The B-3

60's guy

60's guy

Well-known member
The Fender Rhodes was a great piece of equipment, but overall the sound of the B-3 still stands atop.
I'm fairly certain that TAE may have posted this in the music I like thread, but it's worth reposting.


Anyone who may have read Gregg Allman's autobiography 'My Cross To Bear' would have learned of his first encounter with the B-3. What I admire most is that Gregg Allman used the B-3 to lay the foundation, or use the B-3 in a supportive role of the Allman Brothers music.


Does it ever get better than the sound of a B-3?
 
My ears really started to get tuned to the sound of the Hammond when I got into Deep Purple. I've loved it most of my life now. But to be honest, I don't know if I can specifically identify the B-3. Lots of songs I love have the Hammond, but I don't know which one because you can get so many different variations of sound from an organ.
I loved the Hammond I used to have, though. I actually had 2. The first one was shit. It didn't occur to me to test it out at the person's house. I just thought, "it's a Hammond organ." It sounded like something from some old, turn of the century woman's front room. I was so disappointed. But within a few weeks, I located a shop that specialized in Hammonds and I went and tried some out. I wasn't making that mistake again ! And I used it extensively until just before my first child was born and had to sell it to make space.
 
Then there is that B3 guy whose playing had probably more of a bigger influence on my guitar playing than just about any guitar player.
The one and only Vincent Crane may he rest in peace. Some of my favorite B3 work. All those dissonant chords, I love em. Carl Palmer
is playing on some of these tunes but it seems no one can agree on which ones! All lost to R&R history.
 
Love it, a classic sound. I would think most guys now have gone away from the back breakers to modern electronic keys. I'm not really a keys guy, so not sure I could tell the difference in a blind test.

That said, is a B3 a B3 without a Leslie Cab? Isn't that the sound as much as B3 in and of itself?
 
I wonder if you took grandma's parlor organ and ran it through a leslie the sound would be reasonably passable as the classic combo of a B3 through a Leslie? When I say passable, in the ballfield, or perhaps the parking lot.
 
Outside of the often used blues context, i've always liked Bentmont Tench of (TP &) The Heartbreakers use of the Hammond. I guess it's a B3? Outright in the forefront, or swells and such. A couple of examples off the top of my head.



 
Of course there's also one of my all-time favorite solo tradeoffs, organ(B3?), Blues harp, then guitar. Pretty epic for my money.

 
Joey Defrancesco is the first name that I think of. I was fortunate to see him at the Dertoit Jazz Fest in 2018, four years before he passed. Check this video... the total experience starts at 5:12 mark.

 
markmann said:
Joey Defrancesco is the first name that I think of. I was fortunate to see him at the Dertoit Jazz Fest in 2018, four years before he passed. Check this video... the total experience starts at 5:12 mark.
Click to expand...
I met Joey at Namm just a few months before he passed last year. Sucks

This was him jamming on an Italian clone that has his name on it.... I was in the show early before it was open for visitors...I was showing off on that organ he's playing doing my thing and all of sudden see Joey to the left of me...and humbly stepped away in shame and embarrassment. Listen to him ripping on the pedals.
I did rap with him a little bit and we compared hands...he had big hands like me...not quite as big but he had some meaty mitts :D



My real beginning of playing keys started with my high school buddy asking me if I wanted to help him deliver pianos and organs "on the side cash" with him for his dad's Covina Hammond Organ store...$5 and all the free pepsi's I could drink...such a deal! I was making $1.35 and hour working my ass off at my uncles plating shop...hell yes!

Turned out my friend was a beast of a rock hammond player definitely world class pro at 15.... and that's where it all started..he had a built b-3 with a Krueger string bass built into it with two 122 leslies..Holy shit did that sound bitchin..I had played drums for a semester in band learning cadences n shit, had never played a kit. They had a kit at the store and we started jamming...I was his Frosty.... broke a lot of sticks and damaged a few heads but we had fun...then he showed me some riffs and I was able to repeat them pretty quickly. He was really impressed and encouraged me to try to learn to play the keys...and the rest is misery....

FWIW a hammond without a Leslie is like a race car with no wheels...It ain't going anywhere. The leslie changed the game.... Lawrence Hammond hated the leslie...thought it ruined his dream sound......Don Leslie ( based in Pasadena) laughed his ass off all the way to the bank. Without the Leslie...it just never would have had the soul it has.

I've owned a myriad of tone generator Hammonds...even sold an A-100 off from the Recycler (RFR knows what I'm talking about) to a guy in Italy who was converting them to B-3's by using older B cabinets ( look the same as a b-3)

I sold my last B-3 off about 10 years ago and have gone Nord which does a damn fine job of providing the sound I want...a real leslie would be nice but nords emulation is pretty tight especially in a stereo environment... The doppler effect is the shit!
 
Last edited:
Mick Doobie said:
That said, is a B3 a B3 without a Leslie Cab? Isn't that the sound as much as B3 in and of itself?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't necessarily say so.
That said, I did like the Leslie cabinet. I used to look through the air vents and watch the circular thing turning. When I sold my pride and joy Hammond, the Leslie went too ~ but I kept the seat ! I still use it.
TAE said:
Without the Leslie...it just never would have had the soul it has
Click to expand...
I didn't always mic the Leslie. I used to have this wicked trick that used to give me this unique sound. I'd switch it off, hold down the note or chord and then switch it on and it would make this unearthly, but beautiful sound. It was a great way of bringing a solo or song to an end !
TAE said:
I sold my last B-3 off about 10 years ago and have gone Nord which does a damn fine job of providing the sound I want...a real leslie would be nice but their emulation is pretty tight especially in a stereo environment... The doppler effect is the shit!
Click to expand...
When I sold the Hammond in 2001, I used keyboard modules for my organs {sounds painful !} but they were 'satisfactory', nothing more. Then when I got into VSTis, I discovered the B4 from Native Instruments, which I used a heck of a lot and loved. However, if you didn't use it for 3 weeks, you had to feed the installation disc into the computer to reactivate it. And it was in a fallow period that NI stopped supporting it and so I couldn't reactivate and had to chuck it last year. It did lead to me having to upgrade, and NI's vintage organs are pretty good. But it doesn't feel as cool as the B4 even though I'm informed it is the superior athlete.
60's guy said:
The Fender Rhodes was a great piece of equipment
Click to expand...
You're not wrong about that ! At one point I was the proud owner of one. I couldn't believe it when I saw it in the instrument exchange, going so cheaply. Even with one of the 'D' keys being a bit funky. I don't know which hurt more, having to sell the Rhodes, the Hammond or my piano. They all went the same Saturday.
But their replacements soon lifted my clouds.
 
Track Rat said:
B-3's are the master. Until you have to move one. With two 147's. Every fucking weekend...
Click to expand...
Starting out at 16 as a mover not a player I learned how to handle them with ease with the dollies. I moved pianos to...Yikes!

I was at a concert about 14 years ago seeing Amos Lee and his band in a cool club in San Diego called the Belly up bar and grill. Maybe 150 people at most with a nice stage. man the keyboard player was ripping the hammond / leslie sound on his Nord but I couldn't see the leslie...After the show I went up and scoured the stage trying to see what he was using to get that leslie effect...nothing...he was using the leslie simulator in the nord..Had this old Hammond lover totally fooled...That's when I decided I needed to get a Nord. Later I did a concert at a venue with the B-3 and leslie that was video recorded a few months later same venue with just the Nord no leslie... It was also video recorded...Bottom line, though there is no arguing that there is a different feel about playing b3 and a digital keyboard. That said, in blind audio test you would be hard pressed to say which one was which. That's when I sold the B3...I did pick up a little m100 on the cheap that has just sat in my music room for the last 10 years "just in case" I want or need to get that tonewheel thing....but honestly I suppose it is really more of a conversation piece than something I will actually use at this point.....
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top