From ozmusicman88@internode.on.net Thu Jul 18 06:12:50 2013
Subject:Re: HAMMOND X2

The Ace Tone GT7 was followed by the smaller dual manual GT5, which was only available briefly as it was essentially the same as the Hammond X5 that it eventually became.

I imagine that weight was a significant factor in the keyboard size, given the analogue technology of the time. My next clonewheel after the Ace Tone GT7 was one of the first clonewheels made by Roland, a VK9, which did have 61-note keyboards and a 25-note pedalboard, but also a weight of 73 kg (160 lb).

Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi had long been a fan of the tonewheel sound, and having met him through the family music business where I was working at the time, I was fortunate to acquire a custom pedalboard cover for my VK9 (the cover had been made as a prototype but did not make it into the production version.)

wrote:
> ... The X5 had 44-key manuals, and I never could figure out why Hammond, in those years, wouldn't make portable instruments with 61-key manuals).

> I played the AceTone G7 at Sam Ash in Manhattan when it came out. It had a better action than the X2, and as mentioned here, the X2, X5, and the G7 shared the same circuitry and manufacturer (AceTone was the predecessor to Roland)....