From doug@cc.ysu.edu Thu Aug 23 07:25:46 2001
Subject:Re: 4 drawbars

Thus spake James.eaton@accenture.com:
>
> The funny thing about Hammond-Suzuki's post B-3 organs is that they
> look like they should have 4 sets of drawbars but only have two.
> This trend started with the H100s. Even in H-S's newest products,

I believe the H-100's had 4 sets of drawbars - IIRC it actually had
2x11 drawbars for upper, 2x10 for lower, and 4 for pedals - and it had
the reverse-key presets. The H-100 and X-77 (similar layout, but "up on
legs") were attempts at replacing the B-3/C-3 I guess. Nasty organs,
reportedly unreliable. I think these were the last pre-H-S Hammonds
that had 4 sets of drawbars.

The E-100 - sort-of successor to the A-100 - was about useless by
comparison (I know, I have one - it was $75). 3 non-resettable presets
and one set of drawbars per manual - a big L-100, sort-of, but more
mechanically and electronically fragile. I know of people that have
gutted all but manuals, vibrato and TWG and put in AO-28-type preamps
to make a sorta-C3 chop out of them.

Some of the LSI Hammonds from the 70's had completely different drawbar
sets - I saw one that had yellow and green drawbars for the lower
manual. As it wasn't tonewheel - and not even a particularly good clone
- I didn't pay much attention to it. The B-3000 (one of the first full-
size clones, I think) had 16',8',4',2',1' mellow and bright drawbars on
the lower B drawbars.

> there is a gaping space on the front panel either side of the
> drawbars where there should (obviously?) be the missing two sets from
> the B-3! Anyone else noticed this?

I think other than the XB-3A/XC-3A, one set per manual is it. There is
space on the 926 and the XH-272 to fit a second set. Why didn't they,
unless they wanted to get away from the idea that Hammonds "are drawbar
organs" (probably). I saw both of these, and the XB-3A, recently in
the local H-S authorized dealer (no XK-2 in stock tho).

Unrelated note: someone was asking about a semi-weighted keyboard clone
with 73 keys, I think the larger Nord is, at least that's what
Musician's Friend says.

Doug
--
Doug S. (doug@cc.ysu.edu) (http://cc.ysu.edu/~doug/)

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