RENE LABRE | THE ONE....THE ONLY! | INSIGHTFUL BLOGS : You Also Play Hammond Organ,Which Model Do You Prefer?
You Also Play Hammond Organ,Which Model Do You Prefer?
Onstage for years I carried around an m-3,the spinet model, with the multivox little david for the leslie.The B-3 is the most popular model but is a nightmare to transport and my preference is actually in the studio the C-3 with stereo leslies.Yet one also must consider that Hammond organs have been way,way,upgraded.With only one exception all that I ever played were the vintage original rigs.And for all of that the C-3 rules,that is a full church pipe organ and you are not going to move it around to much better than a full church pipe organ.You can get far more tones out of the drawbars than a B-3 and the bass pedals are more responsive.Yet again I say hammond has gone through many innovations the x-1000 for instance.And a full Hammond rig will cost you thirty grand and is worth every penny of it.I loved my M-3 spinet,I used to keep it outside on the porch.I was the house organist at the notorious "Midnight Hour" bottle club.after my regulr gigs I would go there and sit in with all of the different bands that came through.I was not paid by the bands but by the owner Jimmy Nance.A yardnote a night.Every night that joint was packed.I had already done a full show with my band at another place and still had to get to work in the morning.At that time there was a lot of money floating around.People would buy rounds for the whole bar,pay us five hundred bucks to do one more set.Even the police were cool about everything.Off duty they would hang out there too.Mostly I would say it was all about dancing,because everyone would dance until the sun rose in the morning and probably that worked off most of the alcohol.And most of everyone had to go to work when they left the club.So any arrest for DUI was very minimal.As they say "those were the days."