A Look Inside...
Sharps for the pedal board.
One side of the case for the controller. The wood hasn't been treated yet.
Back in the days the case for the original Hammond B3 was commonly built out of walnut wood and less frequently out of cherry. For this project we opted for cherry wood and its reddish and even a bit kitschy look when painted glossy.
Unfinished cherry wood case for the B4 Controller.
Prototype of the electronics for the drawbars.
Most of the electronics had to be custom developed as there was nothing available to cover all of the functionality of a classic Hammond B3 with the full drawbars set, preset keys and all switches. The Arduino platform was of great help for doing all the prototyping.
Final version of the custom developed controller electronics.
Based on the working prototype the final version of the electronics was developed. Everything was put onto one relatively small circuit board. This made space for the future integration of a computer into the controller.
MIDI interface and electronics for the two manuals.
The electronics for the white keys section of the two manuals as well as the actual manuals were bought from Doepfer. The manuals are similar to the ones used in the Nord C1 and Nord C2 combo organs and are manufactured by Fatar.
Putting the pieces together. It slowly starts to show similarities to a B3.
The finished wood case for the B4 Controller.
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You can find further images of the development process on my flickr account.