Lou_NC

Holy cow, I grew up in Garfield NJ, and I remember that store! My organ teacher made me enter an organ "competition" at that store. I HATED having to do that (I was only getting started with my lessons), and I only did it once. I was in high school, so this had to be around 1973/74. I played on a Wurlitzer spinet at home, and absolutely lusted for the Hammond X77 that I *think* I got to play during the competition.

Interesting, the SKX is listed as being sold by "Jeff's Music Gear", and there's an SK2 listed from "Jeff" as well. I've exchanged a few messages on the SKX so far, and the person responding is "Mande". I wonder if "Mande" is a Sweetwater employee?

Has anyone bought anything sizable on Gear Exchange? A seller is currently listing a Hammond SKX (not the "Pro" version, the straight SKX) and I'm in the market for a very clean one at this point. I'm certainly aware of Reverb, and Ebay, but have never done a transaction via Gear Exchange. Would be interested in hearing about folks' experiences, both good and bad. Thanks, Lou

I was in a different situation but my experience may help you make a good decision. At one time I owned two Hammond XK-3's, one of which had the XLK-3 lower keyboard connected. That is a dynamite Hammond clone setup, IMHO, but pretty heavy for playing out of the home (I know, I know, it's still a LOT lighter than a real B3!) I bought a 2nd XK-3 and was looking to add a lower keyboard to that setup as well. I looked and looked, but trying to find an XLK-3 by itself these days is a needle in a haystack. So, I tried several different inexpensive 61-key MIDI controllers and was ready to build my own custom cabinet to hold the lower in alignment with the "upper" XK-3. Truth be told, even though I usually only play LH chords on the lower keyboard, I still could not tolerate the difference in key feel of any of the inexpensive MIDI controllers, compared to the keybed of the XK-3 /XLK-3 setup. I ended up actually finding a used Hammond SK2, and now my "second" clonewheel setup is a true dual-keyboard Hammond clone. So I gave up trying to find a MIDI controller keyboard that felt good for playing Hammond style sounds. The reason for the verbose post is to warn you that I really don't think you'll end up being very happy with the "key feel" of a MIDI controller trying to emulate a Hammond (or other quality clonewheel) keyboard. Honestly I would even prefer just about any older-generation clonewheel organ to a straight MIDI controller (as long as it has waterfall keys). Good luck, Lou

I can't suggest any other museums, we were laser-focused on the WW2 museum and then took in some of the typical tourist sites......Cafe du Monde for the beignets, Central Grocery for a muffuletta, both of which I highly recommend! Didn't even take in a music venue, sadly, but we had limited time and let our graduate set the itinerary. Since you asked, I had a cousin who was KIA on Okinawa in June 1944, just two months before the bomb was dropped. If only those engineers and scientists could have completed the Manhattan project just a little bit sooner......... Also, my Dad served as a B-17 engine mechanic in England in the 8th Air Force. He saw some awful sights on that airfield, some of the planes returned with significant damage and terrible casualties onboard from their daylight missions. Until the P-51 Mustang was deployed, those B-17 crews took a lot of casualties when their fighter escorts had to turn around or run out of gas. Fortunately my Dad returned home else I would have never developed my affection for the Hammond organ!

I'm using a "vintage" Kawai MX-8SR for my home setup, and a current-production Behringer RX1602 in my traveling setup. I prefer the ergonomics of the Kawai and wouldn't hesitate to find another used one for home use if mine ever needs replacing, but the Behringer also works fine. These are both rack mount, which I prefer. Lou

Your question *seems* to be focused on music, which is cool. Unfortunately I can't help you much there, as I've only visited New Orleans once, it was a graduation trip for my daughter who wanted to visit the WW2 museum there. (My family has a significant history regarding WW2). If you can spare the time, I would absolutely put the WW2 museum on my agenda. Safe travels, Lou

I've used one of these for years, in fact it was my kids wagon and when they outgrew it I added the larger tires (it had traditional solid rubber tires, harbor freight to the rescue with cheap inflatables) and it works great. These are usually available pretty cheap on craigslist or at yard sales https://www.radioflyer.com/all-terrain-cargo-wagon-bundle.html

I just saw Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes take a direct shot to the face last night, it wasn't pretty. I didn't follow the details but I'm sure he got a few stitches before coming back into the game. IMHO NHL players are taking crazy risks for not playing with face guards (either clear or cages) that college players (and most sane amateurs) use. I played a year of college hockey in the mid 70's before anyone wore face protection and I went to a face guard (cage) after having my nose rearranged in one of my first games. 🙂 I adjusted very easily and never looked back. The silly "eye visors" that NHL players wear these days offer so little protection they may as well not even use them. (If you look closely, many of them have them tilted upward so far they're not even effective). The way I look at it......if a goalie can do HIS job wearing a "cage" mask, then ANY forward or defenseman can as well. Watch a college game anytime and you won't see any vision issues among the players passing or shooting. I think the NHL players would rather face reconstructive surgery than use an ounce of prevention. Maybe they're concerned with being perceived as weak, who knows? At their salaries, I'm sure reconstructive surgery is a minor expense.

What could they possibly have changed from the 122a or 122xb to justify an additional $3,305.00? Plywood cabinet vs. MDF, and a wooden bass rotor? Lou

Depends on your goals and expectations that you set of yourself. I took organ lessons for a couple years as a young teenager, never really got into piano very much until my wife had her parent's piano shipped from their house to ours in our 30's. She took piano lessons as a kid, and got our kids to take lessons for a year or two, neither of them stuck with it. I noodled around on that piano (about the way you would expect an organ player to sound on a piano 🙂 but I had fun with it). Wife got tired of the piano taking up space in the family room so she sold it and I bought a $400 Casio with MIDI which I use to drive a NanoPiano. Good enough for me. When I'm not playing organ I still noodle around on the piano and have a ton of fun. I could probably get away with playing piano in a low-key wedding band if I wanted to, I've played in jams with friends for the past 10-20 years. I suit myself. I will never be a classical pianist and that's actually OK because I can't stand the sound of classical piano tunes personally! Bottom line is if you set sky-high expectations for yourself that is fine......but be prepared for the event that you don't reach them. Or you can be like me. In the words of Rocky Balboa, I'm a "ham and egger" on piano......and I'm having fun and totally comfortable with that! Best of luck, Lou

I'm a big fan of these vintage Alesis boxes, and actually have BOTH of them in my own "compact travel rack" right now! I've been playing keyboards since 1975, so using something that's "only" 20 years old is still "new tech" as far as I'm concerned! Especially compared to the synthesizer-based piano sounds I started out with in the 70's and early 80's...... I do find the Alesis pianos to be well suited to my needs (rhythm section, not a solo keyboard act), and since my main "go-to" instrument is Hammond organ, piano is an "ancillary" instrument for me anyway. That said, the sounds in the NanoPiano box are WAY better than the "built-in" sounds in my Casio CDP-100 piano. The Casio has 5-pin MIDI out, so I play the Alesis box using my Casio piano as my keyboard, and I'm satisfied with the action. I'm super happy with this setup for my piano needs, it's as simple as it gets, and there's no way on this planet that I would want to gig with a laptop. YMMV, but I'd give it a shot if you can pick these units up for a reasonable price. If I recall correctly I picked mine up on Ebay for around $100-120 US each, about 10 years ago. Lou

Do they make accordion models with piano keys on both sides? Might be cool to learn to play one, but no way am I going to tackle that sea of identical buttons at this point in my life! 😂

Call me a caveman, but this is exactly why I hang onto my $150 HD Sony Camcorder with a few full-size SD cards. It also has a great zoom lens, compared to *any* smartphone. 🙂

Have you tried You Tube? There are a zillion free drum tracks on there. Get creative with your search arguments (soft, swing, slow, smooth, etc.) and I'm sure you'll come up with something. Depending on the length of the recording you're looking for, you may not even have to download it, but if you do, you can use a You Tube to MP3 download tool and create a standalone MP3 using Audacity in just a few minutes. Lou

I've been doing this for years, I actually have the strip mounted on the back of a rack cabinet where I can reach it, and it turns on about 10 different things (I actually have a couple of power strips in series to get enough sockets - not an issue because the current draw is absurdly low). The only item I power on separately (a few seconds later, after all the keyboards and mixers come up) is the power amp. I found that I was getting "thumps" in the speakers (transients) if I did not delay the bringup of the power amp by a few seconds. Lou

The Crumar Mojo is currently being offered in a "suitcase" model. Not sure whether it comes with legs or whether they're available from Crumar, but adding them wouldn't be terribly difficult.

Get yourself a tube of GE Silicone, flip the pedal over, and squeeze out a bead of this stuff around the perimeter of the pedal that makes contact with the floor. Let it dry 24 hours before using it. The bead of silicone will "grip" the smooth floor. It's relatively easy to peel off of a hard surface like the bottom of the pedal if it doesn't work for you, or if you change your mind down the road.

I guess Mom was right......"haste makes waste". I was counting the digits to be sure I had 9 *total* drawbar values listed in my post, and my subconscious must have confused the total *number* of drawbars with the "max setting" for each. Thanks for pointing this out, so I didn't cause even more confusion! 🙂 Edited for correctness.

EE, specifically custom CPU core silicon design, heading into my 4th decade. Stints at IBM, Qualcomm, and most recently, Microsoft.

Listening to this song the other day and trying to figure out the Hammond settings (drawbars as well as percussion, if perc is even used). There seem to be a couple of drawbar settings used at different times in the song, but the particular sound I'm trying to figure out is used in the the "percussive" fills, after the lyrics ".....your pulse is getting weak" at 1:32 and afterward, also quite noticeable behind the vocals from 3:00 thru 3:27. It's also noticeable at the end of the song from 4:24 to 4:32. My guess at the drawbars is maybe 807000000 and second percussion, slow, soft? I can't tell whether I'm hearing percussion or primarily key click in the recording. Thanks, Lou

Motion Sound KP-408S and KP-610S offer XLR mic input, stereo output (if that's important to you) in a single package. (Stereo imaging is important to me for organ Leslie effects, may not be important to everyone). I've read good things about the current Motion sound products.

I admire your quick thinking.......I have to admit in a million years I would NEVER have thought about "pantomiming" and "playing along"! The type-A in me would have dismissed it as never having the slightest chance of fooling anyone. I think you've just proven yet again that most folks in the audience are oblivious to live musicians. Glad it worked out for you, you are truly a professional for keeping your cool. I would have melted down for sure.....

For playing at "living room" volumes, it always made perfect sense to me to play through my "living room" stereo system. (I either run the keyboard L/R outs direct to a stereo "AUX" input or "Tape" input (remember those?), or if I'm sending several keyboards at once, I'll send the mixer line out to the AUX/Tape input of the stereo receiver/amp. After all, I use that system to listen to every kind of recorded music, and I expect it's response to be fairly flat and accurate (assuming I have a decent quality system). That's exactly what I'm looking for from my keyboards. 🙂 I don't know if people today still have stereo systems in their living rooms or family rooms, but I do, and that's the route I would go. Lou

Imagine if that country singer had seen me play bass with my left FOOT......... 🙂