[HAM] The New B3

[David Anderson]

What was the organ playing through? 

I thought the general consensus was that the latest digital Hammonds were pretty good.....if you played them through a real Leslie. The presence (and I use that term in its technical sense) of a rotating speaker is hard to replace.

Having just essentially built a Hammond Organ from parts as I've turned a beat-up chopped organ back into a real console organ, I can attest to the fact that in addition to the parts, it's quite a labor-intensive process, especially compared to the way they assemble digital circuit boards these days. Doing the math, I had to solder at least 350 joints, not to mention the fact that I had to make a TG to manuals wiring harness. And, no, I wouldn't do it again. I consider it my Hammond Organ repair master's thesis.... A lot of man-hours went into making these beasts.

David

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jordan Kersten <jordankersten at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Jan 29, 2008 2:01 PM
>To: The Hammond Forum <hammond at zeni.net>
>Subject: [HAM] The New B3
>
>
>I just played one of "Hammond's" new B3's...what a disappointment.  Talk about a wimpy, digital sound.  It is so bright and thin sounding.  Sounds sterile and there is no life or breath to the sound like a tonewheel.  The only thing they did right was re-create the cabinet.  It LOOKS like a Hammond B3.  They got every detail of the cabinet.  But tell me, why have a full-size cabinet that is full of digital components?  And boy is the portable version UGLY!  Oh, did I mention it's $25,000!  If I had 25K, the ONLY thing I would spend it on is a 1955 B3 that was hidden away in it's original shipping crate somewhere.  Or maybe if they re-created a new B3 that had tonewheels!  Imagine a B3 that was built exactly like they were originally, but with new parts.