Product: Yamaha 1500
Price Paid: USD 1000
Submitted
12/23/2006
at
03:49am
by
Hammondlover
Ease of Use
:
7
Presets are fantastic. The orchestra, wurlitzer EP, and fender rhodes sounds are top notch. The drawbar organ (who's foolin who here-we all know what they mean) suffices for its job, but not very fat. In fact, it probably sounds more Hammond without the leslie sim -erm- rotary speaker simulator. The rotary effect magnifies the upper drawbars a bit too much, so the chords drown out the melody. Turn that off and just use the "stock Hammond" sound and you've got your green onions. Speed up the vibrato, though. It's a bit too slow. I can't really tell the difference between the vintage organ and the sine organ, other than the sine organ dullens the key click and percussion (why in heaven's name would you want to do that?). Yamaha is notorious for dense manuals. This one takes the cake. I'm pretty smart and even I have to read things more than once.
Features
:
10
96 note polyphony, more effects than you can shake a stick at. I mean this thing's got it all: Reverb, flanger, phaser, distortion/overdrive, even wah, etc. A couple of the rotary speaker effect are kind of icky. Rest of them are interesting though. One I use for the Hammond sounds the others are more theater organ in nature.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
The keyboard is very dynamic, even going as far as to simulate the speed at which the flute is blown into compared to the key touch. The growl sax growls when the key is hit hard. Very nice. I don't touch the preset organs as I mainly use the drawbars, but they are so-so. They seem more transistor organ in nature than drawbar (as some of them are named). They all seem to be a little vibrato-happy. The pipe organ and organ flute sound are decent pipe organ stops, but sound dry if you don't use reverb. The keyboard is very dynamic. The effects are very nice to phenominal. Kind of a pseudo-synthesizer.
Reliability
:
10
Very dependable. Would use it on a gig in an instant. Although I would never step more than 3 feet away from it since it cost a grand.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to deal with them.
Overall Rating
:
8
If it were stolen, I would have a conniption and go postal-and then buy that hammond m100 I've been looking out for. And I'm not stupid enough to lose it. It costs too much. On the positive side this keyboard is great, the sounds are very nice and it has made me a better musician because it is fun to play.
