From rjacobsen@rushmore.com Sat Oct 23 06:16:52 2004
Subject:XK 3 Fever


I have 2 Hammonds, a 1956 B3 and a 1940 BC. The action on the B3 is
very fast and fluid. I'm trying a new XK3 and it has a little bit
stiffer action than my B3. I thought the Key Click was way to load
when I heard the demos online but figured you could adjust it. It
didn't have a manual in the box so I've had to wing it. It wasn't
that hard to figure out my way around. But like said ealier by
someone, even at 0 it has a more strident artificial sound. I'm going
to run it through my 122 Leslie when I get my preamp back tomorrow.
I'm going to go and get my other Leslie so I can have them both side
by side to give it a Real Test!
I found by cutting the highs and boosting the lows a bit it
starts to sound like my B3. It was a concern to me because most of
the time I will want to play directly into the PA. I think it's a
shame they didn't put seperate swiches for C/V for the manuals. That
to me is a very crucial part of playing a Hammond. I couldn't
believe they did that after going as far as to have the old preset
keys on the thing. They did a fabulous job of replicating the
tonewheels and they turn around and ruin it with the Key Click. I
agree about the boost with the Chorus, it should just boost the high
freq a little bit not the Key Click. They definitely have to fix
these problems.
I don't think you can use the footswitch as a sustain pedal for
midi, at least I couldn't find a way. I don't know why they wasted
their time putting pitch bend and modualtion wheels on it when it
offers hardly any midi control at all. One of the main reasons I
bought it was so I could use it with some modules and have a great
B3 clone. I also wanted to have the Leslie output but I would need
an adapter kit for my 122's. All that said I'm sending it back and
going to buy a CX3!