rockinroller

I play at church and "schlep" two boards (each weighing around 30lbs), two scissors stands and a folding seat, plus gig bag of cords, etc. It takes me 20 minutes to get set up. It's a little more effort than bringing one board but I am always grateful for the 2nd one after I am set up and ready to play.

So do you think that a total of 76 keys (on the Kurz) is sufficient to manage a dedicated Hammond area, strings, horns, or even a piano, and a lower level of keys sufficient to reproduce reasonable sounding bass? I would guess three zones on a 76 note board would be pushing it. The LH bass alone requires at least 15-20 notes in my experiences, and that leaves 55 or so notes to allocate to two other sounds--many of which should not have to be limited to only 2 octaves or so. Seems a lot to ask a single keyboard to do, and frankly I've had song situations in which all three of those compartments need to be up and running and as accessible as moving my hand (i.e. to a 2nd board). Finally there's the economics (always a consideration for us pro musicians!): I've been offered a brand new Mojo 61 for $1299 shipped from a retailer. Assuming you buy the desktop version of the GSI Gemini, the price I found for that online was at B3Guys, at $1199 retail. Is that correct, or is there somewhere else out there that this can be purchased for substantially less?

Dave: You and I have dialogued a lot over the years and you know how I like to have two boards on stage--one to my right, at a right angle to the board in front of me. My consideration of the Mojo 61 purchase is based on having it be that 2nd board (to my right), so that all the Hammond stuff in the songs can be covered by simply getting my right hand over there on the keys, while the left hand chords, fifths, etc. are managed on the Kurz in front of me. In addition--with the Kurz splits I've created and saved, I am able to simply return with my right hand to the frontal board for string/horns/synth, etc parts, while still maintaining the left side split of piano (or in many cases in my situations: bass). Buying another board with a lot of "other" sounds, and probably compromising on the Hammond-only part of the formula--doesn't meet my objective.

There's been a couple of resales of these Mojo 61's on this site and I've seen at least one other on another online site. I'd be curious to hear from any of you that have owned the 61 but got rid of it, as to why. Being such a new board and with apparently limited availability--at least in the States--it's a little disconcerting to see the quick resales. I'm really into the pure B3 and especially an authentic reproduction of the Leslie, and would really like to know if this is the best thing out there in one portable package, without buying an Electro 5D, Kurz PC3, the H-S SK or XK boards and a Neo Vent. Thanks!