For you real B3 players...

[jackson white]

https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2022-04-01/heavy-lifting-the-hammond-organ-has-a-special-place-in-austin-i-should-know

[Tim Smith]

It won't let me see it Jackson.

[jackson white]

@Tim Smith  link is working like a champ here, possibly ur browser? 

[Old Joad]

Worked for me.

[Bapu]

23 hours ago, Tim Smith said:

It won't let me see it Jackson.

 

26 minutes ago, Old Joad said:

Worked for me.

I had to answer some questions (purchase type survey) in order to see the article.

After a while reading it..... tl;dr

[Tim Smith]

Well now it works. Wind must have changed direction.

[Notes_Norton]

In the late 70s I played in a band with a B3 player. It was over 400 pounds, and it took 4 of us to move it. But it sounded great. He had 2 Leslies and put one on either side of the stage.

I've heard some of the digital reproductions, and they don't sound the same. It's close, but missing something. I can't explain what that is.

If I were a B3 player on the road, I'd use a digital copy though, the audience wouldn't know the difference, and my back would.

And as far as I'm concerned, all B3 players owe a debt to Jimmy Smith.

 

[bitflipper]

It's been years since I last sat down at a B3, longer since I've had to haul one, but all it takes is a photo to remember exactly how comfortable it is to play one. Those lightly-weighted waterfall keys encourage your fingers to glide over them like weightless sprites. Aiming for a C and lazily press B and D at the same time? That sounds good, too. In fact, go ahead and lay your whole arm across the keyboard - there is no such thing as dissonance on a Hammond.

As a Hammond acolyte, I am obligated to point out one trivial error in the linked article, though. It wasn't a B3 on House of the Rising Sun. It was the cheap Italian-made VOX Continental. I know this because at the time though I lusted for a Hammond I could only afford a Continental. Consequently, I was thrilled to see the likes of John Lennon or Alan Price playing one on TV. Those guys can surely afford a B3 and someone to move it, I thought, but there they are on TV playing on the same red plywood box that I used.

[Notes_Norton]

Before the band with a B3 we had a Farfisa Combo Compact or something like that. An Italian competitor for the Vox Continental. We were on the road playing the college circuit back then. It was bright red with a black stripe on it.

It had similar sounds to the Vox, not nearly as rich as the tone wheel Hammond organs, though.

We used to switch instruments a lot in that band. I played the organ on "Psychotic Reaction" by Count 5. I don't remember what the keyboard player switched to or if he got on the mic for singing lead. We did a lot of showy schtick back then.

At the end there is a 2-beat section that was supposed to be psychedelic I suppose, but in actually was just a lot of noise. One day I kicked my boot off and played glisses on the Farfisa. The girls went wild!!! "That guy is so good he could play with his foot!" was a typical comment.

Playing college towns and having the girls go wild is always a good thing for a young boy on the road. :D :D :D

We kept that up, and it seemed to always work, no matter what town we were in.

A couple of bands later, I never played the B3, just help "lug and tote" it.

Ah, fun memories. I'm living a charmed life.

Notes ♫

[bitflipper]

Our sax player complains that he has to carry TWO instruments, an alto AND a tenor. Then I talked him into adding an FX unit, and just about broke him.

[Notes_Norton]

Ah! I remember the days when it was a tenor in one hand, an alto in the other, and a flute tucked under my arm. One trip in, set them up, and I'm ready to gig.

But times have changed, bands have been downsized, and we have to do more than one thing on stage.

Now for Mrs. Notes and myself (The Sophisticats):

• 1 Tenor sax
• 2 wind MIDI controllers (including a spare)
• 1 Pedal for the wind contrllers
• 1 Buchla Thunder tactile MIDI controller
• 1 Korg pad Kontrol
• 2 guitars
• 2 Amp sim/fx pedals for the guitar
• 1 flute
• 1 rack with 4 synth modules, a 12 channel mixer, an FX unit and various interfaces
• 4 laptop computers (including the spare)
• 2 'hot spot' style monitors
• 2 powered speakers with 15" woofers
• 2 mics
• 7 stands for speakers mics etc
• 1 A-Frame stand
• Enough cables to make a suspension bridge
• A suitcase full of spare parts/cables just in case (the show must go on)

I tell our clients that we play for free, and charge them to move the gear.

But for 37 years we've been gigging steadily (except for the COVID interruption) and never wanted for work. I also tell our clients, the only band that has lasted longer than us is The Rolling Stones. As soon as that settles, I add, and we still have all the original members.

If the timing and audience is right, it gets a chuckle and last week it got a standing ovation.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[craigb]

I prefer B12...

[bitflipper]

9 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

I tell our clients that we play for free, and charge them to move the gear.

That wouldn't be a bad deal if musicians got paid as much as movers.

There was a bar manager who complained that we charged $50 more than the next most-expensive band. I think we were splitting $350 that night. I told him, "tell you what...if you can get a plumber who charges less for three hours' work, we'll take whatever you'd give him instead."

[Tim Smith]

Well I'm real and I play a VSTi B3, actually a few of them. 

You get into gospel Jackson? 

[jackson white]

@Tim Smith  did the quartet thing in ATX for a bit, but just sitting in with some of my crew who's moms had them roped in for the sunday gigs. i'd crash at their place after a gig on sat night and then get dragged off to church if i didn't get up an leave early enough. great stuff though.

and ran with a street preacher up in BOS for a couple of years helping out with their originals, he had a gang ministry and we ended up playing all kinds of events including radio stations, tents, churches, the strand theater, basketball tournaments, etc.  i've got stories, and somewhere, a tape or two.

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by jackson white
...

[Tim Smith]

6 hours ago, jackson white said:

@Tim Smith  did the quartet thing in ATX for a bit, but just sitting in with some of my crew who's moms had them roped in for the sunday gigs. i'd crash at their place after a gig on sat night and then get dragged off to church if i didn't get up an leave early enough. great stuff though.

and ran with a street preacher up in BOS for a couple of years helping out with their originals, he had a gang ministry and we ended up playing all kinds of events including radio stations, tents, churches, the strand theater, basketall tournaments, etc.  i've got stories, and somewhere, a tape or two.

Kewl.

 

[JohnG]

Takes me back to spring '65 when we helped the John Mayall Blues Band get John's B3 onto the stage at the Arbor youth club in a tiny village called Pyrford in deepest Surrey. I believe they hadn't brought enough roadies to lift the beast. It took four of us and nearly broke our backs.

We'd just finished when Eric (Clapton) and John (mcVie) turned up to do their thing. (Check it out on Eric's gig list, 15th May, '65 - whereseric.com)

Eric spent most of his evening watching two gorgeous, mini-skirted chics dance around their handbags, as they did back in those days.

A memorable evening.

[Notes_Norton]

Back in the day, if two gorgeous, mini-skirted chics were dancing, I never would have noticed a handbag.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't notice the bag today either.