Hammond B250
These are a few photos of my Hammond B250. Took them in here for sentimental reasons, although the quality is poor due to the Philips Vesta PCV680 webcam that I had to use for shooting.
Update (January 24, 2007)
Today Arnt asked for the volume pedal wiring and connector pinout. See the photos below for help and illustration.
Update (October 14, 2007)
See also Hammond B250 repair and cap replacement.
Update (June 6, 2009)
This is in answer to John’s question.
Hey,
I am about to buy this organ. What do you think about this organ. What do you thing is “good” price for it.
Thanks.
Tom
Hi Tom,
as for me, I pretty much like the B250 and probably wouldn’t even sell it if I owned “the real thing”. Ok, this is a japanese Nihon-Hammond model and it is driven by custom LSI ICs instead of wheels or tubes, but nevertheless it is clearly one of the better sounding clones available – just play it over a Leslie speaker and it comes to life. If you want “hammondish” organ sound with 2×61 keys and pedal and yet portable then go for it. A good price would be 300 Euro (good condition), I once paid 750 Euro (mint condition).
Kind regards
Hajo
Hi folk
I’m very happy to find that, at least, two persons know this organ !
I’d like to buy a B 250 for my daughter.
Can I hope ?
kind regards
Good to se other people with the same organ:) My B-250 was the first instrument I bought, and thats where I spent the money-presents for my confirmation. My volume-pedal is broken, some of the cables are loose, and I don’t know where to place which cables. Does anyone of you have any schematics on that, or a photo of the cabels in the pedal-plug?
Arnt in Norway
I had a B250 that I used to gig around London in blues bands. They’re decidely unfashionable but I loved mine, I only sold it to raise cash for my A100. Lovely to see some pics again!
I’m running an old (and slightly battered) 250, which works quite well, and I love it. It’ll soon be going through a Leslie 825.
:p
Two questions…
1) What its the jack output “STA OUT” for.
2) I have a problem with the ‘Key Click’ which makes a grizzly ‘interference’ noise – a high frequency crackle’ – which pulsates at about 100-102 Hz. The percussive harmonics are a bit distorted too. Anybody had this and know of a fix ?
Hopefully,
Grady
Hi Grady,
“STA OUT” is the output of the stationary signal, analogous to “ROT OUT” for the rotary signal and “MIX OUT” for all (mixed) signals. As for the key click noise, I didn’t have this problem yet. Drop me a line if I you need an excerpt scan of the schematic for this section (I won’t scan it completely).
Regards
Hajo
Hi,
I will buy a Hammond B250, but he want 400,- euro for it.
Is that a good price?
Regards
Sven
Hi Sven,
it is a good price, imo. When I wrote about 300 Euro (good condition) sometimes in 2006 -see my post above- it was not a reasonable estimation. A few months ago, another B250 owner called me and told that he had payed 1.500 euros for his B250 in mint condition; well, we both agreed, that this is indeed a bit over-priced, but from today’s perspective, anything up to 1.000 euros -depending on the condition- wouldn’t cause me headaches.
Regards
Hajo
hey, love your page.
I have a big problem and need your help.
I have a B-250 as well but lost my expressionpedal.
Can you support me to build a new one?
PLEASE reply
Hi John,
unless you want to control and use the internal Warmth circuit, you may as well use any other external swell pedal (i.e. Boss FV-50L, Yamaha FC 9) plugged behind the audio output. If you prefer a rebuild, I may help you with an excerpt of the B250’s circuit diagram or possible circuits, depending on your electronics know-how. Did you already chose a pedal type you’d preferably want to use?
Regards
Hajo
ok my actual compromise is a standard volumepadel with phone jacks. I plugged it to the “SEND – RETURN” jacks on the organ. the compromise is that this only works for the upper manual, so the lower stays untouched. the option to plugg it behind the audio output doesnt work because the organ is connected with an 11pol cable to a leslie 815.
maybe u have an idea how to connect it for both manuals.
It would be interesting to rebuilt the original Pedal. Im a student in electronic engineering so the curcuits should be no problem for me.
Thank u so much for your help.
Hi John,
option #1: insert a passive pedal in your 11pin cable to the leslie 815, either by soldering on the existing 11pin connector or -much more expensive- by ordering two addional 11pin connectors from Hammond and then fabricate some kind of breakout box.
option #2: I’ve added the necessary information to the post for you to rebuild the pedal, see “Update (June 6, 2009)”.
The schematic excerpt on the left shows the assignment of the 8-pin DIN volume pedal connector “Jack 1″ inside the B250 and how the voltage returned from the pedal on pin 3 runs on an op-amp stage (IC1) to then supply a volume control voltage for the output stages.
The appropriate schematic of the volume pedal is not available, but only an image of the board layout (component values added in blue letters). The additional LDR, which is lit by a small bulb, is connected to pin 5 & 6 of the PCB.
If rebuilding the optoelectronic part of the pedal is too complicated, have a look at the voltage divider R1/R2 on the schematic excerpt: you may passively control the volume with just an additional potentiometer connected to pin3 and pin 7 of “Jack 1″ (in parallel to R2). Possible value is 47k or the like.
Hope this helps.
Hiya-
I have a B-250 that I’m running through a Leslie 315. To be honest I don’t know a lot about the technical side but hell I love this instrument as far as looking and sounding great on stage gigging. This and a fender rhodes along side is my definition of heaven… Anyway- the only thing I find with it is that while switching on the percussion does have an effect it isn’t strong and certainly doesn’t have that real chunky ‘toc’ sound that you get with the B-3’s. How do you find yours? Is it likely normal or do I need to get mine looked at?
Thoughts appreciated
Glenn
Hi Glenn,
sorry for the delay. The percussion on my B250 is exactly as you describe it, no strong effect and not that real ‘toc’ sound. I may provide one or two sound files if this answer does not satisfy you. Still I would recommend to have your B250 serviced ASAP, it may be damaged by bad capacitors in the near future, see this article for reference.
Regards
Hajo
Cheers Hajo- much appreciated