From wwood_38478@yahoo.com Thu May 31 13:40:22 2007
Subject:Re: Was:Don't blame your tools; Is: strangest organ rig?

Well, I started out as a bass player about 1962.
About 1967 I switched to organ.
Played a Vox through a Fender Bassman amp, all that I had at the time.
About 1971 I bought a used Leslie 145 with the combo preamp.
WOW!!! what a difference.
Possibly about 1972 I added a Wurlitzer electric piano.
It was used and problematic.
About 1975 I bought a used "Maxikorg"(spelling?).
It was a two voice analog machine with knobs and sliders, and pretty good for the time.
Sometime in the early '80's I bought a new Rhodes stage 73.
The first new keyboard I'd ever had.
Next was a DX-21, one of the first.
Then came the Korg Triton Le, and the Roland VK-8
My current rig is the VK-8 on bottom, Korg Le on top, through a Beringher 200 watt keyboard amp.
I have the Peavey Spectrum bass module and an old MidiBass module.
I sometimes use the Spectrum module with my Roland PK-5 bass pedal board but usually have a bass player.
I also have a DX-7 that I used in organ through the Leslie 145.
I still have, but don't use, the Rhodes, DX-21,DX-7, the Leslie 145 and a Leslie model 900.
The Bassman amp burned up in a fire at a club I was playing in.
The Wurlitzer, Vox, and Maxikorg were traded or given away.
Wish I still had them too.
Walter


tonysounds wrote:
Yep, it's good to revisit some core truths, especially the tool truth.

Think back to your strangest organ rig, and the jams and sounds accomplished with it. How about listing your weirdest organ rigs. I've got a quick chronology of mine...

At 17, I bought a Hammond M3 for $250 to augment my suitcase Rhodes. I ran it into an MXR Phase 100 and my amplifier. It was good enough for Tony Banks (Genesis), what did I know about leslies? !!!

I sold that at 21 (and my Rhodes) and bought a Yamaha Cp30 and a Roland RS09. The RS09 did "organ" but I used it for strings and poly synth stuff (by running it into an Ibanest Parametric EQ pedal and sweeping the Q), and I used the CP30 for piano and organ. It didn't have organ presets, but my amp at that point was a Shure Vocalmaster, and the weird combination produced some organ playing out of me....even if it didn't sound like a Hammond. I wish I had some recordings of that rig so I could hear it now. I played that rig for a couple years, augmenting with an Arp ProSoloist and Arp Solus.

It was a few years before the Hammond bug hit me again as I was eyeballs deep into the whole "synth" thing; I actually lost an audition when asked "yeah, those are interesting sounds, but you got anything that sounds like a Hammond?" to which I replied "Hammond??? Hey, this IS 1985 buddy!!" The best retort ever came next: "yeah, well, thanks for coming out, let me give you hand getting that shit out the door." !!!

But when the bug hit, I bought an analog CX3, which I played for years!!! (Paid $250 in 1985). Ran it as is, after a year desired more of a leslie sound, and bought a used 147 for $100. It had a power switch in the back, and a 1/4" input at the amp. Needless to say it was kind of weak, so I took a line-out from my TOA mixerhead, and I was closer. But I had no way to change speed, much less the knowledge that that was possible! Eventually, that thing got sold off.

Still was gigging the CX3, and I purchased Yamaha GP50 processor for a thick chorus to augment the sim (the one speed leslie showed me what I was missing) and still used the sim.

Around 1990 I bought another Hammond finally: a C3 with the legs cut off and a 910 leslie. Too big to gig with, I was in heaven at home, and realized how crucial the leslie was to everything. I eventually bought a G4 Toneworks pedal for the CX3 and was getting closer!

I eventually stumbled on an 820 leslie (I think it was the 820...no upper rotor). That thing sounded like ass, and I pawned it off on my guitarist. (Yay!!! One for our team!)

It eventually dawned on me that I could plug that CX3 into the 910 and get closer still, but while the rotors were spinning, that thing sounded ugly as hell, and I returned to the G4.

I continued to use that CX3 (for like 10 years....and I know NONE of you can believe that!), until I finally got a shortboy leslie and a combo pre. (1995?) Thats when the lightbulb went off!! I got a 2nd shortboy a couple months later, because one wasn't loud enough (at least in a latin rock band with 3 percussionists and a drummer and a Carlos-obsessed guitarist). #2 turned out to be PLENTY loud (The Bulldog).

I bought a Hammond XM module at this point, and really liked it through the leslie, even with its weird faults. I was triggering it with my A90 controller (88 weighted), but eventually realized I needed a non-weighted controller to get more of the Hammond vibe. Besides, smears were REALLY painful!

I traded up to a VK7, and gigged that for a couple months, but the sound of the VK through the leslie really bugged me; liked it better through its own sim, but that was no longer good enough. While still gigging the XM module, I traded that VK7 and some cash to Numerous Complaints in Georgia and commissioned a dual manual chop. Now THAT was an improvement! I carried that thing and the shortboy around for a long long time. That was the sound I had been looking for. Eventually I bought another chop from the HammondStore, and that was even better! (all tube path) But it was bigger and bulkier and heavier than my Numerous Complaints chop, and eventually only came out for really special shows. I gigged those two chops for 8-9 years.

I would go through periods of clones (bought an XK2 and used that for 2 years) until I got the Electro for an overseas tour with weight and size restrictions. I also went through all kinds of Speakeasy gear (even using my Speakeasy preamp with my Numerous Complaints cutdown as it had a Trek II preamp), and a few Motion Sound products that only lasted in my arsenal for a month each, always returning to the real leslies. But the Electro stuck around even when I got my XK3, and my XM2 module, and my Receptor with B4.

At this point, my chops are gone (It was a sin in my eyes to hang on to them when I wasn't gigging them and my hours of practice dont' start til 11pm, which is not conducive to cranking up a leslie when there's a house of sleeping people, so out of respect for those organs, I sold them to be played). I'm down to the Electro, an XK1, and B4, using either ths sims on Electro and B4, or my XK1 through an RB3.

And now, I'll be cranking through the new Speakeasy Leaning Tower of Rb3 soon as that gets delivered!

Long strange trip it's been!

How about you guys?

jake92028 wrote:
This turned out to be a very interesting and inspiring topic after I
replied to Denny's post! NO insult intended to anyone by "bottom
feeders." It really was a long-standing blues jam - the sarcasm
intended in its name was, I think, "If you can't play anywhere else?"
We had a big canvas poster hanging across the back of the stage that
said "Bottom Feeders Blues Jam," covered with an artistic group effort
at renditions of catfish, crabs, shrimps, lobsters, leopard sharks -
all the usual back-bay low-water critters. I played there and donated
some of my speakers, microphone stands, etc. I was usually the only
keyboard player, but when another player showed up, dragged down by a
friend who told him how much fun it was; I gave up my spot. Everyone
(we generally drew a fair to good crowd) went nuts over the "new"
keyboard player - plugged into the PA.. while I had a beer and
recalled, "No one is indispensable." Everyone's gear situation is what
it is and - usually - for good reasons.

Walter j

"The meek shall inherit nothing." -FZ
www.myspace.com/pinkfreudchicago
www.myspace.com/ynottnaro

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Walter Wood
United TV Service
501 Poplar St.
P.O. box 602
Pulaski Tn. 38478
mailto:wwood_38478@yahoo.com

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