From goffmac747@aol.com Wed Sep 22 11:50:17 2010
Subject:Re: Selling a Leslie 145 to buy a Ventilator, am I nuts?

Hahahaaaahhhh.. I could agree about the stupid part, if I decided to
forget that we were "inspired" enough not to care about the cost and
logistics. Perhaps it comes with youth. After a certain age or music
level you just don't have the "inspiration" anymore. Next frontier if
we live that long is if we will even want to turn on the light portable
clones we have now.

Last year we did back line for Nine Inch Nails. Although they are not a
Hammond type band, they did have a few keyboard stacks strewn across
the stage. If you saw how much gear 45 year old Trent Reznor decided to
bring, you might think it was stupid. And they air freighted the gear.
But for the music he and his band put out, 20-30 guitars and basses out
of closet sized ATA flight cases, racks full of amp heads connected to
drawers of pedals run by engineers off BOTH SIDES OF THE stage, and
then more pedals for the guitarist, Trent and the bass player on stage,
with guitar/bass changes almost every song, drummer with his own kit
and drum machine on the side, you may come away with realizing, these
guys were still "inspired!"

Since the Leno/Conan debacle happened you don't get to see Jimmy Vivino
come to the gig with yet another unseen cool vintage, period correct
guitar and sometimes an amp. That man is "inspired!"

The trends are changing as regards vintage Hammonds, some acts insist
on there being a real B3 which I hear has dwindled down to an A-100
chopped or stuffed into a B cab, making it a less valuable serial
numbers matching, factory original B3 to bastardize on the road. Reason
being its too expensive to bring and maintain a vintage B3 on the road.
Yet major cities will have outfits like S.I.R. on both coasts and in
major cities http://www.sir-usa.com/ (not affiliated with them) who
can't get enough B3's and major groups that may show up at some
one-Walmart town will opt for a clone with a leslie that they brought
while when they play big cities or some prime time talk show will rent
a real B3.

Kelly Clarkson, whose act is mainly herself, her MD keyboardist will
opt for a B3 sitting under his other synths if he can get it, and her
music is not really Hammond orientated to where it would make a
difference to the audience and her fans. Her MD is "inspired!"

I know these major touring groups are not the average clonewheeler's
territory, and the older guys just can't all move the heavy gear as
they used to, but hopefully a small stage and anemic band members don't
kill off the inspiration. It was major touring groups that inspired us
in the first place.

A 145/142 leslie on lockable casters could
serve as a clone stand in a
pinch the same way a scratch artist's gear would be a table built on
top of a speaker cabinet with 3 15's and take up the same real estate
as a keyboard stand. Think how much real estate a turntable artist
takes up, sometimes as large as a B3 or larger and some times he's part
of a regular band. Who gets to argue his validity in the group?

I used to stand at my
B3, not sit so this would work for me on a small stage with a clone. It
may not be
everyone's cup of tea but its an idea.

Goff

-----Original Message-----
From: djacques@csulb.edu
To: Clonewheel Group
Sent: Wed, Sep 22, 2010 10:53 pm
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: Selling a Leslie 145 to buy a Ventilator, am I
nuts?

 
That reminds me of a gig we played several years ago at The Blue Cafe
in Long Beach. We were already set-up and hanging outside on the front
patio when the upstairs bar band showed up. A bunch of teenagers
lugging up countless Marshall bottoms and SVT's up a long staircase. We
all looked at each other and smiled, remembering when we were that
stupid.