The C3 is vrtually the same, it was just designed for women, as the B3 was designed for men.
Um, no. "C" was the "church" designation as the four-legged B series cabinet was deemed not appropriate for some church settings.
If money is no object I would consider looking into a "New B3". They are modeled to sound exactly like the older B3s and do a fairly good job of it, and you are less likely to have repair and maintenance issues down the line. You can select different tonewheel sets so that it can, in fact, sound like several different B3s. I think most of the people that play New B3s and dont like them havent bothered to find the tonewheel set that fits their ideal.
If you get an old B3/C3/A100, get one that has been well maintained or rebuilt. You probably DONT want one with new Tone Generator caps, but new Preamp caps are a good thing (but not always necessary). And the older the organ, the more likely the capacitor values have drifted, but the last-run organs from the 70s werent as well made . . . so the best years are the ones in the middle, like the 60s.
If you dont use percussion B2s and C2s are very nice organs, and can be updated with Trek II
Lastly you'll want to get at least one (two if you have the money) Leslie 122s or 147s (depending on which the organ is wired for). The new 122A/147As are the same as the old 122/147s.
Yes, I made some generalizations.
