Leslie 22h to Roland FA-06 keyboard

[Slammer9876]

Hello Forum:

Have had an Hammond A-100 with Leslie 22H speaker for over 50 years. All have been reconditioned and sound absolutely great! However this old guy decided to buy a Roland FA-06 keyboard workstation about a year ago which I really like. I’d like to connect the 1/4 inch output jack on my Roland keyboard to my Leslie 22H. Willing to buy a connection device. Just need some sound advice from the experts on this forum.

Thanks in advance
Rick

[David Anderson]

If you can use the Roland near the A-100, you can plug the FA-06 into the RCA jack on the swell capacitor housing on the organ's preamp. You'd have to use the speed switch on the organ. If you want to use the Roland and Leslie in other locations, you'd need a preamp designed to drive the input of the 22H, which is balanced-line and hotter than standard line level.

Trek II's UC-1A is excellent, but people will complain about the price because it's made in the United States rather than with slave labor in China. The advantage of the UC-1A is that you can use it with several Leslie families, so if you took your FA-06 somewhere where someone had a Leslie 147, 760, or 860, you could use it in all those situations.

[Slammer9876]

If you can use the Roland near the A-100, you can plug the FA-06 into the RCA jack on the swell capacitor housing on the organ's preamp. You'd have to use the speed switch on the organ. If you want to use the Roland and Leslie in other locations, you'd need a preamp designed to drive the input of the 22H, which is balanced-line and hotter than standard line level.

Trek II's UC-1A is excellent, but people will complain about the price because it's made in the United States rather than with slave labor in China. The advantage of the UC-1A is that you can use it with several Leslie families, so if you took your FA-06 somewhere where someone had a Leslie 147, 760, or 860, you could use it in all those situations.

David: Thank you for your response. I have noticed the RCA jack on the organ's preamp, but was concerned about directly connecting to it and blowing speakers, etc.

So, I will acquire an 1/4 inch to RCA jack cable and try it tonight.

Thanks again for your quick response, very much appreciated.
Rick

P.S. Will also check out the Trek II UC-1A device. Thanks.

[muckelroy]

David: Thank you for your response. I have noticed the RCA jack on the organ's preamp, but was concerned about directly connecting to it and blowing speakers, etc.

So, I will acquire an 1/4 inch to RCA jack cable and try it tonight.

Just start with low gain on your FA-06 and ease it up gradually.

If / when you unplug the FA-06 RTA cable, re-insert the RCA dummy plug into the preamp swell housing. The lack of this dummy plug can often induce a small amount of hum in the preamp if left uninstalled.

[Slammer9876]

If you can use the Roland near the A-100, you can plug the FA-06 into the RCA jack on the swell capacitor housing on the organ's preamp. You'd have to use the speed switch on the organ. If you want to use the Roland and Leslie in other locations, you'd need a preamp designed to drive the input of the 22H, which is balanced-line and hotter than standard line level.

Trek II's UC-1A is excellent, but people will complain about the price because it's made in the United States rather than with slave labor in China. The advantage of the UC-1A is that you can use it with several Leslie families, so if you took your FA-06 somewhere where someone had a Leslie 147, 760, or 860, you could use it in all those situations.

Hi David:

Thank you again for your suggestion. I tried the direct connection to the swell capacitor and generated tremendous humming noise. Scared the crap out of me. Immediately turned organ off and the Hammond. Anyway, didn't hurt anything but clearly didn't seem to work.

I will try to acquire a Trek II UC-1A and see how that works.

Thanks again for your suggestion, Rick

- - - Updated - - -

Well just checked out the price on a Trek II UC-1A . . . YIKES!!!! $612 dollars.

So, final option is the buy a low end Roland amp/speaker and call it a night.

Again, thanks to everyone for your responses

[Sweet Pete]

I agree with mucleroy in that you should ease up the volumes on that Roland.

Some folks on here use 'keyboard' amps and like them.
For about the same money I prefer a full range 12" powered wedge/monitor.
Lets see here,vocals sound like what through a keyboard amp?
Let's see what this Roland sounds like through a monitor wedge?
Maybe you have no need for a microphone or sound reinforcement option?

Thought I'd played the same A100 for a long time.....heck it's only 23 years.

[David Anderson]

Thank you again for your suggestion. I tried the direct connection to the swell capacitor and generated tremendous humming noise. Scared the crap out of me. Immediately turned organ off and the Hammond. Anyway, didn't hurt anything but clearly didn't seem to work.

I've used the input on the organ's preamp on different organs in different situations with no problems. Is it possible you have a patch cable with a bad ground? Or did you somehow end up with a power transformer for the keyboard close to the organ's matching transformer? That will generate a loud hum.

The bottom line is that this connection method does work. Something is wrong on your end.

[alpine]

Try a cheapie ground loop isolator if all the ground connections do seem to be OK...

[Guest]

I've used the input on the organ's preamp on different organs in different situations with no problems. Is it possible you have a patch cable with a bad ground? Or did you somehow end up with a power transformer for the keyboard close to the organ's matching transformer? That will generate a loud hum.

The bottom line is that this connection method does work. Something is wrong on your end.

On organs I have owned I add a 1/4 ts socket somewhere more accessible than the swell housing (usually next to the line out) and solder one end of a phono lead to it so that it can be plugged into the rca inside the organ.