Piktor

I am not a fan of drape cloths. Sensible velcro cable ties? Yes. Permanent snake cabling is a no go, as it could make me less able to change my rig from gig to gig. To be honest, as far as feeling concern about gear stage appearance goes....meh. Most of my past gigs were in dive-ish places, so no one could give a sh**. (I AM the guy who once tried to start a thread titled "Dig My Wreck".) For some reason I have found myself much more concerned about the manner of dress some of my fellow music makers adopt than I have ever felt about cabling. (Crocs? Shorts? Golf shirts? Sweat pants? Severely normal dress? Blues hats and two-toned shoes? You've got to be kidding!) Of course, I would appreciate any innovation that made it easier to set up and take down and would keep me from tripping over cords or spilling something, as long as it would not require me to update a bunch of gear just for that convenience. Regarding the side-of-boards jacks, I would have more appreciation for recessed inputs/outputs than anything else. When I used to teach, my school's Yamaha P-120 made regular trips to the repair shop, because kids kept brushing up against the cord jacks and cracking the circuit boards that the output jacks were connected to. Finally, my great repair tech came up with the solution of moving the output jacks to the bottom of the instrument. Obviously, that would not work if one wanted to stack the instrument. Just my thoughts...

Hey Sam, you might find this old article on DS's work on that album of some use: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sting-and-hugh-padgham/3116 Towards the end of the article there is a list of some of the gear that DS used. This more recent interview is also interesting and may be of some use: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/david-sancious I recall a time when we could rely on Keyboard Magazine to provide such content.

Hilarious. I was just about to type in "Worst name: Swinging Richerd (sic)" I guess I just did. No offence intended....

I am very sorry to hear this. I got to hear Lonnie play live three times. The first time was about twenty years ago when he appeared at a festival in Ottawa with Lou Donaldson. I was an instant fan. Lonnie had a remarkable ability to engage listeners while sitting behind some 400 odd pounds of cabinet. A smoking player who also wrote some great tunes. I made a point of playing his 'Pilgrimage' for my farewell gig a few years ago. RIP Dr. Smith.

That"s interesting RABid. Up until a couple of years ago, there was very little about the Talking Heads or Byrne that I ever appreciated. I suspect that had I seen them live I might have felt differently. On a last minute whim, I got to see this show on Broadway when I was in New York two years ago. I DID enjoy the choreography and actually came away with a much greater appreciation for Byrne. Of course, most of the music was new for me too. It was a very different experience than seeing a live band do it"s normal thing, but the execution of the music and movement on a bare stage was, for me, very effective. At times there is so much going on on stage that I could probably have come back the next day and enjoyed the show a second time. I have not yet watched the film, but I think that will be on my to do list.

Great. I'm glad to turn someone on to this. I have become a Brian Charette fan and I see that Henry Hey (nephew of Jerry Hey) has done some interesting things as a player and producer. I was watching some of his YouTube interviews with folks like Jim Beard a while back. (https://youtube.com/c/HenryHeymusic) A Larry Young recording that was unearthed a few years ago has a couple piano, organ, drums tracks: In Paris: The ORTF Recordings. As a side note, it looks like Joey Defrancesco's upcoming release features an interesting trio where his guitarist plays organ when JD plays trumpet. I love the idea of having band members who have the ability to move to different instruments, depending on what a tune needs. [video:youtube]

Maybe this will fit the bill: Backup by Brian Charette Personnel: Brian Charette (B3 Hammond organ), Henry Hey (piano), Jochen Rueckert (drums). (Of course, as always, buy the album.) I have been enjoying this album for a couple of years now. I have often wondered why organ, drums and piano trios aren't more common. It seems that a Rhodes would sub for a guitar quite well.

Dave, my friend (the fellow who bought your Voce MIDI Drawbar unit) operated his instrument repair business for about 35 years. Of course, over the course of those years he saw a lot of changes. When my dishwasher broke a few years ago, the repairman that I hired saw that a simple part had worn out, but he told me that he could not replace that little part. He had to replace the whole unit that housed the simple part. It was expensive. In the past few years before he retired I guess my friend encountered similar repair issues with electronic instruments. Once a client learned that a whole expensive integrated part had to be replaced, they often decided not to repair, and instead just buy a whole new item for a few hundred bucks more. While this newer way of producing instruments brings us amazing technology for reasonable prices, it is not conducive to operating the kind of repair services that my friend offered. My friend finally decided to retire a couple of years ago. To answer your question, for me I still have access to my retired friend"s services, as he is still doing a modest amount of work out of his home. Maybe you can befriend a retired repairman?

It is common knowledge that organ and certain synth sounds can sound good through guitar amp too, if that is what the player is going for. I suspect that telling the guitar player that you were going to take direct line instead of placing a mic in front of his amp would be a hard sell, though this may not be the effect that this keys player is going for. Dialogueâ¦.

Ideally, your friend could play you the sound that he wants to have so that you know what he wants to acheive. If he would trust that you to get that same sound using whatever methods work best for you, everyone would be happy. As a player, I have issues with someone deciding for me that they were going to "improve" upon my conceived sound. e.g. "I don't WANT the Rhodes to sound sparkly! I want lo fi." (However, I don't mind hearing someone explain to me why my concept is not going to work, etc.) Because you are dialoguing with the guy, it sounds to me like you want to respect his concept.

Oops. I thought that you were going to post this: [video:youtube]

Sorry to be slightly off topic, but that phrase caught my eye. I have one of those 'committees' too, but of the two members, only one of us has voting rights. ð

Thanks for the additional comments and suggestions guys.

I was trying to come up with something like that â The Blupowitz Organ Company, or Blupowitz Organ Corporation? â¦with their signature tune, "Blupowitz Blitz"! (yeah, I know it's Sam B. Lupowitz, but I never read it like that, and in my mind, you're stuck with it. ) This is how I read it when I looked at it quickly: The Blue Poets. Hmm, if you don"t use that name, I might. Enjoy the endeavour. Up until the pandemic, I was working out original tunes with a bass player and a drummer. My ideal would be to have a drummer who could sing and a third member who was adept at playing both bass and guitar. It would be more fun if sometimes I got to play bass and sometimes I got to give that responsibility to someone else.

Thanks. That"s generous of you to say. It could be made to fit something that is up to 40 inches wide, so that is a possibility for someone who is so inclined. In a similar vein, I see on You Tube someone used an A 100 cabinet to house a Hammond SK2. The Kijiji solution might save me the trouble of disassembling the cabinet and if someone just wanted repurpose the thing instead dropping it into a landfill, that would be good. The wood is in good shape. Yes. I figure that anyone who wants that look on stage would prefer something that is sturdy but light and assemblable Yet another option, burn the organ shell, (i.e. as firewood to warm your home, as beach party bonfire, as BYOCrematorium Box). Thoughtful, but the last time that I checked, the funeral folks insisted that we purchase and use one of their boxesâ¦probably something that is sturdy but light and assemblable. This might also be a cheaper alternative to cremation.

I have rented out gear and lent gear only a few times. Sometimes it has turned out to be cool (espcially hearing how pieces of equipment performed on recording projects, etc). The one time that it turned out badly (a good FRIEND let his cigarette burn a hole through the Tolex of the Fender Twin that I LENT to him) was enough for me to just establish a general policy of saying no. I do not like worrying about stuff, no matter what you offer to pay me. I might only make an exception for someone that I knew and only if they were doing something that I thought was cool. In those cases I wouldn't mind receiving a free copy of the recording and a credit describing me as an excedingly wonderful person....ð

That's cool! I know that, after Cottage, Nancy spent many years involved with the west coast music scene. I only met her a day or two before we did this gig, but I would go hear the band when I was in high school. We used to compare her to Joplin. The band was sort of legendary in my home town because of the recording that they had done with Walter Horton. I do recall standing behind Bob Derkash while he was playing to try to figure out what he was doing on his A100. No doubt, but I do not need more furniture. I need less. I am hoping that one day I will be rid of almost all of my old stuff and move into a condo with a stripped down setup for writing and recording. No more lawn care, no more Rhodes care,....The dream is uncluttered space. In the end there will be no coffins for me; only ashes cast into a wide open sky....

I had to give up my office/studio space in March, 2020 when my wife was sent to work from home. I did not realize at the time that the move would be longterm, so I left some of my gear set up in that room. Evententually I watched my CP4 get buried under mounds of paper, binders, etc. I am very happy for my wife that she got to retire two weeks ago, but now that I have reclaimed my space AND the CP4, I am also happy to know that my feelings about the instrument have not changed.

Eric, are you trying to tell me that you don't want to take any of my junk? ð Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The organ yard art is a hoot, but my wife is definitely not going to go for that. ð I hate to do this to an old friend, but I want the space more than I want the furniture, so I am likely going to dismantle it with a saw(?). I might save a couple pieces of wood for someone who works with such things. As I said, I am hanging on to the organ itself in its portable cab for a few more years. Just for an added bonus, here is a 1998 recording of the organ in question in action. I did not make this video and there are no images of me in it, but the organ can clearly be heard. BTW, you can skip the first thirty seconds. The band's old singer flew in to do this one-off reunion show. She improvised an acapella thing at the top and it took a little bit for her to find her legs.(She sang the sh*t out of the rest of the song!). Organ solo at about 3:05....[video:youtube]

Hey Folks, Go ahead and skip to the question, if you don't need the BG. Background: In 1974 I purchased a used 1966 Hammond M101 in its full cabinet. In 1975 I had all of the organ's bits transplanted into a custom made chopped cabinet and then I gigged with that for about thirty years. I know that the M101 is not a classic B3, etc. Nevertheless, since 1974 I have dutifully moved and stored the well preserved original cabinet. Of course, when I was young I thought that I might have the organ restored to that original cab one day when I got old, but I refuse to get old and the original plan will not happen. It's not like, in my years-long ramp up to pairing down, I need yet one more thing in my house that I cannot move by myself.... Question: I decided to keep the chopped organ for a couple more years, but I am getting rid of the cabinet, original speakers and volume pedal and all, asap. I am checking with an organ tech friend to see if he or anyone in his network wants it for free. If that does not pan out, I am curious to know what other people might have done in a similar situation. I suspect that few of you have been in this situation in recent years, but what the heck. FWIW, I am NOT going to use the wood to make anything myself. I just want less stuff.

I have an unheated garage. Because our vehicles always carry some snow and ice during the winter, no matter how much I try to brush snow off before driving into the garage, I usually get some kind of fuzzy snow mold growing on the concrete floor. Some bleach and a broom takes care of the problem. I would not want to risk having that problem with musical equipment.

I grew up down the Yellowhead. You and I could talk for hours about that time, including those bands. Cool. I am younger than the bands that I cited, but I did spend a couple decades playing with a legacy blues band that formed in 1970 (last gig 2017), so I have tried to glean a bit of history from the older guys over the years. My predecessor was one of the Hammond players whose playing helped me form a concept of what assertive and supportive roles the instrument can take in a rockin" band. The player in Seger"s band reminded me of that sort of approach.

Yes, what bennyray said! HammondDave, thank you for the second share. What a contrast in performance from your first post. I remember seeing the Smoking OP"s album on record store shelves, but I had not heard it before. I listened to more than the track that you recommended. For me, it has the same intensity as the live performance video, but with the added feature of dynamics and balance. This is the kind of stuff that I first heard from bands like Barry Allen and the Cheyenne Winter and Painter when I was in junior high. Rocking, old school R and B influence, Hammond in the mix, soulful singing⦠It doesn"t sound like they fussed over every note choice or timing issue, but given the overall effect of the sound, they didn"t need to. Thanks for reminding me of a sound that first made me think about taking on this music thing.

Four or five years ago. It was a house type concert in a studio. I was asked to use the studio's well maintained B3 and 122. As this was the host's studio (a nice acoustic space) and B3 and this but one of a series of concerts that he had hosted for a somewhat more mature crowd, he thought that the rig would cut it without any mics. Foolishly, I trusted that he knew the band and the room. We/He had not accountrd for the fact that (a) our guitar player had not managed to attend soundcheck and (b) someone had invited a guest second guitar player. Unsurprisingly, guitar volume wars ensued. Admittedly, some of the group's members are older, had grown up playing loud on stage and had grown a bit less dynamically sensitive as their hearing fades. Of course it's to play anything dynamically when you have all drawbars out, volume pedal right to the floor and nothing in the lower range audible. If I was not playing solos, I MIGHT have endured being little more than a prop. Struggling to hear the organist in the Seger video reminded me of that more recent event and a number of 1970s gigs.

I stand corrected Hammond Dave. ð ð