Suggestion for a replacement driver for a Leslie?

[Rickisan]

Ok. Pay close attention, this is exciting stuff.

Made a Roadside Dumpster Dive on a Thomas Organ c.1971 looking for tube amplifier salvage joo-joo. No tubes but did find a little two speed/motor Leslie mechanism nicely mounted on 3/4" plywood. Woo Hoo!

Size is about 20"x20" with a 7" opening for a speaker to fire up in toward the rotating mechanism. Overall about 10" height for the mechanism.

The plan is to build a little box to fit it in with some louvers or maybe simply pet screen on a sturdy frame to protect the mechanism and allow it to sit upright. Maybe 16" height when enclosed in final form.

Object being to repurpose for use as an electric guitar Leslie! There is a little Valve Jr (amp only no speaker) at home just waiting for a chance to show his stuff. Songs would be like Memphis by The Faces, No Matter What by Badfinger, or Hang On Loosely by 38 Special. We are talking some serious Dinosaur Rock here... ha ha

So the $64,000 question (no payola please) is what driver should be used? I'm pretty sure, with the 7" opening, we are talking about an "8 inch" category driver.

Any comments on driver or enclosure ideas welcomed. I had hoped to post a picture of this little jewel but haven't gotten the FTP working yet, sorry.

[David Raehn]

I have a Leslie 125 that I brought up from a diving session myself. I would suggest a full range 8" for the job. Try something cheap to start with. Since this will be a one way unit instead of a two way unit (like the model 147), you will benefit form the nasal tone of the full range driver. I picked up a dual footswitch from GC and put two relays in the cabinet. Switch 1 is off/on, switch 2 is slow/fast. Relay 1 opens and closes power to relay 2. Relay 2 decides to power slow speed motor or fast speed motor.

Just a note: they are usually down-firing, the mechanism may not like being disoriented. You should end up with a cabinet about 25" tall with the louvers around the bottom. Post a picture and I may be able to help out more!

Cool find either way! I need to renew my dumpster diving certification soon anyway! Thanks for reminding me.

[LelandCrooks]

http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speake ... model=820H

[David Raehn]

Just looking at the specs gives me a hankerin' for some corn chips......

[Rickisan]

Thanks for the replies draehn and Leland. I think I will go with the cheapest 8" I can find until it seems like it is gonna be worth putting time in to making a case and getting the decent speaker suggested by Leland.

Kind of putting the cart before the horse here cause I need to oil and test the motors, pulleys, etc before putting too much time in to it. There are similar mechanism's and motors on ebay in the $40 to $50 range so not a huge deal.

One other thing I needa research is starter motor capacitors. Somwhere I got it in my head I need a "starter capacitor" to shunt some startup current for these guys? Any suggestions welcomed. Google is my friend here. Thanks again!

[David Raehn]

No capacitors required.

[LelandCrooks]

www.grainger.com for anything to do with motors. But I would be surprised also if it needs a starting cap. Just not that big of a load.

[biodad]

hi - kind of a different angle here. after cables, amp, trying to mike the thing, if $ is no object, the best
one pound digi leslie is the Neo Ventilator. organists always ask me where's the lieslie. worlds #1 rated jazz
organist, Joey D, is 100% digital now, organ and leslie both. but salvaging something like this and restoring
it to usefulness is cool.

tip -on pricey foot pedals with an on/off switch regulating the effect, wire a 1/4 female jack on the
side of the box from the internal foot switch. only use the external foot switch. a cheap foot switch and a
spare assures you'll have your sound. i'd rather wear out an external foot switch.