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Topic: Vintage Do-It-Yourself Leslie for steel |
T. C. Furlong
From:
Lake County, Illinois, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 3:55 pm |
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At my company, we had our first ever co-worker warehouse jam on Friday. Our resident DIY genius, Scott brought this baby in to play guitar through. I played steel through it and it sounded fantastic. Really warm and big sounding. It is made from an old Califone record player. Scott made the turntable-powered rotating in-front-of-speaker-swooshie-maker for the speaker that came with the record player. The record player has a variable motor speed control so you can set the speed of the phasing effect. We, of course, had to put stereo microphones on it and send it to the sound system in true stereo. WAY COOL!
TC |
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Jim Walker
From:
Headland, AL
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 8:51 pm
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As my daddy always said, "One man's junk is another man's treasure". I'm a monster garage type guy. I love stuff like this!
JW
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Show Pro D10, Session 400 |
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Marc Jenkins
From:
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 11:29 pm
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| That is most awesome. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 11:39 pm
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| What a cool idea!!! |
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Bryan Daste
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 12:40 am
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| You gotta post a sound file!! |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 3:09 am
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That does look cool, and I'll bet it sounds great.
Years and years ago I read articles about guitarists like Lonnie Mack and others putting a heavy-duty, variable speed fan with at least one very slow speed in front or in back of their amp to get this type of effect. There's a relatively recent (2000) online article about Lonnie that mentions this - http://www.swampland.com/articles/view/title:lonnie_mack.
One of those old articles intimated that the fan Carl Perkins cut off one of his fingers in, back in the 60s, was there for that purpose, but I'm not sure whether that's really true or not.
We had an old heavy-duty metal fan like this and tried it, it sounded pretty cool. Not quite like a Leslie, but I thought it was a nice effect. Sometimes I'd drag that fan to gigs, rather than haul my Leslie 18, which sounded great but was cumbersome on a small stage and heavy. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 3:50 am
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| Dave Mudgett wrote: |
One of those old articles intimated that the fan Carl Perkins cut off one of his fingers in, back in the 60s, was there for that purpose, but I'm not sure whether that's really true or not.
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Carl Perkins cut his fingers on a big circulating fan in a nightclub. Club was dimly lit and for some reason he reached and the fan clipped his hand damaging his fingers. |
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Bob Bowden
From:
Vancouver, BC, Canada * R.I.P.
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 7:10 am
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Looks like there is a school library somewhere that's missing a record player.
I have to admit, the design is brilliant in it's simplicity. |
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Pete Burak
From:
Portland, OR USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 3:41 pm
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That is cool!
And interesting...
I bought a Hammond L145 at a sale for $5 bucks.
A little research and a tube of Hammond oil, and it now works fine.
It has two 12's, but no Leslie.
I took a small fan and propped it up to one speaker.
I didn't mic it in stereo though.
Now I know the trick!  |
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Bo Borland
From:
South Jersey -
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 8:21 pm
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| Very cool. Has anyone ever seen the Oliver rotating horn? It was a sqaure box with a driver, horn, speed control and foot switch. |
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 23 Dec 2008 2:56 am
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| I purchased a Chordavox from Shot Jackson back in the early 60s as I was playing steel in a rock band and to add fullness to the band all I did was sound like an organ all the time. After a yr I quit as I never got to play sraight steel. But the money was good. cc |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 23 Dec 2008 10:20 am
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| I have several of the foam Leslie rotors taken from old Hammonds that a friend parted out. If anybody's interested, shoot me an email. |
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Steve Hotra
From:
Camas, Washington
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Posted 23 Dec 2008 7:02 pm
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That's so cool!
We need a soundclip of a pedal steel playing thru this!
_________________
Guitars: Rittenberry SD S-10, Gretsch Black Falcon. Effects: Wampler Paisley, Strymon Timeline, Sarno Earth Drive.
Fractal FM9
Amps: Mesa Express 5:25, Jazzkat Tomkat & Boss Katana head / various cabs. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 23 Dec 2008 9:40 pm
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| c c johnson wrote: |
| I purchased a Chordavox from Shot Jackson back in the early 60s as I was playing steel in a rock band and to add fullness to the band all I did was sound like an organ all the time. After a yr I quit as I never got to play straight steel. But the money was good. cc |
What's a Chordavox? 
_________________
-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 24 Dec 2008 2:30 am
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| Hi B0b. That was in the early 60s and you probably had not been born yet. Joke son. The chordavox was a little cabinet I think 20"x18" and about 10 or 12" deep. It had a squirrel cage fan behind the speaker and either your guitar or amp plugged into the control panel on top. It had a "rate" control on top that regulated the speed of the fan in order to produce different organ sounds. A great sounding organ but after a yr or so of playing it entirely I sold mine back to Shot and haven't seen one since.cc |
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 24 Dec 2008 2:38 am
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| PS Leon Mccaulife used one about that time. I saw him live at Panther Hall and he was very descriminate about which songs he used it on. About 1965 or so I believe it was Boss that bought out the litte stomp box for organ or Leslie effects which in turn killed the chordavox. Or at least thats what I've been told. cc |
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Steve Alcott
From:
New York, New York, USA
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Posted 24 Dec 2008 8:43 am
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| I remember seeing the Lovin' Spoonful on the Ed Sullivan show; on one tune, John Sebastian sang into what looked like a hair dryer with the air outlet pointed at the mic and got a Leslie effect. I assume the fan was slowed down with a Variac or something similar. |
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