Since its introduction in 1955, the Hammond B-3 has become an essential performance tool for many great classical, jazz and rock performers. Today, the new breed of Hammonds is a truly exciting and effective progression from the old-world Hammonds, maintaining integrity and inspiring depth of tone. Now, for the first time Hammond have exactly replicated the original B-3 design specifications with the introduction of the New B-3. The B-3 is re-born. The challenge for many years has been to recreate the look, sound and feel of this legendary keyboard instrument. Only Hammond has the qualifications and knowledge to accurately achieve this. The New B-3 encompasses all things considered great about the original B3. It brings it smoothly into the 21st Century, with a few hidden extras you’ll just love. The cabinet is the first noticeable feature, as it is an exact design match to the original with bonus of it being around 60kg lighter. The set-up of the keyboards, preset keys, drawbars and pedals are also all identical to the original. The New B3 provides electrifying advantages such as overdrive control, reverb, tone control, digital display and memory card facility. Sound dynamics are controlled by an exact copy of the original B-3 expression curve incorporated in the new instruments foot volume controller. This organ is to die for! The unique B3 sound is reproduced using the revolutionary sound generating system, ’96DigitalToneWheels’™ which recreates all the astonishing idiosyncrasies of the tone-wheel generator which has eluded all previous digital systems. Even the actual temperament of the scale is captured exactly – all of the intervals “beat” exactly as they do on a tone-wheel B-3. All 91 pitches are continuously generated and are ready to sound at any time. A crucial aspect of the performance of the B-3 is the key contact system. When a key is depressed, it closes nine small electrical switch contacts. Each contact causes one of the 9 Drawbar pitches to sound. For the New B-3, Hammond has created a brand-new, patented key switch assembly called Direct Analog Keying™. Each playing key contains 9 contacts, which “make” and “break” individuality, allowing each Drawbar harmonic to sound separately. The “key click” therefore is produced exactly the same way as it is on a tone-wheel Hammond organ – there is no need to sample a key click sound and add it in. Hammond’s famous click noise was an unintentional feature that became an essential component of the B3 character, thus needing to be reproduced faithfully. Incorporating a complete mechanical contact system is completely unique in a modern instrument.
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