From funkyhammond@yahoo.com Sat Jan 01 11:28:02 2005
Subject:Re: XK-3 First Impressions


The action on the XK-3 doesn't feel anything like the real Hammonds
I've played (A,B,C,M series). Sure, Hammonds can feel different, just
like they can sound different. But they still sound like Hammonds and
they still feel like Hammonds. The keyboard on the CX-3 feels closer
to a real Hammond to me. The XK-3 keyboard feels more cheap and
synth-like. If you turn off the volume and just play the keyboard, it
feels like you're playing a synth, not a Hammond. And the added fact
that the note triggering is so shallow makes it feel like there's even
less resistance, which contributes even more to the action not feeling
right, in my opinion.

As far as the overdrive is concerned, no, I didn't try to reset the
XK-3, but I did play around with different presets and whenever I
turned up the overdrive, it had the same characterstic fuzzy
distortion. Maybe it could be improved somewhat with tweaking and
internal EQ controls, but it's so far away from the overdrive of the
real thing, I can just tell it's never going to come close. I can't
remember what keyboard amp it was going through, but I also played it
through headphones and my opinion of the overdrive was exactly the same.