From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Tue Jan 15 05:20:14 2002
Subject:Re: Hammond XB1

A third possibility: Waterfall keybeds might have been in short supply, and Ham-Suz made a decision to sell the XK-2 in some markets, and made the XB-1 to cover the rest. We made similar decisions in PC features when I was part of the teams designing laptops for NEC, DEC, and Compaq.

At 08:13 A 1/15/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>Steve,
>
>I believe that it's essentially an XK-2 with synth-style keys. The reason you don't see it in the US is that it's sonically identical to the XK-2. The reason why it's sold outside the US, rather than the XK-2, is a bigger question. I suspect it boils down to cost: If Ham-Suz' distribution system isn't lean enough, the cost of an XK-2 may be too high, so corners were cut to get the cost down. Then again, it might be marketing research that shows a preference for synth keys outside the US, or something.
>
>At 11:46 P 1/14/2002 -0800, you wrote:
>>Saw this keyboard on www.hammond-organ.com. Is this keyboard available only outside the USA? A search on Yahoo turned up references in Europe, Australia--but none in the US. Can somebody hazard a guess as to why you don't see this one is the States?
>>
>>---Steve
>
>Regards,
>
>-BW
>
>--
>Bruce Wahler
>Ashby Solutions™ http://music.ashbysolutions.com
>CloneWheel Support Group moderator
>978.386.7389 voice/fax
>bruce@ashbysolutions.com
>
>Yahoo! Groups Sponsor