Help identifying this Leslie?

[Deafen]

This Leslie is being sold by a church about 90 minutes away from me for peanuts. It's got a spinning plywood drum with a Jensen 8" driver behind it, a fixed 15" driver, and the wiring label implies an additional 12", 10", and 6x9" drivers (but I honestly have no idea what I'm looking at). Solid state amp with what appear to be eight beefy power transistors. The seller says "The unit had not been used in years. Our church organ uses pipes."

I can't find any reference to this configuration anywhere - it's not in the big list at MOSweb.

Any ideas?

[Goff]

That looks like something custom made by a pipe organ installer.

Rotary speakers are also used as tremulants in church organs.





What does the back look like?

[David Anderson]

Good question. It's not like any Leslie cabinet I've ever seen. It has a Leslie unit in it like Leslie sold to other organ manufacturers like Lowrey and Wurlitzer as an "internal Leslie," but the rest of the cabinet was built by someone else. None of it has the Leslie signature on it in terms of how they built cabinets.

From what you show, it looks like it was intended for an organ with multi-channel outputs. But was it for an Allen? A Rodgers? Baldwin? Maybe someone else here knows.

The multi-pin connectors shown are known as Cinch-Jones connectors, and as far as I know, Leslie never used them.

I'd say it's not really a "Leslie speaker." It's a speaker made by some other company with a common Leslie unit built into it for one channel.

[Deafen]

That looks like something custom made by a pipe organ installer.

Could definitely be.

What does the back look like?

This is the only shot of the back. I zoomed way in and identified the speaker as a Jensen C8R, which combined with some other keywords leads me to believe that this is a unit that Leslie made for OEM use. I found some similar units online that had Thomas-branded maintenance stickers (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thomas-Orga...s/274631811471). So maybe the whole cabinet isn't a Leslie, just the drum unit. Which would also explain why "Leslie" is called out as a separate circuit on the wiring diagram.



Regardless, I think I'm going to buy it. Not looking forward to a 3+ hour round-trip, but he's only asking $40, and I've got a little free time these days ...

[Goff]

Could definitely be.



This is the only shot of the back. I zoomed way in and identified the speaker as a Jensen C8R, which combined with some other keywords leads me to believe that this is a unit that Leslie made for OEM use. I found some similar units online that had Thomas-branded maintenance stickers (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thomas-Orga...s/274631811471). So maybe the whole cabinet isn't a Leslie, just the drum unit. Which would also explain why "Leslie" is called out as a separate circuit on the wiring diagram.



Regardless, I think I'm going to buy it. Not looking forward to a 3+ hour round-trip, but he's only asking $40, and I've got a little free time these days ...

Yeah I would buy that for $40. Would make an interesting guitar Lester. Might have to put an xover on the rotor like a Vibratone setup if you didn't use it for organ.

The cabinet is well made. Cool grill.

[Deafen]

Found it. It's a Conn 255. Usually sold with a companion 256, which has the 6x9" and 12" drivers. I'll probably go pick it up next weekend.

[Papus]

That would make a VERY cool guitar Leslie, especially with a stationary 15" - Stevie Ray Vaughan style.
I don't see any signs of the usual forwards-facing chute on the cheese wheel rotor, it looks like it fires sideways only, so you'd probably want to cut some vents in both sides of the cabinet to allow the proper Vibratone/Leslie 16 effect.
I'd bi-amp it so the dry/rotary blend can be controlled via an external mixer or routed via guitar pedals.
You could probably get very close to SRV's tone on "Tin Pan Alley" with this one cabinet... SRV blended a Vibratone with his massive Dumble head into 15" JBL cabinets and Fender Twins

[andyg]

Intended for use on Conn organs on their rotary channel, with the 256 handling the straight voices. Wooden rotor rather than cheese! Actually sounds very effective as is, so I'd listen before you start cutting extra vents. You may well like the sound.

They are quite chunky and heavy, and I can't see if this one's walnut or 'utility' black. Connection is non standard via Jones plugs - that was Conn's 'plug and play' system. But I guess you'll require the whole thing anyway.

[Deafen]

I think it's already biamped, based on how I interpret the wiring chart. I also intend to use it with the Hammond M3 I'm picking up this weekend, so I'm going to leave the amp in place and feed it guitar signal from a speaker-level DI from my guitar amp. There's a connector block for the motor speed, need to figure out how that works so I can build a control pedal.

It will just fit in my music room, between the organ and the piano. My wife isn't super thrilled about it, but that's why I have my own room! :)

[Papus]

What's this got to do with your spouse?

[Majorse7enth]

somebody used an internal Leslie from a Conn (or something) and built their own cabinet...looks good too.

[TorontoBob]

Hi. That looks exactly like a unit I found in a pile of garbage outside a church last year. On the side you can't see, there is a paper label identifying it as a Leslie 10C-25. In the Hammond forum, search for 10C-25 for lots of info on it.

[Organkeys Jones]

Falls Creek Baptist Youth Camp in Oklahoma used to have a Conn classical organ. The tabernacle would seat 5000. I remember Conn speaker cabinets mounted all over that tabernacle. I suspect they were the same as pictured above because I remember the Leslie sound. I played it once when I was in college, but not for worship.