How do leslies work?

[MetalManiac]

I thought you'd be able to plug in your guitar an effect, and go out of the Leslie to your amp, but it appears you got to run the Leslie straight from your guitar, through the Leslie amp.
I can buy an old Leslie for sale on Craiglslist now for around 250.
Ive even been checking out the new made ones, but they appear to work the aame way as the old ones?

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do leslies work?

old ones you need a preamp, usually cant plug straight in. which model?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: How do leslies work?

I cringe at the thought of buying, storing, maintaining, and moving a Leslie.
It's because I had a B3 player for years, and helped schlep his rig around.

They make pedals that get close enough.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: How do leslies work?

The leslie concept is a simple one. Treble horn drivers rotate at the top at a variable speed, and the bass driver has a rotataing baffle. The effect is that of spinning speakers which fills the room with a 3d effect that is juts impossible to replicate. The univibe was one of the first attempts to do so, then phasers and choruses etc. Guitarists have been trying for years to get that leslie effect out of a smaller box, or as a pedal, to greater or lesserr extent for years now.
Leslie made many different types of amps. Some were tube, some were solid state, some came in big wooden boxes that stood up, some lay down, some were multiple cabinets covered in black tolex. Later on they even made Leslie amps that did no have a leslie effect in them at all...they were built solely as an ss amplifier for their (short lived) Leslie organs. Leslie had been making amplifiers for Hammond for many years, and when Leslie brought out their own draw bar ss organ, hammond made it clear that if they wanted to continue building amplifiers for them, that they cease operation.

What actual leslie are you looking at?

 

[Rich_S]

Re: How do leslies work?

Most Leslies (especially the old wooden-cabinet, tube-amp ones) get their control and audio through a big multi-pin connector. The line-level signal preamp and the stop/slow/fast switching all come through the cable, and Hammond organs were fitted with option kits to provide the preamp and control switches.

When rock & rollers started using them with non-Hammond "combo" organs, the preamp and switches were still needed, but were not built into the organ. So, LEslie made the "combo preamp". Looks like this:

You plug the guitar into it to act as a preamp, and the footswitches control the rotors. There are different model preamps for different Leslies, with from 1 to 4 footswitches.

There are other DIY ways to run a guitar into a Leslie, if you get the right pinout for your speaker and hook up the right stuff.

This is for Leslies with amplifiers in them. In general, wooden-cabinet Leslies have tube amps, the black-tolex-and-aluminum-trim "Pro Line" Leslies are solid state.

Of course, some Leslies have no amp at all, just speaker(s) and rotor(s). This includes the Fender Vibratone and sisters Leslie Model 14 and 16 (IIRC). In those cases, you need some sort of speed-control footswitch, but use an external amp head to power the speakers.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How do leslies work?

This all depends...there are powered Leslie cabs, non powered Leslie cabs and loads of modded Leslie cabs...

All that said a Leslie cab for $250 is likely in need of a lot of work and to be honest for $250 you can buy pedals that are 98% of the tone, none of the upkeep and 1/100 of the pain in the ass...

Leslie cabs are cool but that is one thing I refuse to mess with, it's just not worth it IMHO...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: How do leslies work?

Oh yeah...

:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do leslies work?

hauling it around sucks but nothing sounds like one and boy are they fun to play with

 

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: How do leslies work?

I use a motion sound pro 3 rotating horn that is an actual rotating horn and has a simulated bass rotor that goes out to any amp you choose. I find these to be far more practical than a full sized leslie and I still get the actual physical rotating horn to give me that 3d effect.

 

[Animal]

Re: How do leslies work?

Go all the way and get one of these:

LOL!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: How do leslies work?

I use a motion sound pro 3 rotating horn that is an actual rotating horn and has a simulated bass rotor that goes out to any amp you choose. I find these to be far more practical than a full sized leslie and I still get the actual physical rotating horn to give me that 3d effect.

Thats thing looks cool.

Love this thread...
Back in the early 90s i was in a band that had a hammond player....we had 4 different ones at different times, but the fella who ended up full time with us was a total amp freak. I ended up recording some tracks plugging my guitar into his studio leslie and one got the most amazing recorded lead sound using his old tweed champ on 10.
HE used to run his hammond at gigs thru a 200w marshall major stack for the bottom end, and he kind of jerry rigged a leslie by cannibalizing parts from some of his other leslies, and wired his own preamp for the top end. The drivers we out and exposed so you coulkd see them spinning. It looked lke something out of Mad Max and sounded like satan himself. Im sure if he could have fitted one of those rotating marshalls from the video above in his truck he would have done it!
This is not a good indicator of how he sounded live, cos this is a video that got released as a single and we had to behave ourselves and follow the record companys rules, but just remebering standing outsdite the reheasal room and listen to him practice still makes me laugh. Imagine a james bond villain on acid playing bach thru a leslie and a marshall stack. He was a total nutcase....i miss working with him!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NaGQq9Me-Q

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: How do leslies work?

/QUOTE]


Thats ****in awesome. What ended up happenin to Derek?

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: How do leslies work?

Cheers MM,
Derek had a blow up with the record company exec. The band kept working and we recorded an albums worth of stuff which we were really proud of, but we never released it. So remedy stone had 2 albums of stuff that never made it to the market. We did put out a 5 track single when derek was still on board. He was a great guy and amazing surfer. Last heard he is still surfing everyday south of Adelaide. Mebbe i should dig up some of the old stuff and put in the clips section, but im not sure how that works, cos Empire records still owns most of the songs.
Here is a live link i juts dug up from looking at the "signs" video. There was another proper video clip, but i cant find it on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSpsuagSiS4&feature=related
in the vids im the guitarist with the strat.