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"DIY projects and bodge jobs..."

Does a home made "Leslie" rotary speaker count? If so here's a fun project:

I like the sound of a Hammond, either clean (Jimmy Smith, Booker T) or dirty (Gregg Rolie, Jon Lord etc etc), but it's got to have 'moving air' (supplied by the rotating horn in this example).

So this is my 'compact' Leslie (modeled on a 'Roadbox' speaker). It's rated at 400 watt (yes it's way toooo louuuud!!). I used it with Native Instruments B4II (Hammond VST) and a MIDI controller with a good firewire audio interface and balanced line outputs that feed a 400 watt power amplifier... it's earth shaking loud (real Leslie's are 40 watt).

Barebones...



'Rear' view (or is it the front dunno)...




'Assembled'...

Elwyn - are you telling me that butterfly-shaped part in the upper opening is the "horn" and it rotates while sounding? (You can tell I'm terribly naive about these things ) Does it go "ooo-wah ooo-wah" ?

Nice looking piece of equipment tho, and a pretty sophisticated bodge

Cathy

Yep! You got it.... It's a genuine Leslie horn.

The "Chorale" setting is around 42 rpm, sound only comes out one side of the horn (the other is basically a counter balance), at much higher settings 240 rpm it gives that characteristic Hammond/Leslie "vibrato" effect.

I love it. Clever, very cool.

Cathy

EJR, Excellent, my other half is into serious bass, we got a couple of speakers from an old blues club, and he's built a few himself, I can take pics, but it's not really my forteit! I do know however that he tends to build the bass speaker in the bottom, facing down towards the floor, something he learned over the years, will take pics 2moz, gonna show him what you've made, he'll be well interested!

Have you seen the massive lesliesque cabs that Pink Floyd use? The whole cab rotates!

Hi Wayne,

<<he tends to build the bass speaker in the bottom, facing down towards the floor, something he learned over the years, will take pics 2moz,>>

Cool! Looking forward to it!

<<Have you seen the massive lesliesque cabs that Pink Floyd use? The whole cab rotates!>>

The whole cab! Awesome!! I know Dave Gilmour uses Leslie/rotary speaker effects a lot though... When I first put the speaker together, before I got the B4ii and interface stuff sorted, the first quick test was a White Stratocaster and Marshall played clean (they were like just lying about at hand)... It sounded sort of Hendrix/Little Wing right off the bat!

Even pickup beds?

Of course! (smacks hand on head) I kept trying to figure out why that looked so familiar

Cathy

I needed the sunlight to make a good pic.

Well I would have, but just been down in his radio studio/cinema room and ones on it's side with loads of stuff on it, and he's usin' the other as a table lol, it all looks very messy! When he get 'round to tidying up a bit, will post some pics then