In '67 our band manager (and Sunn Amps' LA promo guy) swapped Sunn guitar and bass amps from his promo stock
to Hammond for a B-3 and Leslie. It was a good thing our band had four healthy young players, as we got to hump that sucker wherever we went. As I remember, we miked the Leslie with two high-impedance SM57s or Unispheres and fed 'em into a pair of Sunn Coliseum Stacks. When it didn't feed back, it was monstrous.
Recently I did a gig with a player who had one of the serious digital Hammond clones and the biggest Motion Sound amp (sorry, no model numbers -- I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz). For my money, and for my aching back, his setup was compact, roadworthy (no, Virginia, no need for Elmer's and bar clamps) and impeccably musical. But not cheap.
Cheap was my 70s bar band's M-3 through a phase shifter with a volume pedal wired up as its "Speed" control and into a Music-Man-Twin-Reverb-clone. Was cheap, sounded cheap. Burned down in a North Hollywood bar fire along with my Blackface Super Reverb, my bro's '61 Bassman and a 2-day-old set of Rogers drums and irreplaceable Zildjians. The club owners were all in Vegas the night of the fire. Probably just a coincidence.
Anyway.
No discussion of the Hammond B-3 can be complete without mentioning Stevie Winwood for his grungy-cream distortion sounds, and, of course:
The Immortal Billy Preston.
His hits, ("Will it Go Round in Circles", "Nuthin' From Nuthin'") and his work with Eric Clapton and others have influenced countless players, bands and styles. Preston designed and built the Hammond Pocket and always plays there.
BTW, didn't the C-3 also lack percussion as a big difference from the B?
And if "C" stands for "Church", what does "B" stand for?
"Barroom" ?
"Big Time Gigs With Union Cartage" ?
Or simply, "Booker T" ?

RW :roll: