leslie speaker and lowrey organ. How do i separate?

[veedub242]

I bought this Lowrey organ from a garage sale. The Organ is a frickin' tank and have over 80 tubes in the back of it. It sounds OK... Kinda churchy.. Anyway the leslie that came with it is amazing. The only problem it the Leslie attaches to the organ with a plug that looks a lot like the bottom of a 6L6 tube. I want to use this leslie on all kinds of things. Do any of you know how to modify this cab so it can be powered by a plug and a 1/4" jack?

Thanks Ian

[djimbe]

Easy to do. Ultimately, that Leslie only has 4 wires going to it: 2 that carry 110v. for the motor, and 2 that are the speaker wires. Yes, it looks like a lot more, but that's all coming from the switch mechanism and what-not. Start at the speaker and motor and trace those wires to a convenient cut point. That whole Leslie unit is self contained, so once you have a handle on the wires you can unbolt the whole thing and lift it out. Make a cool cabinet for it. Yes, I've done this. Know that it's probably only a single speed unit, and you won't easily be able to make it variable speed. But it's a real Leslie and it will sound cool. O.K. It's a rotating baffle Leslie and more like a Fender Vibratone than a big Hammond-type Leslie, but still...

That old organ likely has a 2 bottle 6v6 amp too. A creative DIY person could pull that sucker and use it as a very effective guitar amp if they can build a simple input stage for it. Most of the amp is contained on the back panel that has all them tubes, but the input stage is remotely located up by the stops and isn't easily moved like the main stage of the amp.

Good luck!

If it's a Lowery LS-L or LS-O model I have the docs for it

[Freakmagnet451]

I did this once with a Baldwin Leslie. My approach was a bit more savage than the previous poster's. I put a power cord on the motor and a 1/4 jack on the back panel for the speaker. Yanked the rest out, kept the tubes for my guitar rigs and sold the amp on ebay. The organ had issues so I basically stripped it of anything useful, dumpstered the husk and sold the unwanted guts. Made a few bucks plus a Leslie.

[PeterSawatzky]

plug that looks a lot like the bottom of a 6L6 tube

Sounds like a typical Leslie setup wherein the power amp is built into the speaker cab. In which case, the most elegant setup would be to get a "Combo Preamp" that will work with your particular model of Leslie, which is a preamp plus power supply that uses that wacky cable and will let you change speeds, if your Leslie can do that.

A more quick-and-dirty way would be to bypass the amp altogether and wire the motor(s) to a electrical box and hook up the speaker (or crossover) to guitar amp or whatever. You will probably lose the abililty to change speeds this way, though.

[b3groover]

It would be helpful to know the model of the Leslie.

[veedub242]

I opened up the Leslie and found that it was a single speed. I took out the relay box the the organ controlled. and installed its own power cable. I separated the top from the bottom and installed regular home light switches so I can now, Control which speaker spins. I took the leads from the speakers and connected a 1/4" jack. I hooked up an old silvertone head plugged in a Rickenbacker 12 string and low and behold it sounds amazing!! I now have a new studio toy and am really excited to start recording it.

Any suggestions on how to mic this thing? Stereo pair?

Thanks Ian

[veedub242]

When I opened up the organ I found that it was fitted with Mint Condish Jensen alnico 12" speakers. I put the set in my Silvertone Cabinet.. WOW.. another score from this old tank..

[ckeene]

plug that looks a lot like the bottom of a 6L6 tube

Sounds like a typical Leslie setup wherein the power amp is built into the speaker cab. In which case, the most elegant setup would be to get a "Combo Preamp" that will work with your particular model of Leslie, which is a preamp plus power supply that uses that wacky cable and will let you change speeds, if your Leslie can do that.

A more quick-and-dirty way would be to bypass the amp altogether and wire the motor(s) to a electrical box and hook up the speaker (or crossover) to guitar amp or whatever. You will probably lose the abililty to change speeds this way, though.

could you use one of these:
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/compl ... ek2636.htm
to control the motor speed?

[djimbe]

I separated the top from the bottom and installed regular home light switches so I can now, Control which speaker spins.

Wow...you mean you have two rotating mechanisms in that thing? My Lowery only had 1. It was an 8" version of the Fender Vibratone. My other Leslie is a Vibratone (2 speeds).

My chief engineer is a big fan of 3 mics on a Vibratone cab. The sound on those comes out of vents in each side and the top. So one mic close off each side, and one at a bit more distance off the top. I built a cab for my Lowery Leslie that mimics the 3 vent Fender arrangement. What's the cab you have like? And how does the sound radiate from it?

[fazeka]

A more quick-and-dirty way would be to bypass the amp altogether and wire the motor(s) to a electrical box and hook up the speaker (or crossover) to guitar amp or whatever. You will probably lose the abililty to change speeds this way, though.

If I understand the schematic correctly, changing speeds I think is just a matter of a relay being switched in and out.

FWIW, I am a swirly fan. Love the chorale on guitar. Very Abbey Road-ish. Lush sounding chorus-type effect. Although something in-between speed-wise between the stock chorale and tremolo speeds would be much appreciated...

I scored two 1977 Leslie 147s a year ago. A church was getting rid of them on Freecycle, pastor said the praise music was more contemporary nowadays (i.e., guitar-based) and they also got rid of their organ (not sure what that was, termites got to it first!)... Needless to say, the church got a donation in exchange for the gratis Leslie pair (3 serials apart!)...

Here are some bad pics of my recent project, a '72 Leslie 18 (essentially a Fender Vibratone or Leslie 16 with a 12" speaker) with a newly-reconed JBL D120-F (yes, that's one of the 147s next to my covered up '59 M-3 in the background):




More pics: 1, and 2

I bypassed the stock crossover as I like my '62 Bandmaster head directly into the Leslie. (This is used for my guitar rig, the 147 is connected to the M-3.) There are 2 pins on the 6-pin on the Leslie control box that go to the speaker and 2 to the relay in the Leslie. Using a 6-pin Amphenol female Leslie plug, I wire this to a footswitch so I can switch the speeds and also to a 1/4" plug so I can plug into the speaker jack on the amp.