If you're handy, build your own Leslie Speaker.

[Saul Goodman]

 

[shankyboy]

Love it! I've always thought it would be nice to have a more portable Leslie cab for guitars. I absolutely love my Mesa Revolver especially since the speaker itself actually rotates but it is becoming a little more awkward to haul around to gigs as I get older. 

[hamerhead]

Saw that. Incredible build. It's beautiful and sounds great. He really went all in.

But...

It's just too nice to gig with (which, I suppose, is what he was going for). A simple cab with adjustable fast/slow/ramp would be ideal. I use a Motion Sound AR112 and it's almost there. It's just a spinning baffle in front of a 12", with no horn. Very subtle (slow spin) but you notice when it's off. Great 3D effect. But having both low and high ends spinning independently like his would be better.

[RobB]

Meh. Dual horns are essential for that, "watery", Leslie sound, but it's just more gear to hump. Why bother when there are so many great Leslie pedals out there?

[django49]

I am another user of the Motion Sound version. Has a built in amp. Back aways, I used it with a 1 x 12 Mesa combo amp and an ABY switcher. I did like the combo. Still does work, but I am not dragging it out for any place I am plugging in these days.....Yep, got a small box on the pedalboard.......

[duncans]

Andy Fuchs is almost ready to debut his rotary speaker.

[hamerhead]

16 hours ago, RobB said:

...Why bother when there are so many great Leslie pedals out there?...

The old argument: the sound of an actual rotating speaker/baffle moving air can't be done with a pedal. Yeah, you can get in the ballpark (Strymon Lex is the best I've heard in a live full band setting and made me rethink my AR112), and yeah you don't have to grunt another heavy cabinet, but that 3D sound won't come from a pedal. Leslies are magic.

[django49]

14 hours ago, duncans said:

Andy Fuchs is almost ready to debut his rotary speaker.

And he says he will next start working on a huge sounding tape delay.....

[gtone]

I built a "poor man's Leslie" about 12 or so yrs back. Took a pulled rotor from a junked Farfisa organ and put it into a birch plywood cab with scrap ends left over from my cab building days. Threw in an Eminence 10" hi-powered speaker that was a bonus on a pedal trade deal. After wiring for 120VAC, I experimented with the rotor speed control system. Initially used an old tube radio potentiometer to switch on/off and vary the speed. Nice and simple solution for awhile, but I really wanted to do swells/decays in real time while I was playing rather than manually changing the speed by hand.  A old sewing machine foot controller worked nicely for that but demanded a bit of foot dexterity to get nice smooth variations, so think I went back to the potentiometer.

It worked well and sounded very good, though it was clunky to transport. Recorded it once using 2 mics 180 degrees off-axis of the rotor on the top of the cab and it sounded glorious (think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds). I ended up selling it after a few months as it never left my basement studio and saw pretty limited use there. The guy that bought it thought he hit the jackpot as he'd been looking for an affordably priced rotary speaker system, so that was cool.

Plenty of free older organs here - you'll see 'em on sidewalks or as giveaways in return for removal from premises (especially seniors and such).