The ‘Solovox’, Hammond Organ Co, USA, 1940

Hammond Solovox
Hammond Solovox


Hammond Solovox
Hammond Solovox

Solovox Production Models

  • Model J (1940–1946)
  • Model K (1946–1948)
  • Model L (1948–1950)

Solovox patent files:



9 thoughts on “The ‘Solovox’, Hammond Organ Co, USA, 1940”

  1. I bought a Hammond solovox tune cabinet model K In fair shape and I was going to make a speaker box for my tiki bar . I was wanting to find out if I should repair it and sell it ,don’t know much about them just though the wood box was nice to redo and put in my bar . Thanks for your time James

  2. Hi, my name is Derek Riggs.
    thank you for your movie, it was very entertaining.
    I am planning on making a piece of music using the very oldest electronic instruments that I can find. so I was looking to find the oldest reverb unit. it seems that the first reverb units were spring reverbs made by Hammond some time in the mid 1930’s. they added a reverb unit to their keyboards to improve the sound, which was very flat without it.
    anyway I was wondering if you have come across any very old Hammond keyboard from that era and if you knew what the built in reverb actually sounded like?
    I have a suggestion about the big metal box inside the cabinet of the solovox. Hammond mounted the reverbs inside the speaker cabinet
    (to help cope with vibrations.) their first reverbs were called “necklace reverbs” and there were three coils which actually hung down like a necklace, so the case for them might have been large and thin, a bit like a pizza box. so the mysterious box in there might be a very old necklace reverb unit. but this is just a guess.

    1. I have an old solo vox for sale. If you are interested please get in touch. It has one burned out tube. I know that because I saw it flash.

  3. Just saved a keyboard unit only from a piano getting junked, no electronics cabinet. The electronics unit looks identical to the RT series of full pedal Hammond organs with 32 pedal notes plus solo(vox) unit.
    The first reverbs were vertical springs in tubes of oil. That was Hammond’s first reverb’ used in the oldest tall cabinets.

  4. I have a solovox tone cabinet from the 1940’s that I got at a flea market many years ago. At the time I was rather inexperienced with electronics, and I attempted to play my Kay upright bass through it. Needless to say I blew out the old solovox with a room full of smoke. I still have the old solovox and was wondering if it’s worth anything, but only for its wood cabinet. Its guts still smell smoky after 40 years when it went POOF!

    1. Playing the bass probably didn’t blow it, unless you shorted something across the B+. Most likely the power transformer blew bc of shorted filter capacitors. If you pull the 5Y3 tube out and turn it on ,and it smokes , it’s toast. If it doesn’t , it may can be saved. By all means don’t put the tube back in until you have it checked out. If it’s a goner , you can still get $$ for it for parts on eBay

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