Leslie 122 Cabinet

Since nobody's talked here about any of the original Tube-n-Wood Leslies I thought I'd offer a little piece in case anybody is looking into the possibilities of adapting a Leslie speaker for guitar, bass, accordian, or whatever. Of course they're primary purpose is the second-half of the classic Hammond-Leslie vibe, but more on that later.

"Leslie speaker" has evolved into a somewhat generic term for a power amp and speaker combination that uses physical motion to create a tremolo kind of effect.

The original "Leslies" were invented by one Don Leslie, in the 50's as a complement to the new-generation electronic organs being kicked out by Hammond, Conn, Wulitzer and a few others. Mr. Leslie, a long-time tinkerer in sound, it is said, was trying to create a speaker box that gave a sense of fullness and motion to these organs, akin to the feeling of sitting in a church surrounded by pipes. Kind of the 3-D thing. Available material says he tried lots of stuff before he hit on the idea of directing speakers into moving chambers that introduced new dynamics into the sound waves.

Did he replicate the full pipe-organ experience? Nope. But what he did do was create an unbelievably organic (no pun intended) sound that gets rediscovered every generation, but which has become a staple of full-on gospel, blues, jazz, rock, and even country. You'll hear it in Santana, Yes, Booker T. & the MG's, and of course the famous "Green-eyed Lady" solo and the roaring overdriven opening on the Spencer Davis Group oldie "Gimme Some Lovin'". The hottest modern practioner I've heard is Phish.

The original Leslies split the signal frequencies with a crossover at 800hz, sending the lower frequency to a 15" speaker on the bottom of the cabinet and the higher frequencies to a 3/4" driver at the top. The low speaker actual points downward and the sound is pushed into a rotating wood drum/cylinder of about the same diameter, with a couple of diagonal baffles inside the drum. This causes a sort of rolling bottom end.

The treble driver was pointed upward into a rotating horn, looking something like a trumpet bell, that takes a 90 degree turn so that it points out. a second matching bell was welded opposite the active one as a counterbalance for when it got spinning a full speed.

Since I'm not an engineer, I can't give you a scientific explanation as to why this sounds so cool. It's been argued that there's some doppler effect going on, along with frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, blah-blah-blah. But the bottom line is that it's an incredible vibe that has not been replicated, especially in a live setting. Stand next to the Leslie at a show and it just rolls over you.

The earliest models had only an Off or Fast option. That is, either the rotor and horn were stationary, or they were whuppin' at full speed. Then Don Leslie figured out that he could get a sweet, warm, subtle sound by running them at a slow speed all of the time (which he called "chorale") with an option for the organist to switch over to a full-speed "tremolo" for a little flare for certain moments. What he probably didn't realize at the time was that some really cool things happen during the speed-up and slow down processes. Soon organists, especially rock, were figuring out they could do some flashy stuff by constantly speeding up and slowing down these buggers.

The original horns had a baffle in them, lilke a trumpet mute but set back further so that it didn't mute the sound as much as diffuse it. There's an on-going argument as to whether the baffle should stay or go.

That's about it for "features" and "options." Some users will disconnect the motors to the rotor so that it's stationary, or always on the slow speed, as the whoop-whooping gets a little grating at tremolo speed.

The early Leslies came in a big, heavy wood cabinet (up to 125 lbs depending on the model), with louvres cut into the top and bottom on 3 sides to allow the sound out. The 4th side was supposed to go against a wall and was closed off. Rockers/blues guys figured out to pull the back panels off and run them "dirty side out", that is the unobstructed side toward the audience. Not only was this louder, it was kind of cool to watch the horn spinning and changing speeds thru your vintage '60's pot haze.

They were powered by 12ax7 preamp and big 6550 power tubes, and ran between 20 and 40 watts (class A) depending on the model. Usually you ran 'em flat out, and adjusted the preamp signal coming from the organ to get the degree of drive desired.

The "classic" 122 model has a balanced signal going into the amp and the 147 model was an unbalanced signal. Again, there's an on-going debate about which is cooler - - just season to taste. 122's tend to be more expensive, so for whatever reason, they're more in demand. These shared the same cabinet, which ran about 48" high. There were also shorter version of both (Model 142 for the 122 and model 145 for the 147) that seem to not quite get the same drive, but are a little easier to heft. If you see RV after the model it means it had a reverb circuit courtesy of two stationary 6x9" speakers mounted in the side panels below the rotor. Most people think they don't add much to the overall vibe and disconnect them.

There were also smaller models (like the 125) that only had a 12" drum and no rotor, with lower power output. These are fine for home-use (or better than a straight stationary speaker) but without the rotor the Leslie sound just doesn't happen.

Later, the Leslie's went to the higher-output, but solid-state and vinyl-covered "ProLine series." There are several models with different sizes. They were never as widely loved as the originals (for good reason - - they just don't resonate the same), even though they were louder.

I gotta rate the Leslie features a "10" because the whole package is so cool and impossible to replicate. Go to the effects portion and look at the various emulators. Hughes and Kettner's , Digitech RPM-1 and the Korg G400 (or something like that) are the highest-rated. Inevitably you'll find some reviewers saying it "sounds just like a Leslie" and others saying "Get real: NOTHING sounds like a Leslie. Nice, yes. Leslie, no." Hear for yourself, but the more you hear, I believe the more you'll realize there's only one.

Now, keep in mind connectivity. To hook up a Leslie to a Hammond requires some special hardware and wiring. Forget about hooking a 122 to your guitar unless you're really good with electronics. The quickest, easiest way to get your guitar, bass or 1/4" output keyboard to a Leslie, is to use a 147 or 145 and run it with a special preamp. Leslie made a big old floor-mounted stomp-box that they called the "Combo Preamp" and takes the 1/4" input, runs it through a solid state preamp and has a six-prong output that cables up to the six-prong input on the 145 and 147. There's a footswitch that changes speeds, which is actually way easier than the normal Hammond set-up where you swipe the switch with your hand.

Why six prongs you ask? Well, you need a signal, signal ground, A/C power, A/C ground, and switched power to the fast motor and slow motor. That's right, they have FOUR motors to drive the multispeed rotor/drum combos. I believe this was easier than trying to get a single motor to change speeds, but there it is.

The later ProLine models used 9 prongs. Don't ask me why; I never researched them. Remember, I'm a tube-n-wood diehard here.

As a side note, you'll see items on eBay that say "Leslie-unit" out of this or that organ for the do-it-yourselfer. These were rotor/drum internal "Leslie" speakers that came out on later organs. Mostly they are very cheesy, driven by 8" speakers for the home-use plunkers too cheap to get one of the big Hammond consoles.

Finally, after Leslie sold his name to CBS, the later came out with a Model 16 speaker cabinet. This is also a drum-only unit. Cool for guitar, but you'll be disappointed if you use it for a keyboard. They require there own speed change hardware as well, so if you dive into this make sure you get all of the pieces so that you don't end up with an expensive stationary speaker when you get home.

Search the "theatreorgan.com" website and you'll get all kinds of testimonies on the how the Leslie completes the Hammond B-3 vibe. I won't spend much time on it here, other than to say the Laurens Hammond did everything he could to make it difficult to connect these, so again make sure you get all the parts or you'll be doing some surfing to figure out how to make your Leslie work.

Or get a Combo Preamp and a 147 and go the easy way. For a while I was running my Hammond A-100 (which is a B-3 in a big, ugly home cabinet that adds an on-board power amp and speakers - - B3's have a preamp and nothing else) through a Combo preamp on into the leslie, so essentially I was double pre-amping it before the Leslie. A very, very hot, driven signal which was cool on the rock stuff, but it was hard to find the sweet Hammond-Leslie side.

Again, there is no sound like the Hammond-Leslie combo. And if you can dial in a guitar sound, way to go. BTW I had a bass player that absolutely LOVED running his sound through the preamp into that 15" speaker on the chorale sound. Very fluid, but you're kind of wasting the horn, since your bass rarely goes up there.

Not many of us - - or our backs - - can afford to drag along a back up Leslie. These things were build very strong. The motors last forever. Though the belts will break. That's the only "back-up" I travel with. Try to have a spare for your rotor anyway. Beyond that, be reasonably nice when you're hauling them around and you'll be fine.

Ha! Long, long gone, I'm afraid.

Find a electronics geek, tube amp, or organ guy. Usually the latter have a sort of missionary zeal for these beauties and they'll chew you out but good if you're mistreating your Leslie.

I paid $700 in 2000 for a 145 with a beat cabinet, but which included the Combo Preamp. Expect to pay a grand with cable, connections and the Leslie for one of the good ones (122, 142, 147 or 145.) But it's the most wonderful amp you'll ever own. And if you've been trying to emulate a Hammond Leslie sound, you'll be in heaven. Hammond emulators can get way closer to The Sound than Leslies emulators. So if you've only got $1500 to spend, get the Leslie first, then find a cheap MIDI controller and a Hammond module - - there's lots of used ones for under $200. This is way better than finding a beat thousand dollar B-2 or A-100 (forget about a B-3 for less than 2 grand), or even an XK-2 and trying to fake a Leslie on the back end.

Find a Leslie while you still can and you'll never regret it as long as you're still playing.