The keyboard (black and white bit) is not impressive it feels light under the hands, trills or generally fast notes seem imprecise due to the keyboard action. In fact the keyboard itself is a disappointment whereas the real C3 keys are actually very good - a delight for fast players.

All the knobs and switches do what is expected but watch out for that percussion button! These are speaker killers - pierce your eardrums material. As you will have gathered the percussion is just too loud, it can be softened by using the internal software but there is really not that much control over this. In fact I tend not to use this feature because of the damage it can cause .

The organ is fully programmable by pressing a row of buttons at the front just under the keys, but the logic can get a bit bewildering, particularly mid-gig! There is the version 2 software which I have now installed. It is an improvement over version 1 as there is more control over the percussion amongst other things. Worth the effort of getting.
 

There is no doubt the onboard digital Leslie is one of the best around. The distortion effect is quite usable too.
The biggest single thing to remember with this organ is that to get any convincing sound you must use top quality sound reproduction equipment. By that I mean don't use cheap or mid priced combo amplifier, I find on studio monitors (Alesis Monitor 1 + RA100) the organ sound great on any thing less be prepared for a lower quality sound. In the past I have DIed the organ into a very expensive PA with good results, forget this with a cheaper PA!

The best loudspeaker of all to use is without doubt a real Leslie. I had a 145 which is a simple connection to the XB2 - the combined sound is superb. The problem is simply the weight of the Leslie! I got compliments all round from people saying how good my Hammond setup sounds.
 
 
 

Do I Gig It?

Do I Want One?

Actually yes, the lower bass notes really do grunt, they sound fantastic. There is a magic tweaker - thanks to Goff Professional (USA) and the Hammond web site I discovered this little trimmer which adds grunt factor! Actually I think it is a drive function, it causes the Leslie amplifier to be driven harder which causes it to distort in a most marvellous way!

The keyboards are excellent to play, light, fast responsive all very good. The percussion is also very good.
 

As to be expected, I think these things are a bit like guitars in that some will sound better than others. There seems to be many tweaks that can be done to get the organ to sound a particular way. For example I recently sat 5 feet away from the Jimmy McGriff at Ronnie Scott's Jazz club in Birmingham, UK, his B3 sounded very warm, rich in tone and clear - he would have had it modified with the best of everything. I read from Goff Pro. that there is an upgrade on the tweeter unit in Leslies - I suspect this may have a lot to do with it. Along with the tone wheel capacitor changes.

If you are serious about your Hammond sound I suggest you talk to Goff's staff and they can advise. The B3/C3 is a real instrument with many years of user enhancements which only seasoned technicians will know about.

After some thought I went and bought the capacitor/filter kit from Goff. Took me some time to fit and much to my delight it has cleaned up the sound. I always thought the tone was muddy, with the new kit it is now much clearer. Also I've fitted new valves (tubes), done the mod on the percussion, oiled the tone generator with Goff's special oil, fitted new output transformer (thanks to Goff for having stock!) and now all seems well.
What I'm saying is these organs will need a bit of time and money invested in order to get the best from them.
 
 
 

As for gigging etc. well you know the score. I don't expect to take mine out , it really needs serious lifting gear like fork lift truck, the organ then needs a dolly (something the lifting truck can get a hold of). Fancy lifting it on stage? OK but will it support the weight? I suspect for serious professionals only.
 
 

The loudspeakers, horn, motors etc. are the same in fact the amplifiers are nearly the same too, the difference is in the pre-amp. The 145 amplifier is a normal unbalanced input which can be fed direct from the XB2. The two speeds being switched by a footswitch at mains voltage (240VAC in my case). But the 122 amplifier has a differential input with the speed change signal being superimposed on the two audio lines. Not that revolutionary in fact similar to phantom powering of condenser microphones, but to get all the signal levels just right is a fiddle, it really needs a coupling transformer or something.

As anyone would I wanted to gig the Leslie but I couldn't bring myself to saw the 145 in two so I made an enclosure similar in dimensions to the 145 but cut in half (see drawing below). In the bottom half is the amplifier and bass rotor, in the top are the rotating horns. The two halfs are connected by a special electrical connector which provides motor power and horn drive. This makes for easy transportation to gigs as I can then lift both halfs separately without too much heavy humping. It looks a bit odd on stage but it sounds superb. Nice.

The news is that I've now sold the 145 to a real wizz organ player called Matt from Romford. Matt couples the 145 to his rare L100 portable organ, the trio sounds fantastic! (the trio being the 145, L100 and Matt!). To hear the 145 swirl out funky jazz was inspiring.