if I had an extra $650.00

HOT DAMN... Thanks for the comments guys! I don't know who to address first.. but I'll pick Lieven.. because of his posting of the 1st vid. I'd never seen that! It's the epitome of John Lord's style of "tearing it up" on a Hammond organ!
I've got to make a decision within days; as to the fate of mine. When I got it.. it hadn't been played (or serviced) for years. It was however; kept from harm. There still isn't a scratch on it's maple cabinet. These organs have what's called a "tone-wheel generator" that gives them that classic sound. It's an electro-mechanical marvel of gears, pick-ups, cams, shafts... and a wick-oiling system fed by 3 funnels through a trogh. If allowed to go dry of oil.. the tone-generator will seize-up. Mine was seized when I first bought it. I chose to purchase the proper oil, to try to free it up. The "proper" oil is widely disputed by Hammond purists. Some swear by the original blend/viscosity that the Hammond Co. used.. and some say that "sewing-machine" oil will work fine. It took several "oilings" over the course of weeks to free-up my tone-generator. check-out this YouTube vid..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qqmr6IiFLE


There's a bit of electro-mechanical engineering going on there...

Eric, my advice to you on that Fender 100w Deluxe guitar amplifier is; don't get rid of it.. unless you trade it for another one with at least 1/2 the tube-circuit wattage. 35-40w of tube-power will give you more control over your tone. You could very likely make an even-swap for a similar-vintage Fender tube-amp of 1/2 the wattage. I don't know too much about guitar amps. I'm guessing that your Fender Deluxe is a "combo" (amplifier and speakers in the same cabinet) Marshall makes combo's and also separate "heads" which are separate from the speaker-cabinet. Neither is better than the other.. but anything higher than a 50w tube-amplified circuit is "overkill" and very hard to tame. If there's a "Guitar-Center" chain store near you.. bring your axe down there.. and ask if they have any tube-amps in the 30-50w range that you can try. Even without any effects-pedals.. you'll be amazed at the power. Even a single 12" speaker/combo will wail.. and would be a LOT lighter to carry. Guessing that your 100w. "Deluxe" has a pair of 12's..

Fred... "what can I say"... those sound like GOOD TIMES brother! I'm very surprised that you haven't revisited them along this long-road of life.. especially after having "had a taste". Do you ever get the urge? There's a resurgence of upgraded vintage-technology sound gear being offered these days. Remember "Neve" mic pre-amps? Their still being made.. and there's also real good money to be made in sound reinforcement. You could pay a system off in a year.. if you hustled.. and imagine the fun you'd have doing it? You already have a good idea of what you'd need to get. WiFi controlling a digital mixer through an iPad is how they do it today. Midas-designed Behringer digital mixing-consoles are literally killing the competition. Do you still have a drum-kit? Maybe take that route. Less cash outlay.. meet some fellow musicians in your area.. and jam-out a few times a month. Good for the soul.. it works for me!

Kari... Man.. I love vintage stereo gear! Keep that old turntable going! Technics is good stuff IMHO... and vinyl will NEVER go away. It will be listened to for it's sonic properties until the end of time! There's nothing that compares as far as I'm concerned. It's like a "motion" or "physical" thing going on when a record is playing on a turntable. I have two 1970's vintage Technics receivers. They were both originally bought overseas at military BX's. One is a "quad" SA8000X that I used to make 4-channel recordings with. Talk about 3-D audio!

Kris.. That's a wicked engine! Definitely for the scale enthusiast!

Oldenginerod wrote:Seeing the Tone Generator it reminded me of our first gig after a church we played at gave us their old no-longer-used Hammond organ.  That thing had to sit there "idling" for a while before it was warmed up enough to play in tune.  Being in the back line on Bass, I was fascinated standing beside it throughout the gig listening to that living thing breathing and groaning beside me.  There's something truly "organic" (excuse the pun) about these old mechanical wonders.  It really is like a living thing, and oh, what a sweet sound through the old Leslie Tone Cabinet.

Rod.

Amen to that Rod! The "Leslies" were/are an electro-mechanical marvel as well. It's the Doppler-effect at work. Hearing one "live" in a room.. is much different than hearing a recording of one being used. It's like comparing 3-D sound to 2-D sound. Most listeners will hear the difference between the two rotor-speeds.. being "Chorale" (slow) and "Tremolo" (fast).. regardless whether "live" or "recorded". The difference is a "physical" one.. when listening "live". The Leslie's 15" bass-speaker is mounted mid-cabinet on a shelf facing down into a rotating-drum having a 90 degree curved baffle. This handles lower-frequencies. It's known as the "bass-rotor". Above.. is a compression-driver mounted on an upper shelf and facing "up" into a "yoke" that couples it to a dual horn-shaped reflector. The two horns are 180 degrees of each other. Only one of the two horns has an opening for the sound to go through. The other one is merely for dynamic balancing. This is known as the "treble-rotor". Both rotors are driven by two-speed motors via pulleys/drive-belts; switchable in tandem by the operator. The "sound" comes out of the cabinet on a horizontal-plane.. but is moving in a 360 degree circular motion.. creating the Doppler-effect. Listening to a "Leslie-amplified" recording through stationary speaker cabinets does not duplicate this. Some successes have been made electronically through stereo "phase-shifting" with VERY expensive effects pedals.. but it's "still" a linear stereo effect designed to fool the ear.

The bass and treble rotors turn at slightly different rpm's. In "chorale" setting (slow) the bass-rotor typically rotates at 40 rpm and the treble-rotor at 50 rpm. On "tremolo" setting (fast) the bass-rotor typically rotates at 340 rpm and the treble-rotor at 400 rpm.

Leslie amps are a challenge to mic properly for sound-reinforcement in big rooms/arenas. They're best; experienced "un-mic'd" in small rooms. Go to see a good hot "Blues" band featuring a Hammond/Leslie player in a small bar.. and you'll know exactly what I mean!

"Phaked it.." that's beautiful! My Leslie model 147 was purchased "used" in the very early 1980's at a music shop that I still frequent. I can't remember exactly what we paid for it.. but $800.00 seems to come to mind. The "147" has a 40w tube amp and uses a 2ch. "Combo Pre-Amp" pedal for connecting an audio source via a 1/4" cable (elec. guitar cord). There are 2 inputs with separate gain for each. The pedal has a push-button foot-switch for choosing slow/fast speeds.. and an amber indicator lamp that illuminates on fast-speed. The cab's amp has a 6-pin Amphenol male jack for connecting to the pedal via a heavy cable that supplies power to the amp and rotor motors.. as well as the audio signal.

pre-amp pedal




6-pin 10ft cable



innards to a Leslie 147 (similar to mine)



Hammond organs are wired differently.. and don't use the pre-amp pedal. The Leslies designed for Hammond organs are different too. The Heavy cable(s) that connect the Leslie to the Hammond organ have a center "key-pin" to prevent using the wrong cable and the wrong Leslie for the application. A Leslie model 122 is virtually the same as my 147.. but made to connect to a Hammond organ's amplifier. These are typically what are found in houses of worship.. having Hammond organs. Often there are a pair of 122's!

122 type 11-pin cable



Model 122.. not much different than the 147 other than the wiring..



The Leslie amplifiers are what's known as "self-biasing".. meaning that; when tube-replacement is needed, there is no adjustment needed to the amplifier. It is however best to replace all tubes with one's that have been "matched" to each other as a set.

Leslie 40w tube-amp




Set of tubes



My 147 has had some upgrades. The stock "Jensen" compression-driver was replaced with a more powerful "Altec" unit; requiring a custom "yoke" to be fitted to mount it.. and mate with the pulley-bearing that drives the upper-rotor. The stock 15" bass speaker was replaced with an "Altec" unit; so as to match the ohm-load for the frequency cross-over network. That cost about $500 back about 35 years ago. Since then.. there have been some tube, relay and capacitor replacements.. as well as idler-adjustments to the motors. Leslie amplifiers do require maintenance to stay running properly. Both bass and treble rotors need their bearings lubricated periodically.

It's not a good idea to go poking around inside a tube-amp, if you don't know what you're doing. There are capacitors that store potentially-lethal doses of voltage.. even after the amplifier is disconnected from it's power-source.

My Leslie hasn't been powered-up in a couple of years now..   It sits out in the shed and probably has mice living in it..   I started using it about 4 years ago.. prior to it being stored in the shed.. and plugged it in on the driveway after hauling it out. Tiny baby mice started crawling out of the bottom a few minutes after the bass rotor's drum started turning..   I felt pretty bad about that. I'll check next time beforehand; if/when I use it again.

Just added some pics to my previous post. Yea.. "Country-Music" is popular everywhere. It's a great vein to explore if you're a composer or lyricist.. but more so the latter. There's a LOT of $$$ to be made there, if you can pitch a good song to the right "pitch-man". I have a writing partner who has a few good connections.. but "he's" the lyricist.. and I handle the piano/keyboard side of the musical content. He gets too "deep" in a lyrical-thought.. and I try to tell him to "keep it simple, short and clever". No one wants to have to think too much about where a tune is going "lyrically". It's all about setting the hook right-away.. to get the listener's attention.. and "keep that attention" going over the course of 3 minutes.. along with a short/well-placed "bridge" and a good instrumental solo.

I gotta go and get ready for a gig down on the coast of Southern RI tonight.. or I'd write a little more..! Thanks for the exchanges Phred!

Phred.. your tastes are your own! I have to ask though.. how is your current audio-system configured? Your talking about upgrading to a system that would suit a good size hall. Did you know that it takes 26 feet for a "bass" sound-wave to "mature"? That's basically the reason why you hear that insane "thumping" coming from a car-audio system that has big sub-woofer boxes mounted in the trunk. The body-panels are buzzing from the vibration... but inside the vehicle, it doesn't sound like that. Bass frequencies are also non-directional.. unlike higher frequencies in the sound-spectrum. That's why a bass/subwoofer can be placed anywhere in a room.. and actually hidden. You only need to "see" a subwoofer.. if you "want" to see it. Otherwise it can be placed behind a recliner in the corner.. under an end-table.. etc. My brother built his subs into the floor.. firing-up through the carpet/padding in adjacent corners of the room. He had Carver power-amps that were really sweet!

My "shop-system" consists of an old Denon AVR-1506 surround receiver, that delivers 75w RMS to the front/center/rear speakers. The sub-out channel is currently connected to a small Polk-Audio RM6750 powered-sub. It's adequate for general listening.. but I have a QSC RMX850 power-amp that I use in the band for a keyboard monitor amp, that I connect to an Altec cab that came from a movie theater! That cab has a 12" woofer.. and a 90 degree compression-driver. The amp delivers 200w RMS into 8ohms. the Altec cab is more than capable of handling that. The surrounds are an odd combo... the fronts are a pair of KLH model 23's.. the single center-channel is a KLH 911B and the rears are custom boxes that I made.. when Radio-Shack had a close-out/discontinue of their component-speaker parts. They're a pair of little boxes that I made to fit the 4"/40w RMS full-range speakers.. along with 100w RMS tweeters. They were originally designed for car-audio.. but I made boxes of 3/8" PVC on the CNC router where I worked at the time.. and laminated them with a flat-black laminate called "Metallico"..



Those two little cabs CRANK! My wife (Lynne) sings.. and she can sing.. That's how we met.. out singing karaoke some ten years ago. We frequently crank-up the workshop-system.. when we get the urge to sing along with some classic tunes.

Phred... save your ears. You don't need a thousand watts of power.. unless you want to do damage. 100w RMS is a LOT of power. It will sound great just tuning-in.. and give you the blast you want, when you turn-up the volume. You probably know the difference between RMS and "peak" referring to a speaker-cabinets power-handling abilities. The RMS (root mean square) value is the one you want to look at when matching an amplifier to the system.. to avoid blowing the speakers.. and also the total ohm-resistance; if the cab(s) have crossover networks. I'm just mentioning this for readers of the thread who may not know. Building custom audio-systems is still fun.. unlike computers..

GallopingGhostler wrote:Neat stuff, closest I came to Leslie was our 1970 Kimball home organ. It had a mechanical Leslie unit that sounded nice, but was not as sophisticated sounding as the Hammond. By then, it was all transistorised, had a primitive band-in-a-box. You held the chords on the left hand and foot base pedal, it supplied the beat through that using its built in analogue computer.

George, I had to comment on this post! Around that same time (1970..) our family bought a Kimball "Swinger 1000" that looked exactly like this one in the photo below..



It too had a mechanical "Tremolo" speaker built into I believe the R/H side of the cabinet. It also had a knee-pedal/arm for applying vibrato and a couple other effects. Kimball was in competition at the time with "Thomas". The Hammonds, Lowreys and Wurlitzers were more expensive/high-end instruments.