From hammond.b3@verizon.net Wed May 20 17:02:48 2009
Subject:Re: Chops

Although bill trashed the AO28 and replaced with his own hybrid design, the idea is the same. Eliminate the size and weight of the pre.
I've never tried a Ttrek II pre but as I mentioned, I did play a bill Beer shop and the solid state pre sounded fine to me.
Bob Schleicher told me they tweaked the Trek II in their chops.
I'm not sure what they do but I guess they have some method of enhancing the sound.
The down side to this for me is most often stage size.
The footprint of a chop is still fairly large and the footprint of a BBeer chop is even larger.
That in itself would be the biggest problem since many of my gigs these days are set on tiny stages where I'm crammed in the back behind the guitar player.
Add a Leslie to that and all of a sudden the organ has 50 % of the stage.
From: CT
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 2:20 PM
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CWSG] Re: Chops

I have a Hammond Store chop and can say it is quite well done by John Habry. He's retained the original swell pedal and variable capacitor in a detachable electronic cable. The pedal housing (with removeal pedals just like the console) is also well done although I rarely bring that box along since I'm playing with a bass player. John's retained the original AO-28 amp
and since it was an A100 has the perc.

It still is heavy for 2 men though. You might want to cut the weight a little with Trek SS preamp and Trek perc if you're moding a B2 or other non perc console. Mine is a red wax cap TG and if you've played a lot of Hammond consoles you know that no TG/Leslie sounds the same, they all have personality. Sometimes you may like the ability to dial in a brighter or crunchier sound with a clone, so thats an option. But there is something very special about the original manuals (keybeds) , I've never felt anything come close in a clone (Nord, etc). I think it is the sheer weight and build of the manuals, especially when you get physical with stabs/percussive effects.

my 0.02 is that the sound can come very close/sometimes better in clones, portability and stage space is obviously easier in a clone., but having a chop (w/o pedals) feels great if you can swing it. The drawbars and the manuals feel make you feel at home, which may help in your performance, at least that's how I feel when playing.

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