Tweakgeek, I've had a C3 with a Leslie 145 front and center in my living room before, and I don't necessarily recommend the decorating approach (although the Hammond was chopped, to be fair). That monstrosity had to go several years back (unfortunately just before the sound caught on again and prices went ballistic), but I'm now working on a beautiful little M3 in mahogany with bench that I found at a Goodwill and bargained down to $65. It'll probably need a new motor though. And I don't even play keys - I just keep these around 'cause I love 'em, and like to have an organ available for jamming purposes since I play guitar. I'm actually not really big on Hammonds for rock though, which is why I've also kept a couple of Farfisa Compacts over the years, and one day hope to find a clean Vox Continental for cheap (probably too late for that one now).
Phasecorrect, I don't really know the history of the instrument, but the C3 was the forerunner to the famed B3, and is essentially the same organ without the percussion effect. Mine was manufactured in the late 30's, and had the percussion module added in the 50's, so it was functionally a B3, but without pedals since it was chopped (removed from its wooden cabinet to make portable, if you can call anything that damn big and heavy 'portable'). The entire family of Hammond organs that give the sound you like are called electric tone-wheel organs and generate sound from a rotating machinery, with tube preampilfiers, and tube power amplifiers in models with built-in speakers. They have various numbers of manuals (keyboards), keys, pedals, and pull-stops, depending on model and size, with the C/B3 being the largest. Other desirable models can include the "M", "L", and "A" ranges, but at a certain point the line changed over to solid-state amplification, and eventually the tone-wheel system was replaced by all-electronic oscillators. The well-known Hammond spring reverb units can also be found in many of the models with built-in speakers. The C/B3's don't have either, depending instead on the external Leslie tone cabinets for their power amplification and true rotating horn speaker, which give the characteristic distortion and doppler vibrato/tremelo effect made famous by the organ-trio jazz players, along with the action's key-'clicks' and the bell-like overtones of the percussion settings (the unadorned, undistorted sound of the tone-wheel generator is actually fairly flute-like).
