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

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

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.

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.

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

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

I will buy a Hammond B250, but he want 400,- euro for it.
Is that a good price?

Regards

Sven

“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