The Hammond B3 is the organ. When you think of the organ, you think of the B3. It is the holy grail of organ and cannot be matched. It has 2 levels of keyboards, bass pedals, a ton of draw bars and presets with the black keys. You can a variety of different organ sounds from the B3, ranging from the classic leslie sound to a more subtle sounding.

UTILIZATION

The B3 has a pretty simple layout. There are two keyboards so you can have two different sounds going at once and there are separate draw bars for each of them. It is easy to get a good sound on the B3 using the black keys on the left that have presets for different organ sounds. There is also the leslie switch for use with a leslie cabinet. I've never seen a manual for the B3, but it has a much copied design to it and has become almost the standard set of controls for the modern organ.

SOUNDS

The sound of the B3 suits a number of different musical styles that I play, including blues, rock, and folk. You can find the B3 in almost any genre as it seems everybody can't get enough of it, and for good reason. I love everything about the tones this organ produces, and it is an extremely fun instrument to play. It has a great feel to it and you always feel good while playing it because the sound is so brilliant. While some modern day organs can replicate the B3 sound pretty well, ain't nothing like the real thing.

OVERALL OPINION

I first used a B3 five years ago and have used it extensively on a number of projects. While I can't afford to own one, like most, whenever I need to record organ for a serious project I always arrange to have one for recording. For some reason I can't live without using a real B3 whenever I feel I need an organ part. It has a beautiful, expressive tone that has become ubiquitous in modern music and has a staple in music history as the holy grail of organs.