That's definitely an electronic Hammond there, and not a tonewheel. Tonewheel organs usually were designated with a letter dash number combination. For example, the famouse B-3, A100, M100, etc. The letter was the type of organ, and the number was the cabinet style.
I sort of prefer the tonewheel organs, since I favor Jazz and rock music, and this seems to be the desire of the populous now too, as tonewheel Hammonds have a particularly high resale value compared to solid-state instruments. Electronic organs give a little more versaility to the sound, but I sort of think that the electronic organs from most manufacturers sound sort of shallow or tinny, and lack life. The exception to this seems to be Allen organs. That company that has been quite successful over the years in making fully electronic church and other classical organs that emulate pipe organs quite well they were sort of the pioneer in fully electronic organs using tube oscillators. I have also found that some of the earlier Hammond tonewheel organs don't have that bad of a classical sound when they are played with the vibratos, tremulants and other effects switched off.
The type of oscillators in an organ determine it's sound considerably. We begin with the tonewheels which have a jazzy, theater sound, and then several manufacturers began making VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) style analogue organs and synthesizers. These started off as tubes, and went solid state in the late 60's. Tube oscillator organs were persnicikity and didn't like to stay tuned up. There were advertising wars between Lowery and Hammond during this time over whose technology was better. Hammonds were mechanical, and Lowery reps liked to put oil spots on the floor under Hammonds to make them look inferior. Hammond salesmen used to love to feed Lowery's low voltages using an autotransformer to make the electronic oscillators drift out of tune to prove that their tonewheel system was more accurate in tonality. Solid state technology got rid of the frequency drift issues that electronic tube organs had and actually made them practical for home use. Solid state organs are more versatile because they have more waveforms avaliable than a tonewheel (square, triange, sawtooth equivalent to flues and reeds), but if the player is not skillful in blending the stops, can end up more with a shallow sound like heard in the doors "Light my Fire" or Smashmouth's "Walking on the Sun". Electronic organs do not sound good with straight fundamental tones when played with classical music (although this effect is desired in some rock music)
As we got into the eighties F.M synthesis (frequency modulated) which is an early form of digital oscillation came into being. This shrunk organs considerably, and made them small enough to fit on a tabletop. The era of the full-size home organ was pretty much over after this, as portable keyboards from Casio, Yamaha, and the like became popular for home use over them. FM synthesis keyboards and organs had good sound, as the possibalities of different waveforms was virtually endless. These organs became popular too because they had rhythm sections in them too. The drawback to these is the lack of polyphony (how many keys you can play at the same time together) because of a change in architecture. These organs can be found cheaply in both console and tabletop models from mostly Japanese makers. They sound fairly good for classical style playing, but if your "performances' involve lots of stops, with lots of chords, you could run out of oscillators quickly! The Yamaha DX7, a synth, not an organ, was one of the most popular FM synthesis instruments of the eighties, and can be heard in LOTS of eighties pop and rock music from that time.
In the early 90's sampling digital keyboards came into being. These actually created a slight market for full-size organ consoles again, as each one of a pipe organ's pipes could be electronically recorded (Sampled), stored in the instrument electronically, and then played back as the organist plays the indivdual keys corresponding to the pipes. The sounds would be mathematically blended in microprocessors. These sampling organs have an excellent sound, give the versatility and character of a real pipe organ, without the compromise in sound that you get with an electronic organ. They started out quite expensive, as the memory to store all the sounds was not cheap, but have not become relatively reasonable as memory prices have fallen. Still, finding one of these on the used market is a challenge, as they are still new enough to commmand a premium, and there has not been any new technology supplanting it yet.
As far as what you can find at a thrift store? Well, occasionally, Allen organs will show up at thrift stores, yard sales, and even secondhand at churches. Allen organs are electronic, but they have always tried to stick as closely to a classical organ sound as possible, and are a great find for your style of music. Hammonds and Loweries tend to lean more towards a theater/jazz/rock sound. Plus, don't be afraid of the size of Allens, as Allens have been made in anything from small spinet home organs all the way up to full-size classical consoles. Rodgers, OTOH, has only made the larger consoles, and they are a little bit harder to find anyways.
