![]() ![]() ![]() However, because of the way it has to be made, the New B3 is inherently a very expensive instrument - £15,000 pounds in the UK. It achieved what many attempts - by Hammond themselves as well as other manufacturers - failed to do, which is to accurately recreate the original B3's characteristics. The New B3 has been a success, and was widely acclaimed on its release by B3 aficionados including the late Jimmy Smith. These factors have a profound effect on playing technique and are essential to reproducing the character of this fantastic keyboard instrument. Naturally, there is a lot of very clever digital technology involved in the New B3, but this is combined with some relatively crude mechanical switching techniques which were derived directly from the original Hammond keyboard design dating back nearly 80 years! This rather bizarre combination of old and new technologies was required because no other way could be found of replicating the unique multi-contact switching action and contact-click characteristics of the original. Two years ago, Hammond-Suzuki introduced the 'New B3' organ, which proved to offer the closest ever digital reproduction of the original Hammond B3 organ's sonic and performance characteristics ( see my review in SOS July 2003). Fortunately, the XK3 puts the New B3's sound engine into a much more affordable package. Hammond's 'New B3' was the best-ever digital emulation of an electro-mechanical organ, but at over 15,000 pounds, it didn't come cheap.
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