Lowrey Question: Leslie?

[John Vanderlee]

A acquaintance is looking for a Leslie to hook up to a Lowrey Heritage.....

Is that even possible?

John

[KC9UDX]

Yes. How? I'm not sure; but certainly it can be done. There should be a socket for a Leslie, possibly marked Tone Cabinet. Knowing what kind of socket is there will help you know what model of Leslie will plug in without any extra work. I have a Leslie connected to a Lincolnwood, and I expect the Heritage is similar. I don't use the Leslie socket though, I use the ¼" output jack because my Leslie has a ¼" plug.

Surely though someone else here knows all the specifics.

[andyg]

I've moved this to the correct section of the forum - Home Organs - for you as it should get more views here.

Lowrey have used the name Heritage on more than one instrument! Are we talking about the classic DSO or DSO-1 Heritage from the 1960s, or the NT400 Heritage from 1989, for example?

If the former, it depends what leslie you'd like to hang on the end. A 145 or 147 would be the classic choice, not sure if there's a direct 6 pin plug in for that, or if you'd need a 26-1 fitting kit. A solid state 760 also sounds very good on a Heritage, but you definitely need a fitting kit for that. Both these two will only amplify the leslie channel of the organ, leaving the straight channel running through the organ's speakers. If you want to amplify both channels, a 720 will do nicely but again, you'd need to make or buy a fitting kit.

If it's the NT400, you can't put a leslie on it. The organ is stereo - left and right - with no separate rotary channel.

[KC9UDX]

If it's the NT400, you can't put a leslie on it. The organ is stereo - left and right - with no separate rotary channel.

Can't is pretty strong..:) You can do it; it won't be ideal but it can be done.

[andyg]

Well, yes, you have a point, and I am on record on this forum and elsewhere in saying that if you feed the right signals and voltages to the right pins in the leslie, you can in theory connect any leslie to any organ. But in this case all you could do is spin one half of the sound picture through the leslie - like half the piano, drums, trumpet or whatever, while the rest stayed in the organ. Totally useless. If you were somehow to common both channels to mono and spin everything, would that really be much better?

So whilst it's not a 100% statement of fact, I think "can't" is probably about right here. "Can't effectively" or "can't realistically" might be more accurate! :)

Anyway, let's hope it's a DSO-1 and we can help the owner hang a 147 on it!

[John Vanderlee]

Actually It's a Leslie 710 that is being considered.

[andyg]

That would work OK on a DSO or DSO-1 Heritage. You'd need to make up a fitting kit for it. The schematics are available on line and the switches to control main/echo and slow/fast are easy enough to get - if you pay enough, you can even get the original Leslie half-moons.

The 710 has a Rotosonic drum for the lower frequencies in the leslie channel, so do be aware that the tremolo effect is heavier and more 'theatrical' than a traditional leslie. That drum also takes a fair time to change speed, but the treble horn will mask that to a certain extent. The 710 is a gutsy cabinet - and loud. I borrowed one for a hotel gig on a Lowrey TLO-R and it sounded darned good to me.