What is the Hammond T-500? (Part 2)

The Hammond organ sound owes its popularity to almost exactly one thing: its presence in Black churches. Gospel music became popular in the US in the 1930s, and churches that couldn't afford a pipe organ had to make do with the next best thing, the Hammond. Gospel organ players would play the Hammond in church on Sunday, after playing in a club Saturday night. As above, so below. The music played in the clubs became rock and roll, and the next thing you know the budget pipe organ sound was in Procol Harum songs. 

Laurens Hammond had intended to create a replacement for the pipe organ, and any characteristic of the sound that deviated from this goal was a flaw to be eradicated. Many of these flaws became integral parts of the beloved Hammond sound, but our friend Laurens didn't care. He hated the Leslie, he hated key click, he hated crosstalk. Even worse, in his obsession with eliminating these imperfections, he added circuits that not only failed to entirely eliminate key click for example, but also dulled the sound. Laurens did not care. 

The worst casualty of this hideous crime against perfectly fine frequencies was the T series. It had the worst of Laurens' tone-weakening hacks and kludges, and it also added a bunch of bells, whistles, and preset sounds (like guitar) in the aforementioned misguided attempt to beat Lowrey at their own game. There is a swell German website that details the process of un-fucking the T series which can be found at this link: Keyboard Partner. A quick perusal of this site will give you a picture of how fucked the T series is, and perhaps an appreciation for why I am attempting this project.

The T series has the ability to produce the classic Hammond sound, and the ability to produce the one-hand-tied-behind-its-back Hammond sound. I want to offer both and more.