rory was one of my first professional clients and has a vast body of recorded work as a solo artist and as a member of Les Hommes and Wyllowe. As well as being an accomplished Hammond organist he is best known for bringing the sonic mystery that is the Lowrey Heritage Deluxe organ back into the public consciousness. While a new solo album is currently in the works, if you like the sound of the Lowrey jazz, listen to "The Sinner" by Les Hommes. It's never off the turntable for long in our house!
Fans of Rory will be pleased to know that he has a new record called "Through the dappled dell" due for release in mid April.
Dave Oliver
Friend and regular customer Dave Oliver has played keyboards for 40 years and has been Lisa Stansfield's Musical Director/keyboard player for 10 years. We were put in touch by a mutual friend during lockdown when Dave discovered the joys of Hammond ownership and now has four tonewheel organs. You will hear Dave's Hammond on the next Mamas Gun record!
Jeff Leach
Jeff has played and recorded with Barclay James Harvest, Brian May, Van Morrison among many others and was a founding band member/programmer on the Queen musical "We Will Rock You". He owns a recording studio in West Sussex containing a Hammond C3 and Leslie 147. The organ has benefitted from a recapped amplifier and the Leslie from a recapped crossover. I am also in the process of overhauling the pedal switching system.
The London Jazz Organ aka Greg Boraman aka The Fantastics
London jazz organist/bandleader/DJ/presenter Greg enlisted my help late last year in getting the organ ready for 2020. As well as hiring out his C3/147 rig he uses it on his own projects too!
This 1961-1962 Hammond C3 and Leslie 147 has been played by some of the biggest names in organ jazz, including Jimmy Smith (!), Big John Patton, Reuben Wilson. Cory Henry, Dr Lonnie Smith, Doug Carn, Brian Auger, Delvon Lamarr, Kyle Kohler, Brian Charette, Adam Scone, Ike Stubblefield and James Taylor and is the go-to rig for live London shows. Throughout the winter and spring 2019-2020 we have carried out some maintenance work at the request of the owner; on the C3 some wiring, the addition of an active EQ, replacement key and most recently a scanner service which means the chorus now sounds better than ever. The Leslie also had it's motor stacks tweaked for silent operation and a drop of oil.
Ross Stanley
Ross is an extremely sought after jazz organist and pianist. I highly recommend you look him up on Google and Youtube.
I had the privilege of tearing down Ross's touring Hammond and rebuilding it in a new case with all new wiring, legs, pedals, new Leslie outputs and amp mods.
This prototype had a design brief that it had to be a portable B3 organ that one person could move from the van and onto the stage without additional help. It had to be constructed so that a single person could set it up on their own, perform a sell out gig and then pack it all back into the van and go home.
This design became the DBD3 portable.
Matt Cooper (Incognito)
Matt is a successful jazz-funk keyboard player, producer and musical director best known for his work with Incognito amongst many other projects.
Several years ago I helped him find a Hammond A100 for his London studio. When our schedules have allowed, I have given it a major service including; recapping the preamplifier, power amplifier and reverb amplifier. Customisation work includes; A line in, an adjustable line out with mixed dry and reverb signal, a remote control for his Neo Vent so that it can be controlled from the organ's three speed half moon switch and separate mute switches for the main and reverb speakers which allows Matt to send anything he wants from the mixing desk though the organ preamp and reverb which can then be recorded via the line out or via the reverb speaker in isolation. It sounds fantastic!
Vinylizor Studio (London)
Last year I was called in to carry out a vibrato scanner service on their Hammond RT3 and recap the vibrato line box. I have also supplied them with one of my bespoke active Leslie control boxes which take a speaker level input and a weak signal, such as a guitar though an EQ and preamp at the same time and combine them to a single output to the Leslie 147. Again speed switching is done silently with a 1/4 jack synth footswitch.
Forever Living Originals (Record Label)
http://foreverlivingoriginals.com/
These guys took the monumental step of acquiring a Hammond B3, Leslie 22H and a PR-40 tone cabinet from Canada where they run on 117 volts/60 cycles. I was able to help by installing a Trek II frequency converter and supplying a stepdown transformer capable of handling the load of the organ and both speakers. I then went through the entire rig checking that everything was as it should be ready for recording!
