Ian, you used a Twin Reverb for keyboards? So did I. I different times I ran a Farfisa Combo Compact, a Hohner Painet and a Moog Opus3 through mine. I also used it for a PA for a while once I got a Leslie for the Farfisa. I bought that sucker from a high school classmate for $50 and sold it for $400. Now I could kick myself...

Yep, the Twin was a great amp...mine is still going strong; sold it to one of my keyboard students quite some time ago, and he's still using it.

I had a pair of Celestion full range speakers installed in mine, by my now Yamaha techie, and guitar playin' buddy, Gerard.

It helped a bit, and still kept that warm sound...back then we had a bass player, and I stayed away from that frequency spectrum for the most part, but I wouldn't put an arranger keyboard through one, as it still doesn't give enough lows...we gotta remember, we are essentially putting a whole band through our speakers.

Sure weighed a lot, didn't it? I don't miss that at all, but the tube sound on my Polymoog, Roland SH-2000, and Wurlitzer (and later my Rhodes)sure helped to warm them up nice.

They are worth a few bucks today.

That's why the Leslie was so nice...tubes.

BTW, I also had a Farfisa...a VIP-233 with dual manuals, and big fat cheap plastic "drawbars", two keyboards, and a "slalom pedal"...sounded pretty good through the Twin, but even better through a Leslie.




[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 10-22-2009).]

Best amp for a keyboard I ever used (note I don't say 'keyboard amp', this only worked on one sound at a time keyboards!) was the Fender Super Twin. Weighed a ton (maybe where I developed my tolerance for hard lifting ) and would give a guitarist with a 100W Marshall stack a heart attack

Put a Rhodes through that, sonic nirvana...

Sadly, the scanner vibrato is the one area few clonewheels TRULY nail. I'd play 'no Leslie' a lot more if they really got it right. FAR better 'cut' and in your face sound without the Leslie (if that's what you are going for).

Hey chas... if you saw a Nord C1 on stage, you telling me you wouldn't stick around for the first set to hear THAT? Or an XK-3c with lower manual? Me, I'd want to hear what someone could do once they restrict themselves to just that one basic sound...

I stand corrected. I guess I do like Green Onions. Thanks --Mac for hipping me to that arrangement. Very cool indeed.

Dave

------------------
Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band
The Modulators

Of course. That's the gist of what I'm talking about. I said 'B3' symbolically, but any of those three would tell me that I was about to hear a group that cared enough about the 'Hammond sound' to dedicate a considerable amount of money, floorspace, setup time, and musical content (that portion of the groups arrangements allocated to organ). But especially in the case of a 'real' B3, in that NOOOOBODY is going to haul that sucker around unless authenticity is really important to them. If it happens to be in a jazz club, I'm probably going to hear some 'poor mans' Jimmy Smith.

Listen, I've heard one organist after another claim not to be able to distinguish a B3 from a Nord C1 or XB3c when hooked to a leslie. The two main reasons for no mass migration (IMO) are, the layout (no drawbars and tabs) in the case of the C1 and Price (and to a lesser degree, weight) in the case of a two-manual Hammond XB3c. There's also the looks and aesthetics, in the case of the Nord C1. There's something regal about sitting behind the console of a real B3. It has a lot to do with how it makes YOU feel, as well as the audience. I don't think there is a single source to it's mystique. Some things have it, some don't. The 'B' does.

chas

Yep... I guess that would qualify it as the 'real deal'

Have you got the 'button drawbars' thing down on the C1 yet? I had an Electro at home for a couple of weeks, and after some initial problems, got pretty used to them. Plus, like many B3 players, back in the day I had my favorite registrations soldered in to the preset reverse color notes, so I never used to do much more than 'shade' the settings on the live drawbars, and used the presets for most changes.

The SA Jazz Rotary on the little PSR-S910 has the vibrato chorus (scanner vibrato) nailed....one of the reasons I bought it.

Love that sound.

Can you remove the Leslie, and still have the scanner vibrato still on? Plus, does it do the Hammond Percussion single trigger/polyphonic system that defines the Hammond sound?

I am as big a fan of that sound as you are. Trouble, of course, is it is just the ONE sound (or two, if you count the other one ). Want to shade off the high end drawbars (or add a bit of 1'), or add a bit of more weight to it for a chorus, you are kind of stuck. I'm pretty sure that, back in the days when you did play something with drawbars, you wouldn't play a whole song with them on the same registration. Even just raising the Perc level from soft to hard would help a line pop out. With the B3 sound, God is in the details...

Pretty well the only thing I didn't like about the C1 was the color...

Red?

Yes, it's the corporate colour, and it does look cool, in a combo organ sort of way, but it doesn't look, as you say, "regal".

If it was a black ebony cabinet, it would help quite a bit, and even some decent wood grain (some synthetic stuff looks pretty good...no, not Mac Tac...the stuff they use on some Mahogany Clavinovas is nice).

I didn't mind the Nord's pseudo drawbars...they aren't a big deal, as long as you can save your favorite settings, and the Leslie sim on the Nord was easily the equal to the Hammond XK-3c.

I also thought the key action was very nice...very responsive...handled single note repeats very well..felt "expensive", like it was designed by someone who played organ.

Just too bad it's red.

Better red than dead...

I've played Hammond's painted a variety of colors. Strangely, they all sounded OK The day that color matters in the slightest, I'm going back to my mother-of-pearl accordion!