From ynottnaro@yahoo.com Sun Jun 29 20:11:22 2003
Subject:Re: Leslie 21 System

Hey Tony...Sorry to hear about your grief. I'll share
what my tech has told me about HS and Leslie products:
Their "recommended" settings and components are not
chosen not to get the most performance out of their
product, but to eliminate the cost of warranty
service.

Now you can take that to mean whatever you wish, but
to me it means "individual results may vary." I've
never been big on manuals...I'd rather put things
through changes to figure out how something sounds
(even if I can't figure out how it works). For me,
I've gotten the best results with the leslie's amp
maxxed at all times. The Speakeasy's volume has
changed depending on what I'm listening for, but it
has never been less than 2:00, and frequently ended up
at full regardless of what was going on around me.
The key for me was the treble knob, and I discovered
that at about the same time the posting was up.
Treble should be labelled "GRIND".

I have at least 4 spare drivers and 2 bass speakers in
my attic for when my leslie finally breaks down, but
they used to be in my studio....see what I'm saying?
I got tired of moving it around and realized I wasn't
going to be needing it any time soon. And much to my
guitarist's chagrin, the only time I've ever changed
tubes in that amp was the first time I moved it in its
flight case...cuz the amp came loose and smashed every
last one of them (dont ask!). And yes, my amp and
tubes are still in bias. (That I have checked every
time I have it serviced.)

Maybe you could invoke the lemon law?

T
--- Anthony Catania wrote:
> I don't know what to think about this Leslie. It's
> a great setup, with a
> lot of excellent features, and much versatility. It
> sounds great, and I
> really like it. It even has a 122 cabinet emulation
> setting.
>
> With brand new equipment, with the LESLIE name, for
> the price I paid, and
> for the relatively easy life that this unit has led,
> I would expect the
> hardiness and reliability that Tony has gotten with
> his Leslies.
>
> It may be a design flaw, like one of the other
> members suggested. I'm
> surely disappointed that both top and bottom units
> have failed, at separate
> times, in less than 6 months. This is an expensive
> amp. I'm not a
> professional musician, and these amps are babied,
> and moved infrequently.
> Never on for more than 5 hours at a clip, usually
> only 1-2 hours.
>
> I e-mailed to the Speakeasy guys to see if they had
> any ideas, or scuttlebut
> about these amps.
>
> I never raised the master volume on the amp above
> 8(out of 10), The rotary
> unit vol. was 5/10, and the amp gain was about 3/10
> These settings are
> those recommended by Ham-Suz when you boot up this
> Leslie. The Speakeasy
> Classic vol @ 3 o'clock, bass at 3 o'clock, treble
> at 1 o'clock. Gain
> switch on the SE was low/off. Gain on BX3 was
> about 4/10, vol. full out.
> Not much grunt and growl here, except with
> expression pedal to the metal.
>
> Wonder if Musician's Friend is giving us good
> product? That's where I got
> the unit.
>
> Tony, do you know others using this Leslie, or have
> you heard any thing on
> the street about them?
> What do you think is going on here? Any
> suggestions?
>
> How frequently do you other Clonewheelers have
> problems with a blown Leslie,
> and which units are you using? With other equipment
> added in the link, was
> there any more frequency of the units going bad?
>
> Ham-Suz rep will not comment on reliability of the
> amp. Any othe
> opinions/info would be helpful. Thanks. I'll keep
> posting about this.
> Hope I didn't make a $2,000 mistake!
>
> Tony Catania
>
> >From: ynottnaro
> >Reply-To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
> >To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: Leslie 21 System
> >Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 07:09:30 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >Ummm...I have to diasgree. I've been using my
> Bulldog
> >leslie (a model 25 cabinet loaded with stock 122
> >parts) for gigging 3-6 times a week for over 5
> years.
> >I have NEVER blown a driver yet. This was using a
> VK7
> >or an XK2 (depending on which I owned at the time)
> >with an 1122 kit from Hammond Suzuki, or my cutdown
> >Numerous Complaints Chopper with Trek preamp.
> Leslie
> >is wide open, organs are wide open. Almost 2 years
> >ago I switched to using a Speakeasy preamp. I ran
> the
> >Classic pedal with volume at 3:00, treble at same,
> >bass at max. By the way, I used a Voce v5 for a
> while
> >(a notoriously hot output device) with my
> Speakeasy,
> >and have defected to the Electro camp. Recently, I
> >bought a rackmounted Speakeasy with Classic/Howler
> >mode switching. I've discovered that using the
> volume
> >at roughly 3:00 and treble wide open gives me
> plenty
> >of groovy grind, and when I switch to Howler
> >mode...look out! I play pretty damn loud (our bass
> >player is volume crazy and sets up right next to
> me)
> >and at times have the Speakeasy maxed. I have YET
> to
> >blow a driver, much to my tech's chagrin (he wants
> the
> >repair bill!).
> >
> >And until 7 weeks ago, it was a stock driver. I
> did
> >switch to Speakeasy's power driver (or whatever it
> was
> >called) to check it out, and while I don't notice
> any
> >particular benefit (as I said, for over 5 years
> I've
> >never had a problem anyway), I also don't notice
> any
> >difference in tone (which is what I wanted: NO
> >DIFFERENCE). I've been switching to another model
> 25
> >leslie that is also retrofitted with stock 122 guts
> >for live gigs (this is the one I keep at home) to
> >check some other issues, and that has given me no
> >grief whatsoever.
> >
> >So with all respect to Dave, I disagree. Michael
> Lee,
> >Jon Lord, Seth Justman, name your grindy Hammond
> guy,
> >they didn't get those sounds by babying their
> leslies.
> > I actually expected to blow a driver years
> ago...I'm
> >still waiting.
> >
> >T
> >--- David Oakley wrote:
> > >
> > > If your running your Leslie amp at or near max
> > > volume and your
> > > putting in a high gain input, eg: SE max volume,
> max
> > > treble, then you
> > > will kill your drivers on a frequent basis. This
> is
> > > true of old/new
> > > Leslie and MS products also. I never run any of
> my
> > > Leslie's above say
> > > 7 (on a scale 1 to 10) but i use the SE flat out
> and
> > > i've been ok so
> > > far. If you need more volume then you either
> need to
> > > MIC up or get a
> > > higher powered Leslie. Even at lower volumes,
> i've
> > > heard that
> > > excessive distortion will shorten the life of
> your
> > > drivers however.
> > >
> > > Dave
> > >
> > > --- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, "ashorcat"
> > > wrote:
> > > > I bought the Leslie 21 in Jan. of this
> year.
> > > The rotor unit
> > > > needed repair by April. Now the base unit is
> > > down(sound is
> > > > distorted in upper octaves, Lower 3 octaves
> seem
> > > OK). Also, for
> > > the
> > > > last 2 days I hear a rattle in the upper unit,
> so
> > > this may have to
> > > > go back to the shop again!
> > > > I bought online from Musician's Friend.
> I
> > > know another member
> > > > got a bad one from them right out of the box.
> > > Wondering if they're
> > > > selling reconditioned problem units.
> > > > I know there are other Clonwheelers who
> use
> > > these Leslies.
> > > Any
> > > > more problems with them?
> > > >
> > > > I'm wondering if I'm blowing the speakers by
> > > pushing too hard with
> > > > the Speakeasy Classic Pedal. Any ideas,
> comments?
> > > >
> > > > Thank you fellow Clonewheelers for your help.
> > > >
>
=== message truncated ===

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