Classic Rock!

Classic Rock!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Custom "Leslie" rotating speaker

A Hammond organ isn't quite complete without a leslie speaker. Leslie speakers are also great for other instruments such as guitars, vocals, etc. Of course an original leslie is way overpriced and hard to find. I thought I would build a matching one to go with my Hammond instead. I received an amplifier out of a leslie 25 speaker from a friend's dad and I decided to build a speaker cab around that. The Leslie speaker uses the the doppler effect to modulate frequency. There is a high and low range speaker. The high range speaker fires into a horn, which rotates and in turn creates a vibrato/tremolo sound. The low range speaker does the same thing, except it fires into a baffle that spins.

Heres the inside of a real Leslie.

I wanted my speaker to be a little smaller and easier to transport, but the design is very similar to an original leslie.


The start of the cabinet. Its made out of the same red oak plywood that the hammond chop is made out of.



A mock of a few of the parts.




heres a crappy cellphone video of the speaker working.

Tweed covering on one of the sides.



I put the cabinet on wheels so its easy to move. It will also have the same handles that are on the Hammond.



The first few coats of stain.


Well, I was working on a bearing system for the horn and I dropped the stupid thing on the ground and it shattered! I was able to glue all the pieces together, and it hasn't exploded yet, so hopefully it will stay that way!



Pretty much complete in this picture. I will get some much better, non-cellphone pictures soon.