Product: CRB Diamond 800
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
03/10/2006
at
10:03am
by
Paul
Ease of Use
:
8
Fascinating to see this old CRB two-manual combo organ reviewed. I owned one in the UK from around 1974-1982 and did around 80 gigs with it. Very easy to use. As the previous reviewer said, all the tones are on tabs, lots of different colours, very wacky. I had the works with this one ? the original stand (which allowed you to tilt the keyboard away from you; great when standing up), plus the built-in travel case, even the bass pedals. It was heavy to move, ideally requiring two people. Pretty solid when set up.
Features
:
7
Full polyphony. Keyboard action wasn't great, but acceptable. Flutes in a wide range of footages on the upper manual, plus strings, percussion at a range of footages, plus length of percussion sustain, sustain repeat (fantastic when used in conjunction with a phaser; very Floyd!), reduced footages on lower manual, plus bass pedal sustain (useful) and below the lower manual a glissando/arpeggio section that could be used to give full glissando or arpeggiate a chord held on the lower manual.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
7
The sound could be a bit thin, so I'd often strengthen it with a small touch of overdrive from an FX unit. Sounded very good when run through a reverb unit, a valve amp and a Leslie ? I used to use an old Laney valve guitar amp and a rare Vox Leslie called a Gryotone.
Reliability
:
7
Never let me down while gigging, but went a bit out of tune after some years. Never got round to repairing it, as I moved on to a more up to date keyboard.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
7
If you found one now, you could probably never replace it. It was reasonable, and surprisingly good to gig.
Product: CRB Diamond 800
Price Paid: 92 (Euro) used
Submitted
05/22/2005
at
11:21am
by
William
Email: villehaggblom at kolumbus<dot>fi
Ease of Use
:
10
This organ is super easy to use. It's a combo organ from the sixties, so you can imagine how it works. Just press down the tabs you want to use and play.
Features
:
8
It's got full polyphony, but the keyboard action sucks. If you make a glissando, you can't hear anything else than the keys that rattle. It's got a built-in vibrato and a speed-knob to adjust it. It's also got percussion in 6 footages. You can add a pedalboard a volumepedal a case and a stand, but I haven't got any accessories for it :(. It doesn't have any midi capabilities. A cool feature is that it's got two whole manuals of those grey-white keys a la Farfisa.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
10
It's simply got 11 tabs for the upper manual (registers: 16 diapason, clarinet, trumpet, 8 flute, strings, oboe, 4 flute, reed, 2-2/3, 2,
1-1/3) and 5 tabs for the lower manual (registers: 16 flute, 8 flute, 4 flute, 2-2/3 flute and bass). There's no use for the bass sound it sounds terrible and you can't control the volume of it. It works well for 60's rock and pop. It is a bit like The VOX Continental but instead of drawbars it's got tabs. It's got vibrato like i said in the section before and it has also got sustain. It hasn't got any velocity or aftertouch. I love the old combo organ sound, though i use it with a motion sound leslie, which creates a nice effect.
Reliability
:
9
It is in really good shape. I've used it with the band i'm playing in and had it on one gig.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
The company doesn't exist anymore.
Overall Rating
:
8
I think that if it would be stolen, I couldn't even get a new one, but if i could i'd probably get it. It is worth much more than i paid for it. I've been playing for 10 years and I own a yamaha electone b605, a yamaha psr 1500, casio Wk 3500 and a WLM beat organ. I like everything in the CRB except the bass sound. I haven't compared it actually to anything else. I bought this one because it is the same brand that my fathers old friend had, so it's kind of got emotional value. I wish that it had a better bass sound, because I play keyboard bass in my band.
It helps me make music. If you find one of these you should buy it immediatly. ;)
