Hammond B250

This is an early eighties portable two 61 key manual solid state organ with all the features you would normally associate with a Hammond, so if you know your way around a classic Hammond then this machine will make perfect sense to you. it's housed in a black 'Tolex' covered road ready casing and it's really compact and comparatively light, so it's begs to be taken out to play at gigs

This machine has all the features associated all your favourite console/spinet Hammonds, except reverb. It also has a synth sound that can be played on the bass pedals or lower part of the lower manual if you're not using pedals, fairly pointlesss, but there if you need it. One unique feature that it does have is a 'warmth' control which adds a very convincing overdriven sound the overall output. There are also pitch and tuning controls if you need them. The keyboard action is superb; very smooth, like a Hammond should be. There's no midi so it won't talk to anything else except a Leslie. There are various other output jacks on the back panel

I have tried very hard to find a modern(ish)lightweight portable Hammond rig that doesn't embarrass itself when you turn it on. I know that there are now new Hammond products that can almost perfectly re-produce that sound of yesteryear, but what if you haven't got rich parents/friends/friendly bank mananger, well what you do is buy this organ if you can find one (they didn't sell in great quantities)'cos this one sounds fantastic. The real test of a good keyboard is that you want to switch it on and play it whenever you can. I've been through any number of other portable organs and none of them have 'that sound'. What I want to have at my disposal is a range of classic Hammond sounds from ethereal church organ to grinding overdriven 'John Lord'crunchy rock and I can get it with this, no problem! I've invested in an Alesis Picoverb to add the missing reverb and this finishes off the sound reproduction perfectly.
I haven't gigged it yet but in the short time I've had it a number of people have listened and had a play and are absolutely amazed at the sounds this thing produces, why the hell did they stop making it and why have all the other ones they've been making in the meantime sounded worse than this does?

As I said above I haven't gigged it yet, but it has survived in perfect working order for for the past twenty five years and I know that it's been fairly well gigged, although it could feasibly pack up at any time, then so can anything else, so I would gig it without a back-up

It was made by Nihon-Hammond, so I think that customer support is something I'll have to live without as I doubt that company exists now, however the network of technicians/repairmen that exists to look after all the old keyboards that we insist on clinging on to would probably be able to fix it if I couldn't.

If it were lost or stolen then I'd have to start the search for another one as this is the machine that I've been looking for. If you are in the market for a portable dual manual organ that can do 'Hammond' than I urge you to seek one of these out as you will not be disappointed and you won't break the bank either. Oh yeah, can someone start making these again please, because when they were in production everyone was rushing and buying synths and they were probably overlooked at the time, but now that organs are cool again I'm sure they'd sell shedloads