For sale, Available Cheap:  I have a Hammond Novachord that I would
rather not move to Bath, Maine (not far from Wiscasset!) in a month
or so.  It is not self-playing, but is a unique and fascinating
keyboard instrument that some of you may like to acquire for almost
no cost beyond transportation.

Built by Hammond around 1937, it has a 6-octave keyboard and could
claim to be the first synthesizer.  Knobs and stop switches control
not only the timbre, but the attack and decay envelopes.  Thus you can
simulate banjo, piano, violin, human voices, woodwinds, and whatever
you can make up yourself.

It has about 160 big octal tubes inside, two per note plus amplifiers,
plus mechanical vibrato oscillators.  It has a sustaining pedal for
building up big chords, and a Hammond-organ style swell pedal.

George Gershwin drooled over the Novachord and bought serial #0001.
No idea how many were made, but probably not many.  This is a real
collector's item for someone with the room.

It's the size and shape of a square piano, and at least as heavy.
It's in pretty nice shape, with no chipped keys.  Mahogany case.
Built into its pedestal are two 12" speakers and a very powerful triode
amplifier (4 2A3 tubes in push-pull parallel).  Many of the notes will
require resistors to be replaced under the chassis to play correctly,
but the chassis is surprisingly easy to work on.

The keyboard touch is very light, so it would be easy to fit a bank of
small solenoids under it to play from MIDI transcriptions of piano and
organ rolls.

I have two 78-rpm record albums of Novachord performances.  The style
is a mixture of theatre and Hammond organ plus piano techniques.

I'm more concerned about finding a good home for it than making
any money.  And saving on a huge moving bill.

Mike Knudsen, Wheaton (near Chicago) Illinois

 [ The Novachord I saw many years ago used lots of 7-pin tubes
 [ with a grid cap on the top.  When did octal-base vacuum tubes
 [ emerge?  What's the serial number of your instrument, Mike?
 [ -- Robbie