Novachord

The Novachord is a polyphonic electronic organ and was Hammonds first electronic tube based instrument. It uses 169 vacuum tubes to control and generate sound and has a seventy two note keyboard with a simple pressure sensitive system that allowed control over the attack and timbre of the note. The sound was produced by a series of 12 oscillators that gave a six octave range using a frequency division technique - the Novachord was one of the first electronic instruments to use this technique which later became standard in electronic keyboard instruments. A total of 1096 models were built and this particular instrument is one of three know to be still functional.