Leslie Cabinets

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » 20 Apr 2001 8:57 am

In my travels this week, I came across a hammond leslie, stored in the corner of the basement of a country church. They had recently replaced the old organ/leslie with a new one.
I expressed an interest in it, and the church expressed an interest in selling it.
I'm hesitant, as I don't know the first thing about leslies, except that they sound cool and there's nothing like them.
This is in a mahogany cabinet, and in very good shape. It's 60 watts.
The connection on it was a D.I.N connector. (6 pins ?) Can this be adapted to use it on other instruments?
-John

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 20 Apr 2001 9:09 am

Yes, We used one for a number of years, untill....( I got old and cound'nt carry it around anymore. It's very heavey.)

Our's just pluged into the external SPK jack of any "Fender" amp we were using at tha time. Worked like a champ !! Sounded wonderful and we really hated to give it up but no one was willin' to cart it around for me.

J Fletcher · Post by **J Fletcher** » 20 Apr 2001 11:29 am

I've got a little experience with Leslies. The 6 pin connector usually carries a ground,in phase audio, out of phase audio , neutral AC, hot AC, switching voltage for the hi/lo rotor speed. Well I guess that's six. There's lots of variation so take this as a generalization. They can be modified for guitar use, but it's not that simple. Easiest way is to get a Leslie PreAmp that has an instrument level input. Hope some of that's useful...Jerry

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 20 Apr 2001 12:45 pm

I bought a Leslie 122 quite a few years ago and it had the same DIN setup. I had to build a pre-amp (I actually modified an old Electro-Harmonix LPB-2 "Power Booster") to make it work. Just making an adapter cord to insert the straight guitar signal didn't provide enough gain.

At one time Leslie made that "Combo Preamp" that J Fletcher mentioned, but they were sorta pricey at the time. The sound of those big wooden Leslies is pretty cool.

I checked ebay, searching for "leslie speaker" and found this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1424755248

Turns out there are quite a few leslie speakers and accesories for auction.

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Mikel Nelson · Post by **Mikel Nelson** » 23 Apr 2001 7:04 am

I also play Hammond. As I recall, this site sold converters for the leslie pin connector to guitar jack

www.goffprof.com

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » 26 Apr 2001 2:22 pm

I really appreciate all the expertise and responses; I knew you guys would help !
I have printed off this thread - I can see I must do some more research before jumping in with both feet.
You are all very kind, Thank You
-John

Jeff Peterson · Post by **Jeff Peterson** » 26 Apr 2001 6:02 pm

122's were for B3's, 145 and 146's had guitar inputs. I've used them all, and the model 800 (tolex-covered), had an interface that you could use with a 122 or 124 which, again, were supposed to be strictly for organ.
I said organ........

Jeff Peterson · Post by **Jeff Peterson** » 26 Apr 2001 6:06 pm

'Course, you can always bypass the amp in the Leslie, and use a bi-amp(hopefully tube), amp/amps and still get a great sound. Just keep, or rig, a speed control. And when you're not using or running through it, keep it on 'high' speed......it's easier on the motor. Oh, be careful of the wattage through the horn.......they blow easy.....but are cheap to recone....so TURN IT UP!

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 26 Apr 2001 8:37 pm

I had a Wooden organ Leslie and also later a Fender Leslie. The old wood Leslie was just great! You can get an adapter plug for it.

But as mentioned, too darn big and heavy to carry around, so had to let it go. In my opinion the Fender did not really compare....al[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 26 April 2001 at 09:38 PM.]

Dixson Rudolph · Post by **Dixson Rudolph** » 25 Mar 2004 11:17 am

The 122 family of Leslies (31 series, 21 series, 122/142/222) were originally made specifically for use with Hammond organs, and there were no provisions for interfacing them with 1/4" inputs. There are now stomp-box type preamps that will work with most any Leslie. The Trek II Uc-1A is one.
The 145/147 Leslies were classed as "universal" Leslies, and, though they could be used directly with a console Hammond thru use of a specially wired 6-pin connector, were more commonly used with the available Combo Pre-Amp, a'stomp box' type
unit that had (2) 1/4" inputs with volume pots for each, a 6-pin Amphenol connector for the cord going to the Leslie, an AC cord and power switch, and a switch for fast/slow speeds. Now you could play yer guitar/synth/
accordion/sing/whatever thru a Leslie.
But, although the 6-pin connectors (122/147)look identical, they are WIRED differently, and are NOT interchangable.

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 25 Mar 2004 11:20 am

Ask Al Brisco about using one.
He did with Ronnie Hawkins.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 25 Mar 2004 2:21 pm

Blues organists get the best tremolo from a Leslie, the darned things may be big and heavy as a 55 gallon drum full of dirt but they work. Gotta keep the motor systems clean.

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 25 Mar 2004 7:17 pm

Al writes and I quote.

In my opinion the Fender did not really compare....al.............

Al CBS Fender owned Leslie Organ Company. In
all actuality so far as I know or knew, both
Leslie Units were the same. I am not familiar
with the unit you refer to but,Leslie had a seperate sales force than Fender and Fender reps were not authorized to sell to Leslie authorized dealers and only to Fender dealers

This distribution method was to cover both ends of the spectrum to get additional sales
for Leslie.

[This message was edited by Jody Carver on 26 March 2004 at 04:24 AM.]

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 26 Mar 2004 7:46 pm

I had the real Hammond organ Leslie, big cabinet on wheels. I used it in Phoenix in the 70's in one club for about 2 years. I used it for tunes like "Proud Mary", "Midnight hour", "Misty" , "Kansas City", etc.with a FENDER Twin Reverb(Ok Jody). Just great sound. I just left it in the club all week.
those were the days.....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 26 March 2004 at 07:51 PM.]

Dixson Rudolph · Post by **Dixson Rudolph** » 27 Mar 2004 5:42 pm

The Leslie speaker was invented by Don Leslie
between 1937-40, when he was disappointed with the static (boring) sound of the Hammond organ he'd just purchased. (They didn't have vibrato yet- only 'tremulant'-volume variation.. (like what older guitar amps mistakenly call 'vibrato'.) His goal was to electronically emulate the apparent 'movement' of sound coming from different pipes of a pipe organ. His company, Electro Music, sold Leslies from 1940-1965, when it was sold to CBS Musical Instruments (Fender, Rogers, Rhodes, etc.)
Leslies are still being produced today by
Hammond-Suzuki, though VERY expensive.