Benmont Tench

Mentioned in this March 1983 Musician article.

Benmont Tench surrounds himself with: Hammond C3, Keyboard Products Leslie, Wurlitzer piano, ARP String Ensemble, Oberheim OBX-A (Petty has one of these, too).

Mentioned by Tench in this May 2017 KeyboardMag article.

What gear are you using on the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour?

I’m using my Hammond C3 organ that I’ve had forever, with a Wurly on top. Also, my Steinway B grand piano that I picked-out for the tour. The people at Steinway set a bunch of them up and I was like, “Wow. This one’s terrific!” They were great, and it’s the best one I’ve had in a while for touring. I have a Nord Stage EX on top of the Steinway, and I also have a Vox Continental with a Yamaha DX7 on top. I use the DX7 only for “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” because I don’t like DX7’s at all. But that’s what makes that sound!

Used only for live performances of "Don't Come Around Here No More", as mentioned by Tench in this May 2017 KeyboardMag article.

What gear are you using on the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour?

I’m using my Hammond C3 organ that I’ve had forever, with a Wurly on top. Also, my Steinway B grand piano that I picked-out for the tour. The people at Steinway set a bunch of them up and I was like, “Wow. This one’s terrific!” They were great, and it’s the best one I’ve had in a while for touring. I have a Nord Stage EX on top of the Steinway, and I also have a Vox Continental with a Yamaha DX7 on top. I use the DX7 only for “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” because I don’t like DX7’s at all. But that’s what makes that sound!

So you’re still using your original DX7 from the time that song came out in 1985?

It’s the only one I’ve ever had! But there’s a spare one somewhere. Before they were ever available in America, Don Henley got me one when they were only available in Japan because he loved it. And I had fun with some of the sounds in it for a while, but they got old fast. They didn’t wear well to me, and the fact that the DX7 doesn’t have an ADSR and you can’t just reach over and turn a knob and say, “Ok, I need to change the filter on this,” or, “I need less attack,” is insane to me. It actually makes me furious. If we didn’t play “Don’t Come Around Here No More” ever again, which wouldn’t make me happy, I would have a party and get an axe, and I’d make a big bonfire, and I would destroy that damn thing. I hate the DX7.

The Nord has been really effective and good, but for the purposes of playing with The Heartbreakers, I’m thinking of getting my Oberheim OB-Xa’s from storage and going back to them. There’s just something about analog that’s special. Also, on the last couple of tours, I used the digital Mellotron, but I couldn’t get it to sound right. I realized the deal is that if you take a mono sound out of it, you can turn the tone down. But if you’re taking it out direct and you want two different stereo signals, it bypasses the tone and it sounds too harsh. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone back to the old, lower quality Mellotron and Chamberlin samples that I used on the Echo tour. They come from the David Kean library, and they’re playing through an [Akai] S-series sampler, triggered off of the DX7. These are the samples I used back on the Johnny Cash records and other things with Rick Rubin, if I wasn’t able to get the Chamberlin into my car! And they sound infinitely better to me.

Mentioned by Tench's keyboard tech, Ken Rich, in this article from Rich's website.

Everything arrived at our humble shop in flight cases marked with names for each instrument-Ethel, Betty, Aretha, et cetera. The centerpiece of the whole affair was his road-worn but beautiful sounding black Hammond C-3 and three Leslies. It’s seen here with one of his VariVibe-equipped Wurlitzer 200As and his signature effects pedal chain:

Visible in a number of posts from Tench's Instagram, including this one, this one, this one and this one.

Visible in this Instagram post and featured in this one.

Mentioned in this February 2014 Reverb.com interview.

Mentioned in this March 1983 Musician article.

Benmont Tench surrounds himself with: Hammond C3, Keyboard Products Leslie, Wurlitzer piano, ARP String Ensemble, Oberheim OBX-A (Petty has one of these, too).

Tench gives more details on the C3 in this May 2017 KeyboardMag article.

What kind of Leslie are you using with your Hammond C3 organ these days?

[Famed keyboard restoration expert] Bill Beer modified my Leslie and my Hammond, close to 40 years ago. It was magic stuff. But when he passed away, he took all of his secrets with him. The Leslie deteriorated, and the Hammond changed. My friend Ken Rich – who’s a brilliant keyboard tech wizard, restored the Hammond his way, but he still kept a lot of what I liked about what Bill had done. He also worked on the Leslie, but it never quite got back to where it needed to be. It was a Solid State model, so I switched to a tube version. And it was great – I used it for the last 15 years or so. But every time I heard “Refugee” or “The Waiting” on the radio, I heard how the Leslie and the guitars co-existed with each other. It’s like the Hammond was loud, but it didn’t take any room away from the guitars. So I went back to Ken, and now I have that Hammond and Leslie combo from Damn the Torpedoes. It’s the closest it’s been since then. The way it rings with the guitars is a real joy.

You’re known to have a real penchant for effects pedals. Don’t you have an effects loop on your Hammond?

Yeah. Bill Beer put that in. I didn’t know there was an effects loop in it. I thought there was a “direct out,” and then I thought that there was a “line in” in case I wanted to run the keyboard that was sitting on top of the Hammond into the Leslie as well. After I had it for about 10 or 12 years, I did a session with The Cult. Someone said, “This Leslie sounds so clean, can you distort it?” And I said, "I don’t think so." And they looked at my Hammond and said, “Oh, you’ve got an effects loop. Let’s get a fuzz pedal!” I was like, “What?” And I was off to the races. I started out with a little Turbo Fuzz, that I also used on a song on the album All Shook Down by The Replacements. Over the years, I’ve tried other things as well. I have a couple of pedals by Line 6, and Ryan Adams, God bless him, gave me a couple of Electro-Harmonix pedals like the Memory Man and the Electric Mistress flange pedal. I also have a tremolo pedal and a turbo boost as well. These are all for the Hammond, and I also use the spring reverb that’s built into it as well. Ever since I got this organ back around 1977, I’ve used this reverb. It gentles it up. Nobody can do what [Band keyboardist] Garth Hudson does. However, there are settings on that Lowrey organ he plays where the attack is a little softer. And that changes the effect of how you play. So I find that using things like the Electro-Harmonix pedals allows me to soften the attack. It’s fun. I even have a Line 6 modulation pedal on the DX7 to give it a little bit of chorus. That makes it tolerable. I also sometimes run my Vox Continental through a Leslie simulator.

The C3 is also mentioned in this February 2014 Reverb.com interview.

My favorite is my Hammond C3 organ that I got in 1978. I have one in my house, but this was the first Hammond I ever owned and it’s been on every Heartbreakers record but the first two, and on every tour we’ve ever done since ’78. A guy named Bill Beer modified it, and he was secretive. When he passed away I went to have it serviced, but Bill had wiped out a lot of the serial numbers and disguised the parts, so you couldn’t quite trace what he did to it. It’s on “Refugee” and everything else. It’s just a beautiful sounding instrument and it’s the favorite thing that I play.

Visible in this Instagram post. Also mentioned in this March 1983 Musician article.

Benmont Tench surrounds himself with: Hammond C3, Keyboard Products Leslie, Wurlitzer piano, ARP String Ensemble, Oberheim OBX-A (Petty has one of these, too).

Visible in the top left corner of this Instagram post.

Mentioned by Tench in this May 2017 KeyboardMag article.

What gear are you using on the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour?

I’m using my Hammond C3 organ that I’ve had forever, with a Wurly on top. Also, my Steinway B grand piano that I picked-out for the tour. The people at Steinway set a bunch of them up and I was like, “Wow. This one’s terrific!” They were great, and it’s the best one I’ve had in a while for touring. I have a Nord Stage EX on top of the Steinway, and I also have a Vox Continental with a Yamaha DX7 on top. I use the DX7 only for “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” because I don’t like DX7’s at all. But that’s what makes that sound!

In an Instagram post, Benmont Tench hints at his use of the Hohner Pianet, drawing inspiration from The Zombies' song "Whenever You're Ready." Notably, The Zombies' keyboardist, Rod Argent, frequently used the Pianet in his recordings. The caption reads: "well I've been hurt but I still love you."

In an Instagram post, Benmont Tench discusses an organ with drawbars, humorously referring to it as an "M-80/747F11," clarifying that the actual model is the Hammond M-100 Organ.

Featured in this Instagram post and this Twitter post.

benmonttench today's pal #thankyoukenrich @kenrichsounds

avocadojesus I have that same custom vibrato in my 140b it's the best. Hey just curious @benmonttench I dunno if you respond to questions like this, but what's your fav amp for your 140b?

benmonttench @avocadojesus I just mic the speaker!

Mentioned in this Music Network Player forum post.

Through the miracle of modern technology, I was able to exchange a few tweets with Benmont (@benchten) yesterday about what keyboards he has at home. Read 'em and weep.

Bosendorfer baby grand two different model Wurlitzers Mason & Hamlin grand Yamaha U7 upright Hammond A-100 with Leslie

He wasn't sure of some of the models. He also said he plays them all and doesn't believe in collector's items.

In a Twitter post, Benmont Tench is associated with a Vox Jaguar organ, highlighting its role in his musical endeavors.

Featured in this Twitter post.

A black M4000D is visible in this Twitter post by Tench.

Tench is credited with playing a Baldwin Electric Harpsichord on Elvis Costello's song "Georgie And Her Rival" from the 1991 album Mighty Like a Rose.