From simon@alphabeck.co.uk Tue Jun 27 06:35:18 2006
Subject:Re: Keyboard Magazine

Well, are they, now? Imagine the original tonewheel generator to be a "black box" - you don't know exactly what's inside it, just that it has 100-odd outputs and that each output has a specific frequency. As I understand it, you could theoretically replace the digital "tonewheel" unit of the New B3 with a real tonewheel unit (or vice versa) and it would work. Real tonewheels themselves are mechanical only because it was the most practical way to generate over 100 different frequencies simultaneously in the 1930s - the classic Hammond sound owes very little (apart from phase characteristics and pitch approximations) to the physical design of the tonewheel generator. No clonewheel instrument has the multi-contact keying of the New B3, and I'm told this really does affect the tone and playability of the instrument.

Simon Beck
London, UK

> They are a clone company too!

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