Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Harmonic Percussion

The B-3/C-3's 1954 addition, advertised as "Touch-Response Percussion Control" — and the reason the B-3 became the jazz organ rather than one model among many.

Behavior

  • Adds a short decaying envelope to a note as it is struck: choose 2nd or 3rd harmonic, fast or slow decay, soft or normal volume (the four percussion tabs).
  • It is monophonic and only on the upper manual — play legato and the percussion only re-fires on the first note, which shapes the classic single-line jazz phrasing.
  • Important trap: engaging percussion removes the 1′ drawbar from the upper manual's normal voice (the two share circuitry).

Why it matters

That "bong"-like attack lets the organ imitate plucked/bowed articulation — Jimmy Smith built his horn-like phrasing on it. Combined with a Leslie on tremolo, it is the definitive Hammond jazz voice.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-hammond-organ.md]

  • hammond-b3 — where it debuted
  • drawbars — interaction with the 1′ drawbar
  • vibrato-chorus — percussion bypasses the scanner (percussion is post-vibrato on the 9th harmonic line)