Here I have some information and couple of images of a Finnish made drawbar organ WLM.
WLM electric organs has been made between 1972 and 1984 in Karkkila, Finland. The late 70´s and early 80´s was quite a revival of an electric organ in Europe, so it was no wonder that there were markets to an organ designed and manufactured in such a small country like Finland.
WLM´s design is quite near to a Hammond organ; tone generators controlled with set of drawbars. The main difference between these organs is that WLM uses solid state amplifiers and electronic sine wave oscillators to produce its sound. In my opinion, the base of the sound of a WLM organ is cleaner, very near to pure sine wave and so it has no such kind of warmth and "dirtiness" that an original electro-mechanical Hammond has.
The very first WLM model "TRIP" was a combo organ with two 5 octave manuals. I have been told that it had a tone generator "more like a Hammond", which could mean that it had own oscillator to each tone. Later WLM models used 12 base oscillators which were then divided.
Later models of a WLM production were "HIT" and "BEAT". HIT was similar with earlier TRIP -model, both 4 octave and 5 octave manual versions were made. BEAT was a home model with similar technics than HIT, plus a simple rhythm machine with "auto bass" and "auto comping" features. BEAT had a 30 Watts built-in amplifier and a Leslie speaker system, which was a two speed vertically rotating styrofoam drum on the front of a 10" speaker. There were also stationary channel to one 12" and two 6" speakers.
Both models had a one octave bass pedals, but at least couple of BEAT models were equipped with full 2 octave pedalboard.
The WLM HIT was a very portable organ because of its low weight (60 kilos, 132 lbs) and a genious design. It had no such kind of tube legs the most combo organs used and it did not need an extra "flightcase" where to pack the organ; the bottom part of the WLM HIT was a case with handles where the organ itself was turned when packed for transporting. (See the picture)
The total number of WLM:s are somewhere over 10000 organs. Most of them were sold in Finnish and European markets, but several organs were also exported to the USA. Last WLM was made in 1984, after 12 years from the first prototype (which still exist in the WLM music, Karkkila).
WLM BEAT, a
home model with rhythm machine, built-in amplifier and Leslie speaker system.
The three position rocker switch on the left side of the lower manual is Leslie
control. (Fast-Off-Slow)
WLM HIT, a
portable model of the BEAT. It has no power amp, speakers or rhythm machine.
Those little chrome knobs on the left side of the upper manual are touch
sensitive presets; 7 factory made and one for drawbars. Presets are only for the
upper manual. (See also the list of the new features of the latest HIT models).
The main
idea of the WLM HIT case. The bottom part is a transportation case where the
organ can be folded down. When packed, the organ is very easy to carry and has
very small dimensions.
Look at
the inside of the WLM. Down left there is the tone generator with the power amp
on its right side. Upper circuit boards have rhythm machine on the left and
drawbar controls on the right side. (Made with ordinary slide potentiometres).