Hammond-Suzuki X-2

This organ got me interested in organs in general. It's so easy to use because it has so little on it. It just produces great relatively hammond-like sounds.

Well, this is one of Hammond-Suzuki's first attempts at making a portable solid-state organs. No tonewheels, just circuitry. It's a bit odd in that most traditional organs have percussion for the 2nd and 3rd harmonics, but this one also has them for 4th and 5th. It can make some very unique sounds because of this.
The keyboard itself is not great. Forget about waterfall keys, it's pure synth-type. But it is substantial unlike a lot of synth keyboards I've played. You won't break it by pounding on it. I should mention also that it has 49 keys. Good for a backing keyboard, but if you're only going to use a hammond type rig you'll want something better. Much better.
Two presets: Tibia and Brass.
Fast and slow vibrato, delay vibrato which waits for a second to fade in the vibrato. This is not a leslie simulation. It's pure, unadulterated cheesy home organ vibrato. And it's kinda fun.
Percussion has soft and loud volumes.
Brilliance makes the sound, umm, brighter...

I was amazed when I got this thing working. It sounded surprisingly warm and rich. I thought I was nuts until people started asking me after shows how I'd gotten a chop that fit into such a small case. On its own it sounds very much like an M3, not quite as full, but pretty darn good. I've used a Korg G4 leslie simulator and a motionsound to get this thing to really sound good. It's amazing how well it distorts, screams, or just sounds like a good percussive hammond.

Well, when I bought it it was barely working. Once I got it working it probably gave me about 6 months of trouble free operation. Then the drawbars stopped working and I was left with the presets. Luckily they're usable since we were on the road. Ugh. After that was fixed I've had about 7 years of pretty good service. It probably helped a lot that I stopped using it to gig with since it got bumped around a bit during transit and loading/unloading.(The trouble was a combination of a solder trace on the drawbar voice board and a problem with the preset rockers which it turns out is very common with these boards... check your rockers if you've got one that's not quite working. I hear it's a similar problem with the X-2's big brother, the X-5.)

Hahaha! I contacted them and they said they had no record of the model. So I took the thing in to a local repair shop and they told me to just scrap it or gut it and put a newer clone in there with a midi keyboard. Tempting. I spoke to another place that offered me a discount on an XB-2. Finally found a local guy who does chops and repairs and he fixed it for $100 bucks! He normally charged more, but he'd never seen one and liked the challenge. He thought they were only distributed in Japan and Europe.

It's sooooo worth what I paid. It sounds pretty good. It's kinda portable. When it works it works well. It's a great addition to a keyboard rig if not for its sound for the fact that fellow players wonder what the heck that hammond-sounding thing is.
If I lost it? I really don't think I'd bother looking for another. Well, if I found another for $50 I certainly wouldn't say no.
Overall It's a good keyboard. Price to performance can't be beaten. It sounds nice, not perfect, but nice in its own way.