KP portable B3..

[DGBACKUS@aol.com]

Seeing all the posts about Bill Beer's portable B3, I thought I'd leave my
comments.  Bill is only inches away from subscribing to our list.  I keep
telling him all the good stuff he's missing out on, and we may hear from him
soon.

I called him last night to get the scoop on the portable B3.  He said he
hasn't made one for a while, and I remembered seeing the last one built
during a visit to his shop.  It resembles a big Rhodes piano case.  He uses
birch plywood and screws and glues the cabinets together.  It's covered in
vinyl that looks like Tolex to me.  He said he uses an aluminum extrusion for
the front rail (below the lower manual) for strength and to mount controls.
 I told him that Chester Thompson's rig was in KEYBOARD this month, and he
said he sold it when Chester was a young man!

It weighs less than 200 pounds!  He rebuilds your organ and puts it in his
case.  Freight is the painful part.  I bought a rebuilt walnut B3 from Bill a
couple of years back, along with a high-power Leslie.  I had one of his
solid-state preamps installed.  The horn driver in the Leslie looks like it
may have been designed for a battleship, and will really clean your ears out.
 I didn't appreciate this until I went out with my guitar-playing,
try-to-keep-up-with-my-Fender-Twin brother.  Believe me, he now knows the
fear of HAMMOND.....  For whatever weight was lost in the organ, it shows up
in the Leslie.  It's got to be fifty pounds heavier than stock.  Very clean
sound, but will distort when pushed...

Bill does great work, but you have to be patient.  It took over a year to get
the Leslie.  I don't think it will take that long to find his way to the mail
list, tho...  

--David--