From PHILLH@TOWERS.COM Sat Jul 06 18:35:12 2002
Subject:Re: B-3000 cabinet --> faux B-3 correction

--- In CloneWheel@y..., "huwgareth2002" wrote:
> --- In CloneWheel@y..., "Stephen Holcombe" wrote:
> > I found a Hammond B-3000 for sale for a few hundred dollars. I'm
> not really
> > interested in it for itself, since I understand it has the
> reputation as
> > being one of the poorest imitation B-3s ever. However, that
> familiar-looking
> > cabinet got me thinking. What would be required in order to take
it
> and make
> > it a sort of poor person's version of the new B-3--in other
words,
> MIDI-ized
> > with a digital sound source? I assume it's old enough to be pre-
> MIDI and so
> > would need to be retrofitted, but once that's done, replacing its
> internal
> > sound source with a decent clone would result in something with
> the "feel"
> > of a B-3, yes? Or no? Or is the B-3000 just too different in
terms
> of switch
> > layout etc. for it to "feel" like a B-3?
> >
> > TIA,
> > Steve H
>
> It has been a long time since I even saw a B-3000, but I think that
> the technical problems that you'd hit trying to do this would be
> pretty intense. I don't think that retrofitting MIDI would be as
easy
> as you make it sound.
>
> If your objective is to have something that looks like a B-3000 and
> sounds like a CX-3 or whatever, I think that you'd be better off
> gutting the B-3000 and fitting the CX-3 (or some Fatar keyboard
plus
> Voce stuff) inside. You could then fit the stuff in positions more
> like they are like a B-3 - e.g. fit one Fatar keyboard below a CX-3.
>
> Whether this stuff would fit or not I don't know.
>
> But personally I wouldn't consider this a worthwhile objective
> because the B-3000 is not a particularly great looking keyboard.
You
> can find a B-2 or a BC for a few hundred dollars and do the same.
>
> And also I don't think that someone should gut a B-3000. They may
be
> horrible but they do have some qualities and personality that are
all
> their own.

Ignore everything I said about the cabinet! I incorrectly recalled
the cabinet shape. It does, of course, look like a B.