You know this too, Dave that no two old Hammonds sound alike, but they still all have that imperfect great sound!
Maybe I'm in the minority for liking the sound of Tom Coster's Hammond, which is definitely set up up different than the sound of Gregg's, but I think fit the Lotus Band's sound well. I think Gregg's sound would have been too overpowering, considering that you had two keyboardist going almost all the time. Tom blended well with Richard and their balance was amazing.
I remember the one and only time the original Journey opened up for the Lotus-Santana band at Winterland, and I remember the contrast of how strong Gregg's Hammond sounded in comparison to Tom's B-3, which, in all due respect was lower in the mix than what I'd be used to, even when they played any of the original Santana material. That night, off the top of my head, they played BMW / GQ, Oh Ye Como Va, Toussaint d'Overture, Incident at Neshabur, Se-aCabo and In Time to See the Sun..(which only had the Caravansarai album to go by)..and then Smoke on the Water...oh wait...that was decades later . Going back all those years ago just starting out playing music, I was a pretty good listener... always waiting for the chops to catch up. They never did.
So...
Why Gregg would short change the original Santana sound by using a portable / digital Hammond is a little puzzling, I agree.
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