Organ Repairman Is a Hero to Hammond Lovers

Somewhere in Brisbane, Australia, is a Hammond B-3 organ named "Randy."

Apparently, if you do something nice for an Aussie, he'll do something nice for you—like name a musical instrument in your honor.

So meet "Randy the Hammond," mate.

It's named after Randy Jarvis, who lovingly restored it to its former glory, then packed and shipped it 7,200 miles Down Under to a musician who just had to have it.

That might seem a bit extreme to the uninitiated—don't they have Hammond organs in Australia?—but not to Jarvis or his clients.

Because this is what Jarvis does, what he thrives on, what makes him excited about going to work each day at his north La Mesa shop, Jarvis Keyboard Service.

Jarvis is a craftsman and technician who has found the ultimate specialty business: He uses his passion for electronics and "doing things the right way" to provide musicians their dream instruments.

Most of his business is local. But he's carved enough of a niche—especially with the Hammond B-3 organ—that he sells instruments around the world and also works with some of the biggest names in music.

 "We have 35 years worth of doing this, so we figure we must have done something right along the way," says Jarvis, 61.

Since 1975, he's been working on keyboards, restoring treasured organs and fixing electronic instruments. For the past four years, Jarvis has worked out of his store on Lake Murray Boulevard, a shop crowded with organs, pianos and keyboards of all kinds.

As Jarvis talked about his work on a recent busy afternoon, he stopped to talk to a woman about repairing her son's broken portable keyboard, then helped another customer who was bringing in his piano for service.

But it's Jarvis' work with the Hammond B-3 organ that, he says, is "a big specialty for us."

As he explains it, the B-3 in the '60s and '70s was the keyboard of choice for rock bands. "There were literally thousands of songs that were written with these electronic organs," he says.

But over time, the heavy, vintage B-3s—they weighed about 325 pounds and were accompanied by heavy external Leslie cabinet speakers and amps—were replaced by lighter, digital keyboards. Then about 15 years ago, many musicians decided they wanted the true sound of the original B-3.

"Rock 'n' roll bands started to search for B-3s, and B-3s got popular," Jarvis says. "And I started to collect them and restore them and ship them all over the world."

For many musicians—like the one in Brisbane—finding a perfect, restored B-3 became a quest. The Australian found Jarvis' website (keyboardservice.com), e-mailed him, then called and eventually sent him a cashier's check for a B-3 and the shipping costs which, Jarvis says, "wasn't cheap." A fully restored B-3 costs $12,995 and takes about 200 hours of labor to produce, Jarvis says.

Another customer, Dennis Rich of Escondido, had a similar desire for a B-3, and when Jarvis was able to accommodate him, it was a perfect marriage.

 "The moments I really like are selling to people like him who can really appreciate the quality of a restored B-3, because he gets so excited about it,"  Jarvis says. "Like a kid in a candy shop ... they're going to get a new, old B-3.

"Delivering it and setting it up in the house and seeing him play it for the first time, I think that's where the joy [of work] comes from."

Rich, 62, said Jarvis' "passion makes it possible," and praised the quality of restoration done on his B-3.

"Randy is so much more" than a salesman, he said. "He has a tremendous education as a technician, but he also has a passion. ... He is first-rate, and he's a jewel for someone like me to find."

Jarvis spends a good deal of his time on the road, driving around the county, making service calls and doing the hands-on work he loves.

He wishes it could be 100 percent of his job, but, of course, he has administrative work to do, too.

"I hate paperwork," he says. "I want to fix stuff."

Finding his way to La Mesa

Jarvis' path to keyboard wizardry started in Waukegan, IL.

He grew up fascinated by electronics and was studying the subject in high school when a friend in a band introduced him to the Hammond B-3 organ. He learned to play it a bit—"I'm good at making people think I can play," he says—before going on to college where he saw a "help wanted" ad for a technician at the Saville Organ factory.

He got the job in 1975 and in two years became lead technician. When the company decided to move to Wisconsin, Jarvis decided it was time to move to California.

It was in San Diego in 1978 that Jarvis was looking at organs one day in a Sears store when a salesman started a conversation. When the salesman learned Jarvis was a trained factory technician, one thing led to another and the kid from Illinois suddenly had a career.

"He said, 'Why don't we form a relationship? Go get some tools.' And I said 'OK,' and I went over to the tool department and I got some tools and I came back and he said 'Fix this organ.' And I fixed it in about 10 minutes. He said, 'You just started your own business. I'll be sending you five or six people a week to get things fixed.' "

Since then, Jarvis has had stores in San Diego and San Marcos before opening his shop in La Mesa, a place he's always loved for the "antique-quaintness" of its downtown, the train station, the shops and the trolley. Although he lives in El Cajon with his wife, Mindy, he'd always had La Mesa on his radar as a spot for a store.

As the years passed and other technicians have retired, moved or passed away, Jarvis' stature—particularly with Hammond B-3s, Hammond C-3s (the big church organs) and Hammond A-100s (the home version)—has grown.

"It's totally a niche thing," says Jarvis, who adds that he's "kind of swamped" at work—a good thing—because of his reputation and experience.

That reputation, in fact, extends to professional musicians. He's worked with James Taylor, Carlos Santana and Kool and the Gang, among others, and is on call to service organs at churches and local concert halls.

He recalls getting an emergency call from Taylor's people a few years ago when Taylor was just a couple of hours from performing a charity concert at Mission Bay Park's Hospitality Point.

The Hammond B-3 that Taylor's band was using was "out of tune," and Jarvis was needed immediately to service it. So police ushered him through traffic and crowds. Jarvis ultimately solved the problem by determining the organ had been plugged into a generator rather than a regular AC power source, which caused the organ to sound "flat."

Bingo, all fixed.

"[Taylor] said, 'Outstanding, you saved the day,' " Jarvis recalls. As thanks, the singer treated Jarvis and his wife to a front-row table and a bottle of wine for the dinner show.

After all these years in business, Jarvis says he's still learning. He remains fascinated by electronics, loves to tinker and fix things and has even immersed himself in computers. He subscribes to Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, and tackles home repairs.

"If something goes wrong at home," he says, "I'm the guy who gets it fixed."

Even James Taylor can attest to that.