OT: Single Rotor Leslie?

[Primus]

Which of the two rotors is beter voiced for guitar? Should I bite the bullet and make both?

[Mark Hammer]

I have a "cheese-wheel" mini-Leslie with a single rotor (the big styrofoam drum that looks like a huge wheel of cheese) and an 8" speaker.  Probably not as much grind as a two rotor job but sound wonderful and is leagues above a flanger or chorus in terms of getting "that sound".  I don't think you'll be disappointed with the tone of a single rotor/drum unit at all.  Just pay attention to the radius of the rotor/drum.  My feeling is, the bigger the circumference of the rotor's spin, the stronger the effect.

[Peter Snowberg]

I would say the lower rotor is voiced for heavy bass while the horn is voiced for something more like flute.

Guitar tones will cross the two.

IMHO, the lower rotor is better as a general guitar speaker. The horn is much more directional. It's normally driven by a crossover, but the driver difference is like 15 inches to 4 inches.

It's pretty wild when the rotors are spinning at different rates! :shock:

I agree with Mark, bigger is better. (at least in this case)

An 8" or a 10" speaker should sound great, but I would build the rotor to accept a 12".

[petemoore]

YUPP I made them from old phonographs and wood.
 regular speakers can get enough high end to have nice tones that get through the 'ringer' [some highs of course are lost through the  spinning wave 'cheese wheel' and cabinet].
 They sounded superb, I used to play through them alot at home.

[NoFi]

The lower rotor with a nice guitar speaker just like in Vibratones.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/vrbass/vibratone/

[d95err]

Which of the two rotors is beter voiced for guitar? Should I bite the bullet and make both?

IMHO a single rotor leslie (or simulator) never really gets "off the ground". The sound is one-dimensional and it stays in the same league as a chorus, tremolo or other single LFO based effect.

The double rotors at different speeds is what really makes the leslie effect take off and give that unpredictable swirling that can make anything sound alive.

[NoFi]

But then you need a whole mic case to mike it, and a truck to move it.  :lol:

[Primus]

I heard this awesome idea of just putting a pair of cheap electret lavalier microphones at oposing corners inside the case and then just put a pair of XLR connectors on the box. Just run a couple of cables to the snake and ask the soundguy to pan it. Yeah, 3 mics is a lot for guitar (especially when your keyboard player also uses 3 mics/directs, bass and drums... I think there is definitely a benefit to the dual phaser but the big difference between a leslie and a pedal is the slow/fast and in between settings. You could achieve this w/ a pedal but the problem w/ using an EXP is it's hard to get the rate increase to have the right function.

[stankyfish]

Which of the two rotors is beter voiced for guitar? Should I bite the bullet and make both?

I had a Leslie 125 which has only the single large rotor in it.  I was talking to the guys at Goff Professional about it and they recommended it for guitar.  I have no reason to disbelieve those guys about anything Hammond/Leslie related.