From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Mon Jan 29 09:41:33 2007
Subject:Re: Clone Players 1-2% of Keyboard World (was Double Triggering)

Hi Lou,

I'm based on sales figures, including students and kids. I DON'T count someone who plays a "Hammond-like sound" on 2-3 songs a night as a true CloneWheeler; a CloneWheeler (by my definition) is someone who likes the tonewheel organ sound enough to use it on most songs, and to probably spend money on a keyboard or module JUST for it's tonewheel sound. It doesn't matter whether you play "Hammond" on an XK-3, an NI B-4, or a Casio '3000: you bought the keyboard because it was the best Hammond sound available for your situation. You know what a Leslie is, and maybe even owned one once, or still do. You probably know that the black keys on a B-3 don't make any notes, and that a Hammond B-3 is a mostly mechanical instrument inside.

This group has been around since late 1998, and we are now up to ~1900 members. Because of the difficulty in finding Hammond-like gear, and the fact that most people who play a tonewheel organ in 2007 -- as opposed to say, 1967 -- are pretty diehard fans, I would expect those players to be more likely to join online forums and such than general keyboard players. I would bet that this list represents at least 20% OF ALL THE CLONEWHEELERS IN THE WORLD. If that's the case, then we are talking about 8,000-10,000 players. That's a very small number compared to the total number of piano and synth players. Since our needs often run counter to the rest of the keyboard world, we have to make do with compromises from time to time.

Case in point: Hammond clone keyboards have been around since the late '70s/early '80s, yet it wasn't until around 2000 that the first commercially-available waterfall keyboards showed up on products (BX-3 and Electro). And even those products aren't perfectly suited to the needs of the players.

Another example: Walk into the keyboard department of any large music store in a big city (Boston, LA, Chicago, NYC, etc.) Don't pick a piano & organ store, because that's cheating, IMHO. Count the number of keyboard products on display, including modules. Then count the number that are specifically designed for CloneWheelers -- if there are any even out. I'll bet the result is under 10%. Do the same in a smaller city (pop. 50,000-100,000) and the result is likely to be zero.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™ http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com

At 11:17 AM 1/29/2007, you wrote:
>> Unfortunately, clone players are only 1-2% of the
>> keyboard world. :-(
>
>Really? Only 1 to 2%? Maybe a lot of players just
>use some internal patch on their synthesizers to get a
>"Hammond-like" sound. I also hang out at the Keyboard
>Corner and it seems the number of clone and B-3
>players there are much higher than 1 to 2%. Or are
>you also including all the people who "play piano"
>which includes students and little kids? I have
>always wondered how many of "us" there are.
>
>Lou
>

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