Any Vibratone users here?

[Rich_S]

Has anybody here actually used a Fender Vibratone (or its siblings, the Leslie 16 and 18) in a live situation? How do you set it up, and how effective is it in creating that Leslie sound?

It seems that it was designed more to look like a guitar amp than to project rotating sound to an audience. No sound comes out the front, and the rotation is in a vertical plane to the sides.

I have some Leslie guts from an old organ for which I'm going to build a cabinet. The compact Vibratone-style cabinet certainly appears easier to manage, but it seems a more Leslie-like horizontal rotation would be more effective. The Leslie 825 was like this - a single foam rotor, spinning horizontally in the bottom of the cabinet. Sort of like a bass rotor by itself.

Anyway, what's been your experience? Do you use it alone, or along with your regular amp speakers? Do you mike it? How well does it do that Leslie thang?

For those of you who don't know what we're talking about, look here.

[FenderFan79]

Re: Any Vibratone users here?

I had the real deal for awhile, and ended up selling it to a buddy in my blues band. It was cool to have, but big, and a real pain to lug around for one or two songs. It had 2 speeds, the first almost made it sound like a very mild chorus, and the 2nd was just way too fast for me and didn't sound good at all. I was able to get a great leslie sound from my Line 6 MM4 and could tweak the speed exactly. I know Stevie had the real deal, but he also had a voltage regulator rigged up to have more control over the speed.

[Luke Duke]

Re: Any Vibratone users here?

I'm still loving playing with my Dad's Leslie 18, There is quite a bit of projection it seems to me. The thing is that even when the Vibrato is not engaged the Leslie effect is going so you get that brown sounding swirl. You can switch the sound over to where it is coming out of one or the other, but not both.

I was in a pawn shop yesterday and they had a Vibrotone 15 (I think) by that I mean the front said vibrotone, not Leslie.

Luke

[Stratman]

Re: Any Vibratone users here?

I use a Fender Vibratone driven by a Fender Bassman (AB165 circuit).

In order to get the best from the Vibratone, it should be miked with two mikes. (SM58 - Located on opposite sides on the cabinet)

The footswitch has two buttons (On/Off) (Fast/Slow)

There is a plug that you plug into the amp's speaker out (Do not use the extenal speaker jack), then you plug into the speaker's input jack into the female plug of the Vibratone.

There is a leslie type plug that goes intot he crossover located in the back of the vibratone.

Regarding the speed affected tone, it can be varied by belt tension.

It has a high wattage 10-inch UTAH speaker driving the 12.5 inch rotating foam device in front of the speaker. This can be changed for a 12-inch speaker and generally results in a better sound projection, but be careful to ensure that you do not leave speaker mounting bolts that hit the foam device.

Finally, the crossover cuts high-end tone and can be easily by-passed...

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PS: I almost forgot that I used a JTM-45 copy (Celtic Edana) with my Vibratone and it is pure heaven.

[Rich_S]

Re: Any Vibratone users here?

PS: I almost forgot that I used a JTM-45 copy (Celtic Edana) with my Vibratone and it is pure heaven.

That's where I'm headed - my future Bogen-to-JTM45 conversion. I think I'm going to wire up a switch that lets me select either "Just Leslie" or "Both" when I kick on the footswitch.