HAMMOND ORGAN DRAWBAR Tutorial and Must-Know Settings

Tutorial explaining how the mysterious drawbars work on the HAMMOND ORGAN B3 and many other models, keyboards and clonewheels like the Nord Electro, C2D, Hammond SK and organs from Viscount and Crumar.

I'll then share some of the most common drawbar settings and registrations that all keyboard players need to know, Jimmy Smith, Full Drawbars, Gospel and more.

We'll use the YAMAHA YC61 and GG AUDIO BLUE3 VST software organ for this demo.

MORE WOODY PIANO SHACK

[vadimmartynyuk]

This is the best tutorial about organ drawbars. Period.

[liudas]

That was the BEST explanation of draw bar settings on utube. Thanks Woody...

[joeyhardin]

one of my favourite settings is 008552110, with vibrato on and leslie stopped. it makes a violin sound

[benonemusic]

Excellent tutorial. All these years of playing keyboards without knowing what to do with drawbars in organ sounds and now I know in less than 20 minutes. Thank you!

[davidzindler]

I'm a noob that watched 3-4 other videos about drawbar settings that made no sense. Yours clicked. Thanks so much

[ricardomoraesbressan]

My God, I was looking for explanations on Drawbars- Hammond so long time ago e today, just today I finaly founded a master that can teach it very clearly and cleaver.
Thanks, congratulations from Brasil !

[robsuters]

Probably the best drawbar tutorial ever. Pure gold. Muchas gracias!

[st]

As a guitar player who throws down background organ tracks on recordings, this was a wildly helpful video for a guy who knows nothing about real organ. Thank you!

[garysmith]

Great timing! I JUST recorded my track (today) on a blues original with the Hammond SK-2 to PreSonus and sent them to the next musican to do the mixing via, you guessed it, internet (O:

Footages are related to the single LOWEST pipe in a rank. We could talk pipe organs all day. I am still working for a pipeorgan co. here in the states, going on 32 years now ((O: Thanks for your continued informative video presentations.

But PLEASE don't call a Hammond organ made today a CLONE. It has the Hammond logo on it. And, according to the president of Hammond USA, the current organs are a progression of the vintage 'electro mechanical' instruments. No one makes the current B3 - C3 with all those familiar switches, controls AND real wood cabinets, BUT Hammond/Suzuki. The new Leslies as well are NOT clones of the vintage 4 motor models, they ARE Leslies using the latest technology in motor controls and amp / preamp components. (off my rant now lol)

[Heatherstay]

Having just bought a YC61 this was incredibly helpful. Thank you very much.

[PlayerClarinet]

Good video. Just to join a few more dots for anyone interested:

The length in feet shown on the drawbars refers to the length of the pipe played by the lowest note on the keyboard in an actual pipe organ.
If you halve the length of a pipe, then the note it produces will vibrate at twice the frequency. In musical terms this is the relationship between notes an octave apart.
Apart from the 8' fundamental pitch, all the other drawbars are used to model the presence / absence of harmonic tones. The strength and weakness of these harmonics gives each instrument its characteristic sound.
Fun fact: in pipe organ terminology, stops that speak at the fifth (like the 2 2/3' drawbar) and the third (the 1 3/5' drawbar) are collectively referred to as mutations. Classical organists often use mutations together with a solo 8' stop, like an oboe, to reinforce a particular harmonics and thus spice up the sound.

[dougs_videos_and_such]

Hi Woody - very nice explanation of the actual function of each drawbar - Thanks!

[pascalvanelstlande]

I recently bought the hammond Sk-1. you helped me alot with this tutorial.

[PhotoTrekr]

Hearing Booker T play Green Onions on the Hammond and Leslie made me fall in love with the sound.

[lucianoiacoletti]

I finally can understand the function of drawbars, thanks to your excellent explanation. Thank you so much

[jareddjonesmusic]

Man, fantastic explanation! It really lived up to the thumbnail. Thank you

[ngoulet]

Nice video Woody.

A few tips to add for your viewers. As an alternative to spending $2000 US dollars on a Yamaha YC61, as an alternative there are many good VST soft synth Hammond clones. These save space at home, and on stage. Also less things to carry to gigs or maintain.

It is interesting that perhaps the most authentic Hammond clone is actually software rather than Hardware. Exactly one year ago, the Hammond Organ Company in the USA, Hammond Suzuki in Japan, and software developer IK Multimedia teamed up together to create the "Hammond B-3X" soft synth available for both computers & iPad. The iPad version is roughly around $100 last I checked. They went into great detail to recreate not only tons of settings of the B3 and Leslie, but also many effects pedals and processing that was typically used in famous recordings. Especially rockers used the pedals for amazing tones like the Jon Lord Deep Purple sound. The present keyboardist for the rock band Kansas just put up a great demo on YouTube recently. I would expect a lot of the classic rock bands to be using the B-3X over a hardware Hammond clone.

Here in the USA the M-Audio Axiom 61 made a great MIDI controller for B3 & synth sounds. It features 9 sliders that can be assigned as drawbars, it features waterfall keys, and even aftertouch which is very useful on many soft synths or module synths. Pre-COVID they could easily be found for about $100 all over the USA on Craigslist.

A couple more tips as a rock keyboardist myself. Try adjusting the "Overdrive" setting to get more of a "rock" sound and less of a "church" sound. No matter what the drawbar settings, it will always sound like a church organ without a touch of overdrive, and sometimes other effects and setting changes.

Also also, avoid playing on heavy weighted piano action keyboards at all costs.

Not as flexible as software, but still fairly capable I recommend for your MODX the "Organimation" collection includes some very good B3 sounds, and the novel concept of turning the SuperKnob turns each of the drawbars in sequence up or down. An expression pedal can also be used to speed the Leslie up or down.

[FKL]

Best Hammond drawbars tutorial ever!
Greetings from Paris - France.

[fabiogarlandini]

Just bought a YC 73 (wonderful instrumentm, btw) and this video was really really helpful. Thanks sooo much!

[chriseijlders]

Great explanation. Very helpful for wannabee hammond players like me 😊 and I like your humorous though humble style 👏