Mysterious Giant Wooden Box - Effect?

[mattthegamer463]

Hey guys,

I saw this band The Bright Light Social Hour last night in Toronto, there was this box on the stage as seen in the picture, it appeared to be connected to the keyboardist's setup, the slot at the top had some sort of visible thing rotating inside it, at varying speeds throughout the show I noticed.  Probably between 100 and 300 RPM. Its been bugging me about what it is, I have to know now!  I'm a sucker for a good technology mystery.  Some pictures I could find below, maybe someone has an idea.  Can't tell if its homemade, its got a long list of writing on the side, and what looks like an aluminum chassis in the bottom, possibly a tube amp.  Could be an old TV cabinet or turntable or something, in which case we may never know what it is now.  Anybody seen one of these before?

[AS74]

Leslie speaker..

[.Mike]

In particular, I think it's one of these.

[mattthegamer463]

Wow, thanks for the quick responses guys. I've never seen anything like that before.  Thats really neat, I had a feeling it was some sort of doppler-based effect.  Very cool, very clever.

[PRR]

> a good technology mystery

If you'd lived through the 1960s, you wouldn't just know the name, you'd know the smell of old wood and how much your back hurts moving Leslie every night.

Another lost instrument: I saw someone playing a Rhodes.

[mattthegamer463]

He had a keytar too, quite the instrument selection.  Nearly knocked them over a couple times he was playing on them so.... enthusiastically.  Quite a good band.

[pinkjimiphoton]

leslie 122. they're great effects.

if you find an old abandoned or unwanted electronic organ, a lot of them have "vibratones" built into them that you can rip out and build your own "mini leslie" with.

[Mike Burgundy]

Paul: they're not lost! They still are still loved, cared for and lovingly abused at gigs by some who bravely choose to lug hundreds of kilograms of gear around to get that sound, feel and smell, instead of just using a NORD stage. Same goes for Wurlitzers, hammonds, Vox Continentals, and cp-70's. Edit: Dang, forgot the Mellotron.
That said - not even NORD can capture the wild physical sensation of a cooking dual leslie (horns and reflector) throwing sound round a room. Love it.

[Strategy]

Definitely guilty of vintage rhodes, wurlitzer EP, farfisa organ, yamaha organ, and vintage synth abuse over here. In fact Farfisa was my first keyboard and has been with me for 20 years or so. Its the first thing I test out my home made pedals on!

But I've NEVER been able to play through a leslie speaker. I just don't know anyone who has one.

Strategy

[Tracktr]

I'm staying at a friend's house which is half recording studio... including a Thomas solid state organ with a Leslie speaker, and an old Rhodes suitcase piano. The Leslie speaker in the organ is blown, unfortunately... but it gives the organ bass pedals a really cool tone.