# Leslie/Vibratone Project



## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

I've always been fascinated by the tone of rotating speakers and the failure of pedal and rack effects to truly emulate that tone. This link on the subject only fueled my fire even more: Inside the Fender Vibratone

So, armed with the hunger for the Leslie tone, I ran a feeler on the Hamer board to see if anybody had ever built a rotating speaker cab. While no one responded to the affirmative, one member there stated that he had a number of NOS Leslie tremelo units in stock that he was willing to let go for $50+shipping. This guy (Alex), runs a small family shop in PA that specializes in old and 2nd hand music gear (Lost Art Vintage) and seemed quite helpful. He sent pics from an E-Bay listing he was running; units had the rotor premounted to a baffle board, a single-speed motor w/belt and all the mounting cutouts and hardware included - a pretty darn good start! So I took the plunge...

Thing comes quickly and was packed for the Apocalypse! Took it out - nary a scratch on it; NOS indeed and in incredible shape for something that's been in storage for close to 40 yrs (mfg date of 5/71 clearly indicated). All there was to do was to attach a small speaker to the baffle board and wire up a lamp cord to the motor. Since I was anxious to try it out, I just laid the unit on a small alnico speaker cab lying on its back after I carefully removed the linen/cellulose fiber speaker insulation. As it was a single-speed motor, I wired a rotary dimmer switch designed for a ceiling fan to it as I thought it'd be well up to the job of varying the speed. 

Running the unit through a '62 SilverTone 1410 into a Fender SuperTwin via BYOC reverb, it sounded fantastic. The first setting I tried was with a moderate amount of reverb and full rotor speed, which was probably around 180 rpm or more. This yielded SRV's "Cold Shot" tone - a luscious, fast flangey tremelo tone that sprayed all around the room. Then I played with the slower settings and this was more traditional, rich, Leslie tone I remembered and longed for - Beatles, Harrison, Badfinger, Narzareth's "Love Hurts", Cheap Trick's "In the Street" - all those tones in there and more. The piece de resistance, however, was when I slowed the unit down as slow as it could go without stalling (guessing around 60 rpm), dialed up the dwell on the reverb and dug into Pink Floyd's "Breathe" - OMG!!! 

All I can say is this - this unit truly renders an amazing 3-D aural sensation that simply has to be experienced! Sure I know the logistical impracticalities - awkward/bulky to lug around, output somewhat limited for stage use, and so on, but holy smokes - the _tone_... Everyone should have one of these for rehearsal or recording, moderate volume level jams/rehearsals, especially at less than $100 all in (half the cost of most boutique pedals). I've been playing mine so much as is, I haven't even had time to build a cab for it yet!


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Kinda partial to swirly speakers myself. I have the option of hooking up a guitar through one of my organs .. but always forget about it...


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Started using one of those around 1979 or so. Luv 'em. Had to sell my original one but managed to score another a few years ago and built it into a cabinet. EVERY guitar player owes it to themselves to play through a Vibratone or Leslie at least once in their lives.

Several years ago, Tim Larwill, who makes the Retro-Sonic pedals, and has gathered much praise for his CE-1 clone, was over to the house. When I learned he had never played through a rotating speaker, I immediately had to set him up. He was floored. People who have only played through chorus or flanger pedals, in mono, THINK they know what a rotating speaker sounds like. But they don't. The spatial aspect is impossible to mimic through a mere floor pedal and single amp.

The good news is that there seems to be a lot of folks abandoning their home organ i recent years - I guess because the generation that would have likely owned one is of an age to move to smaller quarters - and a great many of those have built-in rotating units that can be easily adapted to be an extra cabinet hooked up to your amp. Do keep in mind that those home organs will generally have an 8" or 10" speaker, and are NOT intended to have 100W heads pumped through them. Nevertheless, you can get some decent volume. And quite frankly, even if you can't, you'll still find it near impossible to turn the damn thing off.

Congrats on the score, gtone. Many happy swirly years.


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

Had a couple of spare hours today, so went to the garage to see what I could find to build a cabinet with. Located some 3/4" plywood with mahogany veneer left over from our old kitchen cupboards (alas, I gifted pretty much all of the solid surplus mahogany to a luthier friend who greatly appreciated it). As dated as the mahogany looked in our kitchen, I thought it would lend the perfect vintage vibe for this project. I liberated a 10" alnico speaker out of an old Kalamazoo III (the non-collectible SS model) amp, mounted that to the baffle board and soldered lamp cord leads to a SwitchCraft plug. Assembled the cab with glue, screws and full length cleats for the baffle board. Made a cutout for the dimmer switch and wired that in. All I have left to do tomorrow is seal and finish the cab, maybe install some handles or other hardware.

Brought the cab back in to try it out and the oversized enclosed cab made the bottom-end from the little speaker sound very full. The Kalamazoo's speaker (Motorola?) is not quite as sweet and smooth as the vintage Quam I was using before in the little cab that I was laying the unit on, but the cab design does seem to flatter what it puts on offer. I initially placed the cab on the floor, which had the rotor about 20" or so off the ground and it sounded quite good. Being curious, I wondered if a higher placement would yield a better projection of the doppler effect. So, I then placed the cab on a pine chest about 24" high and that improved the effect markedly - especially from the other side of the rehearsal room (maybe I'll try getting it up even closer to ear level for maximum effect).

mhammer & shoretyus - it'd be cool to hear a guitar through a real Leslie organ cabinet, especially the larger ones with the lower rotor and upper horn in combination (I'm jealous now!). Those two components spinning in opposite directions must make for some crazy/cool doppler effects, especially given that they ramp their speeds up/down at different rates. Great to hear from others that enjoy the sound of swirl - pretty heady stuff indeed!


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Horn doesn't matter too much..... keep your eye out for a Leslie 110 of 120 or 125 .. organ guys don't want much to do with them


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## gtone (Nov 1, 2009)

shoretyus said:


> Horn doesn't matter too much..... keep your eye out for a Leslie 110 of 120 or 125 .. organ guys don't want much to do with them


Thanks for the 'head's up' on that - might have to give one a try to see how it stacks up with my homebuilt unit. I think I'm hooked now!


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