From westy1979@yahoo.co.uk Thu Feb 15 03:11:17 2007
Subject:Re: Vintage Korg CX3

Den,

Thanks so much for taking time out to write that email.

You have explained alot to me and i feel i have learnt alot reading what you wrote.
It seems with patience and alot of tweaking the old CX3 is useable.
What you wrote in your summary seemed to sum it up though when you said if you have the cash get a newer clone. In listening to what people have had to say, and demo clips and friends organs im really enjoying the sound of the Clavia Nord Electro 2.
It seems to have a big monster of a sound. Are you a fan of the Nord?
Im trying to get one from the States as its cheaper than buying one here in the UK.

Once again thankyou for your email, it was a joy to read.

Nick


Denny wrote:


I have the OLD CX-3 which I use now to jam around at the local blues
jams, and have struggled to get a "bond" with this instrument a bit. I
have a real CV hammond downstairs with a leslie in the studio which
doesn't leave my house (it's from 1947!) and I can tell you if I play
the real thing, then the Korg it's pretty hard to feel good about it.
But if I start on the Korg, I can live with it. But there are a few
"tricks" I've picked up to be able to do that. Number one, that far
left drawbar isn't like a hammond, it's a bit overwhelming. I run mine
at 6 for a hammond setting I'd run at 8. ANother thing, the Korg is
great at the bass notes up to about the middle of the keyboard, but at
the higher end it's not got that scream that a hammond will, but
that's semi fixable too. The CX has an effects loop, and a bit of
overdrive pedal works to make it a bit more usable and that ends up
before the leslie sim in the signal chain. I have a behringer (pardon
the obsenity)volume pedal right before an overdrive on mine and after
spending a lot of time fiddling with knobs, it's usable.
Now as far as the leslie sim goes, that's a struggle with this
little beast. I've ran it through a real leslie, and couldn't believe
how good it sounded after finding out MMW used a BX-3 (old one) on
"It's A Jungle In There" through a leslie. When I do the blues jam
thing I've just been using the one in it because frankly, those jams
are pretty guitar oriented and there's not a lot of space to hear
details if you know what I mean. I also picked up one of the cheaper
little Danelectro pedals that was supposed to be a leslie sim, which
sounded good on demo pages, but when it came and I ABed it with the
internal Korg one the Korg was actually closer. I will be trying it
out on that boss one as soon as I can haul the thing up there to the
music store but you'll probably be buying one before then.
Oddly enough last night I was messing with some of the blues
backing tracks from that guitar center contest, and I recorded the
Korg just to see what it recorded like. When I listened back with a
bit of digital reverb, it brought the leslie sim out a bit better
adding a bit of digital reverb to it. I'll see if I can encode it to
MP3 and put it somewhere so you can hear it.
I did listen to your 4 songs on your page, and I think you could
make the old CX work well enough on "Feel The Same" and "Hung Out",
again at the end of feel the same you might have to add a bit of
overdrive, although that sound seems to be all the bars out full, and
the Korg actually does that one better than the old Jimmy Smith
84800000 type stuff. I didn't hear any hammond on Paint, and the litle
high tinkly type things were all I heard on "Clap Your Hands" and that
sounded doable.
One final thing, there are reliable rumours that the caps tend to
leak on these because of their age, you might want to look inside if
you can before purchasing it. It's fixable if you get it early enough.

Keep in mind, I'm one of those guys that's really into the hammond
and extra fussy about my clone sound. But the old Korg is a board
you'll have to work with. IF you have the cash, it'd probably be
better to go with a newer clone, but if it's the right price (Mine
was) these things have their own little character to them.
Den