Vintage Hammond Leslies: The Quickest Way To A Herniated Spinal Disk
With a collection that's sure to make any Hammond aficionado green with envy, The Ladybirds organist Bob Fossaluzza shows off his trio of vintage Leslies rotary speaker amps. The one on the left is called "Hornby" -- she's a solid state 70s model that sees a little more road time than, but doesn't sound quite as sweet as, the two 50s Leslie's on the right. Bob calls those the twins. They're "Nielsen" and "Townes Hope." You can tell them apart because Townes Hope's comedy is timeless and inviting, whereas Nielsen's comedy consists mainly of pratfalls and recycled Mel Brooks jokes.
BOB FOSSALUZZA: These are all tube. Each one is 40 watts. There are tube amplifiers in there you can see. It's got a bass speaker facing down into a drum that starts spinning when you hit, you know, the speed switch. A motor turns a drum. Up here we have a high-frequency horn facing into this black plastic rotor that spins when you speed it up to create a Doppler effect...
[BOB FOSSALUZZA DEMONSTRATING THE USE OF A LESLIE SPEAKER]
...to make the three-dimensional 360 vibrato.
PATRICK OGLE: Now, do you usually use them in pairs or were they used singles? Are you usually using them in pairs?
BOB FOSSALUZZA: It depends on the application. In a church, they might hide them somewhere in the roof and they'd use multiples of them. A rock band, if they want to be really loud, they'll use several of them, and -- But you know, if you have a nice mic situation, you don't need more than one, and they're obviously large and hard to move around.
PATRICK OGLE: Do you take that? Do you use the Leslies in...
BOB FOSSALUZZA: Yeah.
PATRICK OGLE: ...live as well?
BOB FOSSALUZZA: Yeah, because you have to.
PATRICK OGLE: If you're using this, you have to. If you have the one, you use the other.
BOB FOSSALUZZA: Yeah.
PATRICK OGLE: But what about the newer ones, the '70s ones that's behind [INDISCERNIBLE]
BOB FOSSALUZZA: The '70s one is a lot louder but it doesn't sound as good because it's all solid state and something, you know, not like playing bass tones through it sounds fine.
[BOB FOSSALUZZA DEMONSTRATING A SEVENTIES VERSION OF A LESLIE CABINET]
But the distortion that it gets is that crunchy transistor distortion. It doesn't sound as smooth as that or, you know, a nice tube amp for a guitar or something like that. So, it doesn't sound as good, turn up really loud compared. But these things are made like furniture whereas this has got Tolex on it like an amp. So, it's like, you know, I don't -- These things are in good condition too so I don't really like to take them out.
This is one that we've taken out for a long time. It's a solid state like 90-watt model. It sounds kind of stupid sometimes. When it gets distorted, it doesn't sound as good as these ones. These are the tube models.
PATRICK OGLE: And they're Leslies as well.
BOB FOSSALUZZA: Yes. They're my twins.
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