Hammond X5

Hard to put together initially but very easy to use once set-up.

Great polyphony, perfect Hammond action i.e. there is none so you can slide up and down blackpool style. Built in vibrato (rubbish) and excellent reverb. No midi (this is early 70's y'all)...

Yes it's not tonewheel and it's made in Japan but it is a proper Hammond and my God does it grind like a mofo when you need it - best for Rock, Prog, but if you play with the drawbars you can get a bright Jazz sound and also dirty sleazy funk Carlos Santana if you want it.

Well once you figure out how to put it together yes it's built like a tank, just don't drop it cos they don't make the circuit boards anymore though there are plenty of geeks out there that build work arounds.

Zero from Hammond I'm afraid however there are loads of fan sites/forums which offer excellent advice such as:

http://www.hammond-organ.com/product_support/X5.htm
http://homepages.tesco.net/~david.barraclough/hammond/hamx5.htm

A bit of history that can still the digital equivalents in their proverbial

By the way, mine is now for sale in the UK as there's no room for it anymore...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140309652931&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:GB:1123

A video of mine in action...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9unRW_nRbQ

I bought my Hammond X-5 in dec.1977 in Springfield Mo. Also got the Leslie 760 . I have hauled it to Alaska two times, florida and back here to Arkansas. It still works like a new one. The toggle switches need to be cleaned but other than that no problems. I played mostly solo in bars, resturants, small dances and private parties. I haven't played anywhere for a long time and would like to sell it.
It cost me nearly $3,000.new and has been worth every penny I paid for it.
Don Butterfield email twobridge@suddenlink.net

There are preset tabs...the only practical application for them would be switching from an oddball drawbar setup to a standard sound on the fly. I don't use em. It's easy to use.

The action is very tight and responsive. Springy. There is built in reverb that sounds decent. There is an 1/4" line input for accepting other instruments into the chain and also a line out. The preamp for the Leslie (Model 760) has a 1/4" line-in as well. I discovered that you can run an effects loop between the organ and Leslie...which really is what makes this instrument very usable to me. 2nd and 3rd harmonic percussion. A kinda oddball repeat switch and knob that can be used for some interesting effect. Slow and Fast speed controls. Portable...breaks down and sets up nice but it is still fairly heavy and requires 2 people .

This is not an instrument for B-3 purists. Go buy an old tonewheel organ or get a new digital emulator if you want that. My X-5 sounds awesome. I run the line-out into a wah and distortion pedal. Sometimes I use a phaser in there too. Or a line-6 Pod. The fx chain is then routed into the Leslie 760. This thing is very versatle. I play heavy prog, doom, jazz fusion, space-rock. With no fx, it is quite bright sounding, and mellow. It can work well with most any type of music. I have played black metal with it...

It is from 76 and I play it alot so it'll probably crap out on me someday while I'm up on stage. I have a Korg Wavestation that I suppose could get me thru the rest of the night...or just jam on my Rhodes. It is kind of quirky and glitchy on occasion...but overall it's been reliable enough for a 30 year old instrument that was gigged lots back in the day when my dad owned it...with cigarrete burned keys, scratches and dents.

This is too old school for that. Take it to Bill Brown (www.bborgan.com) to get fixed. Download the service manual online.

This is really my baby. My signature sounds come from this.
I don't know how I'd lose this beast but if it broke down beyond what its worth repairing or whatever I'd get another Hammond, something different tho. A tonewheel one which I'd probably have gutted out and put into a road case and mod it so I could use my effects chain with it.

Like any other Hammonds, getting used to drawbars takes time to perfect but getting started is pretty much immediate and easy. Unlike modern computerised keyboards hammonds are 'hands on' and very user friendly. Programmable presets would have been nice but on an instrument of this size I can forgive - larger hammonds of course do have presets options B3, C3 etc

No nonsense - just great build quality, keyboard excellent, sounds great.

Its a HAMMOND REALLY!!!!! Okay its not a B3/C3 but when would you listen to both side by side - in isoaltion I think its difficult to tell the difference. Plug it into a good valve 145 Leslie and it starts to 'cook' - even distort nicely. Overdrive the amp and it has B*LLS just like its bigger brothers - and at the end of the gig the jacket potatos are just about cooked on the top of the leslie amp!!!!

Uhm.......Well its a HAMMOND again. Not noted for totally unfailuable realiabilty, but they have still been arround for 60 odd years, and some of the first ones produced are still going strong - can't say that yet about modern Midi keyboards but..........
The trick with my X5 is knowing just where to thump it when it stops. I have just about got the position and intensity right and when accompanied with a roaring glissando and screams of "YEH" 'casue its back working, and speeding up the Leslie the audience loves it and go mad.

Plenty of good engineers still arround, but no support of course from original company

Absolutely first class instrument for gigging - its not a B3 but it aint the weight either, nor the initial cost. It can sound every bit as good, hidden in a rock or blues band especially. I expose it wih a Jazz quartet and play pedals and it sounds great. I also have a B3000 which I flight cased as a project - two full size manuals and 25 note pedal board AND much more weight - but I still don't think the sound is as good as my old faithful, knocked to pieces but still going strong X5

Wanted an X5 since they blew me away as a teenager. Paid #1,000 for a very well-kept model with Leslie 760 in the mid-80s. Since then have gigged with it in clubs, cinemas, cabaret, stage shows...even churches!
Theatre organ preset is great if used with all drawbars on lower manual whacked up full and pedal on 16 and reverbs on full.

Keyboard action just a dream. Instant response and jazz glides very, very good. Use the Leslie up and down incessantly. These organs are a biut like the old Mini car. You have to drive them energetically or they will fall away.

The harmonics tabs, on their own, are almost an ear-test, but they do play a part in the versatility of the machine.
I've played rock, progressive jazz, trad jazz, weddings, ballroom dance, pantomimes and solo concerts and for me is the only organ you could ever want.

This is the dodgy bit. Travelling in the back of vans, going in lifts (elevators) upside down, being bumped down the steps into the orchestra pit all take their toll and I've had my X5 crap out on me three times during shows over the last 20 years. How embarrassing is that? The good side is that any electronics engineer (mine spends most of his time fitting house alarm systems) can get them going again with a new transistor and a soldering iron. Have also had the main Leslie speaker collapse (that took hours to track down, because it sounds for all the world like an electronics fault. In reality, the paper cone has reached the end of its life)

Not applicable

If it was lost I would have to have another. Wife hates it because it is cumbersome and ungainly. She would like me to have a pretty Roland but just couldn't bring myself. Been playing 45 years, 20 on Hammond.
As a former club entertainer I sometimes found my drawbar settings getting "samey" and would have liked more harmonics tabs which can alter the whole sound at a stroke.
Only once have I ever had it up to full volume: that during a pantomime audience singalong. Other than that, it just blows everybody and everything off stage.

This is the Hammond for those who want a stage organ and whose wives have excused them money... I bought two of these off Tom from Noddy's Puncture (ELP Tribute band in the UK) the price was so low it's obscene. I intended to make one good one out of two but when i got them home they both worked so i gave one away to my mate and kept the prettier one for me and it's as easy as any Hammond Spinet to play - I know, it's clonewheel not a tonewheel but Hammond/Acetone/Hammond Japan did a good job with multi-bus connectors, flattened sawtooth waves pretending to be sine waves and general Hammondness. All of the switches, buttons, drawbars doe what they're supposed to. and raucous leadlines and chords, windmill chops and palm smears flow from the two 44 note keyboards. The bass to lower manual switch is useful for those with eight left feet. Go out and try one today

101 note polyphonic (2x44 keyboards and 13 note pedals) Divide down technology. All of the Hammond drawbar stuff. This one sounds brighter than a 'tonewheel' - great for loud rock bands. Not suitable for classical or church voicing - even with the nasty thin reedy presets.

It's as expressive as the player - the sounds are realistic if you're looking for a hard edged rock organ. It does blues, gospel, rock, jazz but not traditional organ sounds. The vibrato is crap but plug it into a Leslie 760 and it comes alive. The onboard Leslie switches mean that a 9 pin hook up gives you instant Leslie control from the left of the lower keyboard without having to resort to the (now expensive) Leslie 'D' switches.

I do depend on it. Finally, after playing it for a while, i got a mate to reduce it to its constituent parts to see what it was like inside. It's built like a tank, went back together easily and didn't need any parts or servicing. I'd buy another.

Hahaha - Hammond Suzuki disown this bastard offspring of the transistor clonewheel technology of the 1970s. They want you to spend $20,000 on a nice porky B3 'virtual tonewhhel'. They work on the principal that something tht was sold over 30 years has run out of warranty a bit ;)

I'd get another - i'm looking out for others for my friends who keep wanting it

This is a "no nonsense" instrument and I like that.
Three simple presets similar to Hammond T series and the usual
drawbars, (9 top, 7 bottom, 1 pedal). Easy to play and fairly
easy to assemble considering it weighs about 16 tons. Most of the
tabs are accessed by the left hand which means you either lose
accompaniment or contort yourself to to get the right hand there.

This was Hammond's first serious attempt at a gigging portable.
It does what a Hammond is supposed to do, i.e. make plenty of noise
which it does admirably through its specific Leslie (760). The basic
tones are reasonable, although simple triangle waveforms and the
percussion is adequate (2nd and 3rd harmonic). Pity that Hammond
could not retain the five harmonics of the Acetone GT-7 rather than
keeping the somewhat gimmicky "bass to lower manual". However, Hammond
did keep the foldback and key-click of its bigger brothers. Reverb is
superb and can be easily tweaked inside the organ.

Revolutionary when it first appeared in the seventies and good
enough to avoid lugging a huge B3 around, but nowhere near the
sound of a B3, of course. Performs adequately for most styles
although the shortage of harmonic percussion is a drawback.
But where the X5 really comes into its own is in the sheer
screaming quality of sound it produces, even through a 90 watt
Leslie 760. Get a 9 to 11 pin converter and put it through the
various 200 watt plus Leslies and it will blow any nearby guitarist
clean off stage. A powerhouse of organ sound. Not a domestic
instrument but a real "gigger".

X5s have a mind of their own. Sometimes they work fine, other times
they are either dead or they take an hour to really get going. They
have a habit of burning out E and/or A notes after a year or two, the volume
volume pedal is prone to give up and the multipin connector from the
pedal board to the keyboard tends to break or crumble quite easily.
But they are so cheap now, you might as well buy another as a spare.

I've never bothered with Hammond. Always gone to a local engineer
who knows them inside-out. Just as well considering their dodgy
reliability.

In spite of its faults, yes I'd buy another but it would always play
second fiddle to my Acetone GT-7 (its predecessor) which is a much
better instrument. I have too much gear to mention here and I was
playing keyboards and guitars in Noah's Ark.
Good fun to gig with, but you'll always wish you had five percussion
tabs (like the GT-7) rather than the basic two.
It was Hammond's first serious portable attempt. They got a lot right
and it's better than most portables of that era because it screams like
it should on stage.

Is pretty easy to use, although running power and audio through one cable is dodgy, 9 pin plugs for leslie speakers are also dodgy and come loose when you are on stage and people are jumping around. Easy to set up but some connections are dodgy

NEED friends to set it up

Drawbars are sweet. Has bass pedals (sweet). Can plug into a leslie or can DI the sucker (although that is not as good).

Sweet range of sounds especially when using with a leslie

Very Robust. Connection for leads are heaps dodgy though but if you replaced them with good ones all would be good

Sweetest thing I ever bought

Very easy indeed... If you're reading this, and don't know what a Hammond organ is all about, please check elsewhere. If you do: well, you know how they work, dont you? :-)
I don't normally use the presets, just the drawbars will do nicely.

Full polyphony, baby! :-) No quiting of earlier notes due to a massive glissando. Brilliant!
It's got switchable spring-reverb as well, and you can control a 9-pin Leslie, so no need for additional switches there.
Otherwise it's fairly basic.

It sounds like a Hammond. Should say it all, shouldn't it?
OK, tonewheels do indeed sound better, although I'd rather say 'different', having owned one (L-100P or Porta-B). Noticeable? Nope, not when you're playing in a rock-cover band, as I do.
Major bummer on this organ: no tubes! So: no nice gurgling overdrive, you'll have to do that with a tube-Leslie or a good tube preamp - I use a Presonus Tube Pre-amp for that.
There is no velocity or aftertouch on a Hammond, unless you play something like an XB-2, or later models. Any dynamics are controlled with your volume-pedal (optical, so no crackling noise from potentiometers! :-) which is as it should be.

It's fairly sturdy, built in a case that's got a detachable cover. It will scratch if you're not careful, and as it's still quite heavy, your roadies will dump it into your truck with a formidable 'THUMP' and you'll end up with busted reverb-springs, knocked-off edges, loose contacts internally, all that sort of fun.
It's not a Sherman tank, OK? Needs proper handling.
Personally, I handle it myself. Just to be sure :)

Not available from the Masters themselves, alas.
There's a lot to do on the wwweb though, if you look for info. Manuals can be bought, and so can schematics if you're a technician.
Seek and thou shalt find....

I bought mine in absolute pristine condition! Initially as a backup/replacement for an Italian clone, my much beloved and cherished Intercontinental organ. I would miss it however, you don't just find them this good.
I used an L-100P and a XB-2 in the past. The former was way too heavy to be practical, the latter pricy but too 'japanesey cloney'.

If you want a reliable Hammond organ without breaking your back carrying it, and for a reasonable price too: get a X-5. I love it :-)

Very simple if you understand the drawbars! Also preset sounds availiable. Easy to set up aswell!

Good tonebar range, but only 3 1/2 octave per keyboard. All folds away to a relatively small size. Can be plugged in to a normal amp or speaker f any kind using a jack lead, and has an electronic vibrato, but also has dual speed leslie capability. Nice smooth sound.

Naturally the reason i bought it. A range of sounds, with unlimited possibilities with different tonebar settings and bass pedals aswell. It cant make that classic B3 dirty sound, but can do the classic Hammond sound. Great for blues/rock!

Very dependable even though i bought it second hand. Would gig with it, but its fairly hefty, and i would take a backup.

No support availiable except through enthusiasts websites