christianjwagner wrote: ↑22 Sep 2022, 11:14
Personally, I would refrain from using the Swell function anyways.
On the other hand, if you want to play authentic Hammond parts, the swell pedal is critical. If you have Drive set to zero, you won't hear much of a difference between swell and volume, but if you have it set at 50% or higher the difference is considerable, and important for certain kinds of parts.
For authentic Hammond playing, your foot should be on that pedal pretty much all the time. It's an extremely important part of the performance, just as important as changing drawbar settings and Leslie speed as you play.
In a pop band context where the Hammond parts are pretty much window dressing, no big deal either way. But if you're trying to sound like a real player, you absolutely need a swell pedal, and you need to use it a lot, and with artistic intent. So there should never be any surprise at the volume when you begin playing, since your foot is on that pedal.
Regarding the difference in tone: the swell pedal on a Hammond is between the organ and the Hammond preamp (and Leslie.) If either the Hammond preamp or the Leslie gain is set at the point where it will distort when pushed, then pushing the pedal will cause that distortion. A volume pedal (assuming you're using a full-range flat-response amp/speaker system, which you normally should) shouldn't change the tone at all. In the signal chain, it's the last thing before the output, other than the master level knob.
The fact that the swell never goes to zero is authentic to the original, though IMHO it's unnecessarily authentic. The upside is that we get a little more control in the normal range.
