Yet another Novachord project
Meet Hammond Novachord No. 1851
This page is preliminary and the links are not working yet. In time I will be adding content to the links. Thanks for reading!

My interest in the Hammond Novachord began in September 2009. On the 13th, I picked up two nice Hammond amplifiers at the Findlay, Ohio hamfest. A few days later, (18th) I Googled Hammond amplifiers to see if I could find any information about them.
Of course, Phil Cirocco's website was front and center!
I didn't realize such an amazing piece of engineering existed! Here was a polyphonic synthesizer designed, built and marketed back in 1938! I am blown away!
Being very interested in pre-WWII electronics (ie radios) This fascinated me! I wanted to know more! In the back of my mind, of course, I was wondering if I would ever be able to secure such an item?
Well, I did ask a number of my radio friends if they've ever heard of or seen one. Also I checked ebay on occasion, but I really didn't put much stock in finding one. Oh well, it's a pipe dream.
A few years had gone by. I occasionally would think about the Novachord. I picked up a copy of Phil's CD, but I didn't really put much thought or effort into the idea of owning one.
August 1st, 2013 I drove up to ARCI Radiofest in Willowbrook, Illinois. As the show hadn't oficially started yet, I had some time to kill. I tapped into the local WiFi to internet, and ended up on the Antique Radios dot com forums. For whatever reason, I clicked the Classifieds forum, and there was a Hammond Novachord posted for sale! OMGOMGOMGOMG! I nearly fell off my chair! The price was right and it was near Columbia, South Carolina!
I can do this! I'LL TAKE IT! :D
August 16th, I made the trek to South Carolina in my Ford Transit Connect to collect my prize!
Once home, I had the task of unloading it.... by myself. Not an easy task, but with some careful rigging I did it safely.
Here are some photos of the arrival.


Finally, out of the van and in the garage.
The top canopy is not pictured as I moved it directly into the house to store it safely out of the way.

Look at all those 6W7Gs! Oh, of course 12 6C8Gs, a 6J5G and a 6J7G.

More to come!
Thank you!
Thank you for reading!
Home