Agreed! I always wanted to run the HB section through my Motion Sound Leslie, but couldn't do it.
Fortunately, the BK-9's drawbar section fixes every single complaint I had with the G70's, and more! I no longer feel the need for an external Leslie, and honestly think the drawbar section compares very well against the Nord's and Hammond clones out there.
Obviously, at a good $1500 or so less than the G70, the BK-9 cuts a few corners. There are no longer additional outputs, for the mike section or the arranger Parts. But this is in line with what other arrangers do at this price point.
In truth, I will still most likely in most circumstances use my mike into a normal mixer rather than plug it into the BK. Unless circumstances force me into a gig situation where there is only one house input available and I can't use my PA, I can see no advantage to using the BK-9's input.
Unfortunately, I think they skimped on a couple of things on the input. They do have a programmable EQ for the mike input, and a reverb, but I have not yet found any documentation on how to program the reverb, and I would really have liked a programmable echo as well (tempo synced would be great). My mixer provides this (and powers my top cabs).
But the loss of the VH affects me not at all. I hate those things! At least the ones built into arrangers..!
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!