Inside imitation of the pipe organ, with its banks of pipes around multiple registers, a Hammond Organ utilized additive synthesis of waveforms from harmonic series to generate its sounds. When around Thaddeus Cahill's earlier Telharmonium, the single waveforms were mass produced by mechanical "tonewheels" which rotated beneath electromagnetic pickups. Although it is typically involved in a category of electronic organs, strictly speaking, because the waveforms come by mechanical tonewheels like than electronic oscillators, original Hammond organs come electric car like than electronic organs.

a shaping feature of the Hammond organ was the utilise of "drawbars" to mix a component waveforms around varying ratios. More features added to Hammond organs involved an electromechanical vibrato. A distinctive "key click" that was originally the project flaw chop-chop became section of the "Hammond sound", which modern imitations of the Hammond organ reliably reproduce. Exact imitation of a Hammond healthy by owning elementary electronic circuitry was hard, because the subtly-changing phase relationships between tonewheels may not exist as easy replicated.

Speakers originally designed by Don Leslie were widely used using the Hammond organs, though at the start, Leslie was a competing company that Hammond sought to cause away from business. A Leslie speakers had the rotating component that produced a vibrato outcome. Before long, the Leslie became a de facto component of any Hammond setup wishing to create that signature "growling" healthy.

A exemplary B-3 was, and however is, a virtually all sought-when model, though a C-Three differs single around cosmetics. Hammonds may be divided into 2 independent groups: a 'Console' system like a B-Three, C-Three or even A-100 which develop both 61 note manuals & the little 'Spinet' system that st& both 44 note manuals like a L-100 and a M-100. Virtually all Hammond organs don't have a fully AGO pedalboard, something that was done originally for cost & size reasons.

It is worth noting that not wholly Hammonds were of a project described above, utilizing tonewheels & drawbars, which are then think of the 'rattling Hammonds'. a Hammond company produced the total of inexpensive organs which utilized a simpler electronic way of producing healthy, like the exemplary J100. These instruments don't own a distinctive characterful 'Hammond healthy'.

Modern digital signal processing and sampling technologies currently allow pleasantly precise imitation of the original Hammond healthy, & the kind of electronic organs & synthesizers now provide precise Hammond emulations. All the same, original electromechanical Hammond organs come prized for their look & sense, & come however lot coveted by performing artist.