From mlongo@highmarkdesign.com Fri Aug 17 20:27:13 2001
Subject:Speakeasy "Vintage Tube" Pedal Preamp


Hi Folks,

Below is my review of a new Leslie pedal pre-amp that's just
come on the market called the "Vintage Tube" pedal made by Speakeasy
Vintage Music. In case you don't know, a pedal pre-amp is intended to
connect a Hammond clone (or any other keyboard or guitar) to a Leslie.
There are two models of this pedal, one for a Leslie 147 or 145 amp
and one for a 122 or 142.

PRODUCT: Speakeasy "Vintage Tube" tube powered combo pre-amp
MAKER: Speakeasy Vintage Music
COST: $369.95 USD for 147 Pedal, $389.95 USD for 122 pedal
WEB: http://www.speakeasyvintagemusic.com
Date of this review: July 2001

DISCLAIMERS

I should say first that I'm not affiliated with the maker of
this pedal in any way and I don't get any money or discount in
exchange for reviewing this product. I bought my pedal from Tony
LaBrasca at BT Productions, and though I have spoken with the pedal
designer/manufacturer on the phone recently, I've had no financial
dealings of any kind with them.

I have written several internet reviews on organ related
products over the years. As a gigging organ player I write reviews
from the perspective of the working musician. Be advised: different
players have different opinions about the same gear. You should take
the views I express in this review as my own personal opinions. You
may disagree...

SUMMARY

I usually try not to start equipment reviews with my subjective
judgments, but this time I'm making an exception. This pedal pre-amp
sounds fantastic. The tone is extremely clear and detailed, showing
off the subtlest aspects of my Korg CX-3. The CX-3's attack
transients (percussion & key click) and also it's leakage and
crosstalk sounds are VERY well amplified with this pedal, plainly
bringing out the personality and character of the organ. Yet even
though the tone is so clear and detailed, it is also punchy and meaty.
The pedal has volume, treble, and bass controls and tons of output.
Overall, this is the best sounding pedal pre-amp I've ever used.

This pedal is old school all the way, using a vintage style tube and
transformer design that provides smooth clear tone with lots of warmth
and punch. The pre-amp's electrical components are hand wired
together, much the way your Leslie amp is, which should improve
reliability and serviceability over time.

The pre-amp pedal comes in two versions, one to drive a Leslie 147
type amp, and one for a 122. The cost is $369.95 for the 147 version
and and $389.95 for the 122 in US dollars. This is more than you'd
pay for a used Leslie Combo pedal but is in the same cost neighborhood
as the popular Trek pedal. The Hampton pedal, a fine pre-amp that
I've used for years, is in the $500 to $600 range. But frankly, I
like the Speakeasy Vintage Tube best of all of them and my personal
opinion is that cost-wise this pedal is a very good comparative value
considering it's great sound.

SOUND

First a word about the rig I play this pedal through. I use a Korg
CX-3 played through a Leslie 145 (that model uses a stock 147
amp). Also, to show you the orientation of my ears, I've gigged with
the Hampton tube based pre-amp through my Leslie 145 for about four
years. Before that, I played a through Hammond-Suzuki 1147 kit to the
same Leslie. I also used a Leslie Combo Preamp for a short time.
I've owned and gigged extensively with a Hammond-Suz XB-2, XK-2, and
the new Korg CX-3. I also own a stock '59 Hammond C-3 which I play
regularly through a Leslie 147 at home, though I don't gig with the
C-3.

Using the Vintage Tube pedal pre-amp, my CX-3 sounds very clear and
detailed, yet very punchy. The CX-3 has a lot of subtlety in it's
sound including generator leakage, both attack and release key clicks,
all programmable through a wide range of levels. The C-1, C-2, and
C-3 choruses all have different qualities. The Vintage Tube pedal
does a remarkably effective job of bringing all these details out
through my Leslie. Even the Hampton pedal that I've been using for
years, a very nice sounding pedal, does not capture the detail that
this pedal does. This is all very important because the Hammond
clones normally fall down in their attempts to emulate some of the
subtler aspects of the B-3's personality, and this pedal does a good
job of showing what your clone can do. The CX-3 has more personality
and character than any other clone I've played and the Vintage Tube
pre-amp showed off all aspects of that character very well.

The overall tone of the pedal is very good. I felt that the CX-3 tone
sounded slightly more open and more airy through this pedal. Also,
the pedal has good punch, most especially in the attack section of the
notes and so I find that the notes punch through the band mix very
well.

I found that the Vintage Tube pedal made the CX-3 percussion, click,
and leakage effects sound louder, so I turned them down. The turned
down effects could still be clearly heard, yet because they were at a
lower level relative to the drawbar tone, they seemed to blend better
with the basic organ tone making the overall organ sound fuller and
punchier; more like a real B-3. Indeed, the Vintage Tube pedal made
the CX-3 sound more like a "real" organ, and definitely made it more
fun to play.

The basic drawbar tone output from the CX-3 are very clearly amplified
with this pedal. I found I was using less of the higher drawbars than
with other pre-amps because with the Vintage Tube pedal the details
are so apparent. As drawbars are pulled into a sustained chord they
are clearly audible, which I feel helps the organ sound fuller and
more interesting, and gives it more and wider penetration in the band
mix. I liked this clarity very much because it allowed me to use
subtle drawbar changes to better effect within the band mix.

A possible downside of all the clarity is that the CX-3 (and most
other clones) tends to sound very bright in the top octave, even
harsh, and the Vintage Tube pedal can very clearly amplify that
brightness, which can be too much. The Vintage Tube pedal's excellent
fidelity can reveal tonal inconsistencies across a clone's pitch
range, exposing weaknesses as well as accenting the strengths of a
particular clone. Yet in balance I find that the advantages gained in
punch and clarity of attack clearly outweigh the disadvantage of
exposing a clone's shortcomings. At least, that is the case with the
CX-3. And fortunately, the treble knob on the Vintage Tube pedal has
a pretty usable range (as does the bass control), and you can dial out
the more objectionably piercing high note frequencies put out by your
clone without taking away much clarity.

This pedal has a very healthy output level, which I find to be quite
useful in a gigging situation. Previously, registrations such as
800000008 could sometimes get a bit lost in the band mix, because
there just isn't much output from the organ on a sparse registration
like that. But with the high output levels and excellent clarity of
this pedal, that registration comes through in the mix pretty well.
You can overdrive your Leslie to any degree, if that's what you like.
And you have enough some headroom so that when you max out the organ
volume during a solo this pedal will give you all the output your
Leslie's capable of (now if only the Leslie itself were louder!).

THE MECHANICS

The pedal itself is a wedge shaped box. Lined up along the top front
edge of the box (the edge away from the player) are an on/off switch,
1/4" input jack, a pilot lamp (not an LED), and large volume treble
and bass control knobs. The ramp leading down toward the player's
foot holds a classic heavy duty foot toggle switch and is covered with
a black sandpaper-like material. AT the top of the ramp is another
fast/slow lamp that illuminates when the Leslie is in fast (tremolo)
mode.

The front edge facing away from the player has the power cord coming
out of it. The power cord is about six or seven feet long and is
connected inside the box (not removable). I would have liked the cord
to be a foot or two longer, though the length is adequate for all the
circumstances I've been in so far. Even better would be the use of a
modern modular power cord receptacle such as that seen on modern
synths, computers, etc. That would allow the player to choose the
length cord most suitable and would make packing the pedal easier as
well.

The Leslie connection method is very innovative and I feel that it's a
great feature of this pedal. The pedal comes with a short "pigtail"
cable. This cord is about eight inches long and has a normal 6 pin
Leslie female cord on one end with a CPC type connector on the other
end. The CPC connector is a durable military spec multi-pin connector
with gold contacts that plugs into a socket on the side of the Vintage
Tube pedal. Once plugged into the pedal, you twist the connector
sleeve a half turn or so and it locks into place. You plug your
Leslie cable into the Leslie end of this short "pigtail" cable, and
the CPC end of the pigtail into the pedal. There are several
advantages to this method. First, if someone should kick your Leslie
cable on the stage or trip over it or whatever, the Leslie connector
cable will simply pull straight out of the pigtail cleanly without
bending/breaking the Leslie connector pins. You simply leave the
pigtail connected to your Leslie cable when you coil it up after the
gig and it's ready for use on the next gig. Another advantage of this
arrangement is that the CPC connector has a sleeve that protects the
contact pins. With a Leslie cable, the connector long pins are openly
exposed to wear and tear. By leaving the pigtail connected to your
Leslie cable you are protecting Leslie connector pins. So the pigtail
both protects your Leslie cable and provides a more secure connection
at the pedal itself.

One note on the power and speed lamps. The lamps are bright enough
that I could see their state in direct sunlight on an outdoor gig, (an
advantage unfortunately not shared by my CX-3's LED's!).

THE TECHNICAL SIDE

The pedal's designer, Steve Hayes of Speakeasy Vintage Music, set out
to capture the awesome warmth and punch heard in certain vintage tube
amp designs. I feel that he succeeded very well in that goal. Steve
told me over the phone that he went back to a 1948 RCA handbook to see
how the vintage amp designs originally worked. Starting with a basic
Class A tube amplifier design from that book and ideas from vintage
guitar amplifier designs by Fender and others, Steve went to work
refining those design ideas for use in amplifying the unique needs of
organs. He's incorporated a 12AU7 tube (the same tube type used in
the input stage of your Leslie 147 or 122) into the design. A key
aspect of this design is that the output stage is transformer coupled
as seen in vintage pre-amps, rather than the solid state designs
used in more modern pre-amps. Steve found someone who would custom
build new transformers to his vintage specs and he says that in large
part it is the transformer coupled output that gives this truly
vintage pre-amp it's excellent clarity of detail and punch.

When I opened up the pedal to look inside I was very surprised to find
no circuit board. This pedal is hand wired/assembled using all
discrete components wired point-to-point and secured in the box with
lug screws. This is the way your Leslie or B-3 is wired and it should
make this pedal unusually durable. I feel that this is an important
consideration for road musicians who routinely put their gear through
ungodly extremes of temperature and rough handling. Also, the parts
used in this pedal should be pretty easy to find and replace on the
road if anything ever goes wrong.

The box itself is rather large, a little bigger than a Hampton or
Leslie Combo pedal, though smaller than the bulky Trek. I wish it
could have been a little smaller yet, but Speakeasy says that the
pedal is being made in small quantities (so far) so they're using a
standard off-the-shelf general purpose box, rather than a custom built
box that could be tailored to save space. Also, the discrete
components used in this box do seem to take up most of the space
inside.

CONCLUSION

The "Vintage Tube" pedal is a great sounding pedal that delivers
detail, clarity, punch, and warmth of tone that I have not heard in
any other Leslie pedal pre-amp. The controls are large, heavy duty,
and easy to use. Looking inside, it is very sturdily put together,
and though it's a new model that has not yet stood the test of time,
it looks as if it will hold up well. Priced competitively, this is
truly a high end product in the sound it delivers.

Mark
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m a r k l o n g o
http://www.HighmarkDesign.com