• Country
• United States of America (USA)

• Manufacturer / Brand
• Hammond Instrument Co.; Chicago, IL

• Year
• 1938–1942

• Category
• Musical instruments

• Radiomuseum.org ID
• 279009

Click on the schematic thumbnail to request the schematic as a free document.

• Number of Tubes
• 163

• Valves / Tubes
• 6K6 6N7G 56 2A3 6C8G 6W7G 6J7G 6J5G 5Z3 or 5U4G 5V4G 5Y3G

• Wave bands
• - without

• Power type and voltage
• Alternating Current supply (AC) / 58-62 cycles: 115 Volt

• Loudspeaker
• 2 Loudspeakers

• Material
• Wooden case

• from Radiomuseum.org
• Model: Novachord - Hammond Instrument Co.;

• Shape
• Console with any shape - in general

• Dimensions (WHD)
• 52.25 x 38.25 x 36.75 inch / 1327 x 972 x 933 mm

• Notes

• The Novachord was a 72-key electronic instrument, widely considered as the first commercial polyphonic syntheziser. It features:

  • 9-channel Generator section with 12 oscillators, 60 frequency dividers, 60 band pass filters and 72 VCAs. 132 tubes in 6 octave channels, 12 tubes in oscillator channel, plus vibrator channel and pre-amplifier channel.
  • Control Box with 18-channel passive mixer
  • Preset mechanism (2 preset sounds)
  • Resonator filter bank with 1 low pass, 3 band pass, 1 high pass and 1 bypass
  • Attack control for adjusting attack, decay and sustain for all 72 notes
  • Power amplifier unit with 7 tubes
  • Power Supply unit with 10 tubes
  • 2 Jensen electrodynamic Concert Speakers model A-12

  Tubes mentioned once per type. Note the list may be incomplete.

  From Mobile Media Lab:

  The Hammond Novachord was invented in 1938, and uses over 160 vacuum tubes to generate 6 octaves of electronic sound. This purely electronic mechanism of tone generation is entirely different than the immensely popular Hammond Organ (released around one year earlier), which uses a series of motorized magnets to create its sounds. Only 1069 Novachords were ever made, before the Hammond Organ Company was conscripted into building radio transmitters and designing guided missile technology for WWII (after which they ceased production of the instrument, although the circuits were integrated into different Hammond instruments over the years, such as the Solovox and Chord Organ). The design of the Novachord, where all the notes on the keyboard could be played simultaneously, distinguished it sharply from the other purely electronic music instruments available at the time, such as the Theremin and Ondes Martenot, both of which are monophonic. This “chord-playing” feature, along with the mechanisms for sound filtering and shaping, grant the Novachord a claim as the first commercially available polyphonic synthesizer. Most of the 1000+ instruments that were built have been destroyed or lost.

• Net weight (2.2 lb = 1 kg)
• 500 lb (500 lb 0 oz) / 227 kg

• Mentioned in
• Radio Craft, April 1939

• Literature/Schematics (1)
• Popular Mechanic, April 1939

• Literature/Schematics (2)
• -- Original-techn. papers.

• Other Models

• Here you find 4 models, 2 with images and 1 with schematics for wireless sets etc. In French: TSF for Télégraphie sans fil.
  All listed radios etc. from Hammond Instrument Co.; Chicago, IL