So what the heck is this thing?

The listing claims it is a Hammond/Leslie tone generator. It's probably just the amp, though:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64430&item=3729819198&rd=1

That's an auxillery module for a flux capacitor :wink:

I was just surfing eBay for a signal/tone generator. A lot of the hits are for telecom tone generators and probes. I don't think that's what I need.

It's probably just the amp.

Darren,

I'm going to guess it's the amp from a Hammond tone cabinet, not a Leslie. Do you know the whole story of Hammond and Leslie? Laurent Hammond hated Don Leslie and his products. The problem was that few people really liked the Hammond speakers and that really pissed off Mr. Hammond. I suspect it's the amp from one of those.

Ah, cool. Thanks, Seth!

It was just a curiosity thing for me.

I can say with a fare amount of certainty that the amp pictured is from a hammond tone cabinet, not an organ, or a leslie.

As I stare at my mortally wounded hammond, its entrails hanging , I think of what might have been...........

Hey! I know! Let's make a DIY Leslie! :roll:

:green:

I suppose it is possible, but not something I want to tackle, really.

Thanks for the info, Nathun!

I have made a rotary speaker, not difficult at all :wink:

Ooh, have any pics or plans anywhere on the web?

I've seen a few Frankenleslies on the web. Maybe no one would be up for a leslie diy project, but do you think anyone would be up for a Dynacord CLS-222, or DLS-223, or CLS-22 lelsie emulator. They started production in 1981 and (I've never used one), but their supposedly the best hardware leslie emulator ever. Probably can't get all the parts for it, but I'm trying to get a Schematic anyway (probably more complecated than I'd want to tackle).

It's a secret, I'm not gonna tell you anything. I'm off to the patent office...

Not.

VitualLady got it right, I hacked a motor :green: The bottom speaker in a Leslie (at least in some of them), isn't rotating btw. It's a large styrofoam 'fan' in front that 12" that's doing it. Cheating I say!

It's really not hard to DIY. Don't have any pics though..

I piss on Leslie emulators :twisted:

Ohh, I just remember I also fukked around with a rotary microphone once. Same priciple, but I never made the brushes work perfectly

Next; rotary studio :green:

I always thought the idea behind the Leslie was to spin the speaker itself to get a Doppler effect thing going...

Spinning a piece of styrofoam around would produce its own effect, though.

OT:
I just flashed on a DIY strobe light I made while in junior highschool.
It was a record player motor attached to a round piece of cardboard that had a whole in it.
There was a light behing the cardbord, and I cut a round hole in the cardboard so that when the hole came around, you got the stobe effect.
Worked pretty good!
Garage band DIY light show!
Totally 70's , ehh?
:?

How about making pseudo-lasers from some bright LEDs and a couple of lenses?

Maybe I could bring my once-upon-a-time-not-too-bad mechanical engineering skills out and try to design a miniature Leslie-style speaker. :grin:

I don't have any CAD software though. I never learned how to use it.

Haha! The first hit in Google for "Rotary Speakers":

http://www.rotarycoco.org/speakers.html

:green: :green:

Keeping on looking...

In some of the Leslies, I believe the baffle itself rotated, not the speaker!

I agree that amp is most likely from a Hammond stationary-speaker tone cabinet. I recall only Hammond called them "tone cabinets" and it wasn't until the late 60's/early 70's that Hammond and Leslie actually had anything to do with each other, business-wise.

Regarding questions about speaker connections thru motor brushes and spinning styrofoam... I don't believe any Leslie speaker drivers themselves ever actually rotated. The treble "horns" were a belt-driven assembly that spun atop a stationary horn driver. The bass rotor was a stationary woofer that fired down onto a spinning drum with a scoop carved out of it.

Hey, my posts are getting slightly more useful, no? :roll:

--Bob

Hey, that's good stuff to know.

Now if only I had an old surplus shop I could rummage through...

To add to what stickjam just posted, I believe that the top treble horn and the bottom foam baffle rotate in opposite direction from each other. I can't quite remember for sure, but it seems like the top has the two motors and is variable, but the bottom baffle was typically a fixed speed There were some different variations, the cheaper leslies only had the bottom baffle (I think there were some made for guitars that were similar), and some only had single speed motors. I'm afraid I feel the hammond bug biting me again :shock: