Nord User Forum

Hammond seems to be positioning this as a sort of modern successor to the M-series spinets. The M100 series had 44 diving board keys on each manual. So this essentially is like the upper manual plus some additional organ and synth sounds.

Hard to consider competitors to this product. Other 4-octave instruments like the GAIA/GIAIA2 or Lead A1 are certainly more (and better) synth oriented and much less organ. The closest I would place to it is the Roland VR-09, which is $1200US but has a 5-octave keyboard and an arguably better synth engine. The quality of the organ engine is in the ears of the beholder, but from what I’ve hears so far they are close enough. It could also cover piano if needed, but I would personally never consider it for that instrument.

An alternative competitor setup would possibly be a 4-octave controller with an organ app running on a tablet. If the M-Solo is indeed in the $850-900US price area, it’s an easier buy and less fuss.

All that said, I could see it having a place in a live rig, depending on your repertoire and gigging situation.

I think we have a price, and it's not the price we were hoping for...

https://www.b3guys.com/product/Hammond- ... n-Keyboard

Hlaalu wrote:I think we have a price, and it's not the price we were hoping for...

https://www.b3guys.com/product/Hammond- ... n-Keyboard

Ouch! Falls out of consideration at that price. You can buy a Mojo 61 for not much more than that and get a whole lot more instrument. Or, like I said above, a Roland VR-09 for less.

It really should have been under 1,000 $/€/£.

Nifty little keyboard. Of course we'd expect it to be pricier, since it's Hammond(TM).

I loathe diving board keys, mostly due to the springiness; I far prefer the NE's semi-weighted, for playing Hammond, Clav, and Wurli, and while I'm not a fan of using it for piano & Rhodes, I can get by far better than springy diving-board keys.

I can do a palm smear on hammer-action or diving board; for me that's not the issue, though it does indeed feel nicer on waterfall keys.

I might be tempted by something like this, though I'd probably go for a VR-09 instead. But I prefer the Electro; I like having a small lightweight keyboard that I can use alone for rehearsals or short gigs, that sits so nicely above a DP (Yamaha CP4 in my case.)

In any case, thanks for pointing it out.

>I think we have a price, and it's not the price we were hoping for...<


Well, that "shot across the bow" didn't make it, and fizzled out in the water well before reaching the Good Ship Clavia. I can't speak for the newbie market, but I'm pretty sure anyone who has been buying boards for the past decade will agree that $1295 is too high for what you are getting. And it's only 61 keys! If Hammond really honestly for sure couldn't get this out for the fabled $999.99, then maybe digital keyboards really are coming to an evolutionary end. First a $6000 Nord Stage, and now this. Let's see if Yamaha can leverage their market share to release better-priced new products.

$1295 and it is 49 keys!!

-dj

Oops my bad...you're right! Even more too expensive than it should be. I mean hell, it's like a controller now.