Using a Leslie organ speaker on guitar

I'm sorry you lost your friend.

The cost of shipping will be a lot less than the cost of buying one.

I've seen Stevie Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, and Chris Duarte play a few times and they used them onstage, mic'd up to the PA. That huge swirly sound is fantastic. I have a really small one that came as a kit from Mahaffey Amps years ago. I think they still sell them.

I currently have a small 'Leslie' underway in the shop. The rotary baffle is from a derelict late-60s Lowrey organ, rescued from the trash; it's made of EPS and very light.  The speaker is a small 8" CTS that I'll drive with a homebrew 5F1 (Fender Champ). I'm building a small cabinet for it; it will be 20" long, 16" wide, and 14" tall. Perfect for the living room.

The motor rotates the baffle, sending the sound out into the room like a radar beam.  And just like a radar beam, it takes advantage of the Doppler effect; that's what creates the phase differential that reaches your ears.  It's also why a Leslie pedal cannot really nail that sound because even in stereo, the effect does not move the sound within the room.  The best one I've used is called the Ventilator, and it's good...but not really what a Leslie sounds like.

 

A young fella I work with got his Grampa's gear when he passed. Gramps was a locally well known accordion player and used a old Leslie amp with a rotating speaker. He invited me over and I ran my Kingpin through it. There is absolutely nothing else like it - a fabulous retro vibe. Turning the rotation off - it is still a nice old tube amp.

I have had the big Leslie cabinets but I think the Fender Vibratone is also a very good way to get the rotating sound. I have salvaged the built in "leslies" from small organs and they make a fun project. I have built a few different cabinets but one I built was different. I took 2 of the "leslie" units and put one on top of the other. I had one spinning clockwise and the other counterclockwise. This worked out very will.

I have a 46W model. It has the same guts as the 44W but in the larger cabinet. The thing I like about those old models is that the rotating treble horn has a larger throat in it than the newer 145, 122, 147, etc. That makes it sound different. I like the sound of that horn more than the 145 I have even though the 145 amplifier has 10 more watts. Those old tube amps sound glorious when overdriven and turned up. When I was playing in bands as a keyboard and guitar player I was carrying the 44W and a Hammond M3 as part of my stage rig. Since the Leslie combo amp I was powering the 46W with had 2 channels I had one hooked to the organ and one on an A/B switch attached to my guitar. Every time I would hear the guitar through the Leslie, turned up loud in the main PA, I would literally get goosebumps. I LOVE that sound.

I have an H&K Rotosphere that does a fairly good emulation. I love the Leslie sound but just don't have room for one. I've considered the Little Lanilei version but the Rotosphere is good enough for now. Pair it with one or two tube screamer type pedals and it's close-to-Leslie bliss. Still, I am a bit jealous of anyone that owns the real thing.

I have two Leslies. A 122XB and the 21 System which consists of the 2102Mk2 top half and the 2121 stationary unit. Of course, I actually use them for --Oh the horror!! - playing the organ!!

But seriously, folks. They do make an adapter that will change the Leslie connector, I think that 760 is a 9-pin, to 1/4". Not sure if the impedance is right for a guitar but I'm sure that if it isn't there's some sort of impedance matching transformer that will fix you up. You might be able to find a pre-amp pedal that will help you out, too.