From sarqoz@yahoo.com Tue Dec 16 04:34:10 2014
Subject:Warm hello to all + my rig


First a warm hello to all participating; I've been following the list for quite a while and I picked up some of your and other's ideas along the way to incorporate in my rig... I thought it was time for me to say hi and elaborate a little bit on my rig to maybe give some ideas back to you.
It was around 2007 when I bought my Nord C1 with a Yamaha FC7 expression pedal. I had built a Leslie 147 clone powered by a bass guitar amplifier, using DC motors and a simple electronic circuit to control the speeds, used with an old Viscount Imperial organ which produced a fairly convincing Hammond sound, but when paired with the Nord C1 it gave me the proper tone and control I wanted all along.
The combination served me well and soon I found myself honing and upgrading the 147 clone, because I felt the tone could be warmer still (plus the overdrive I got wasn't quite the same than the sound I could hear in my head). The first thing to change was the amplifier: I experimented around with various guitar and bass amps, tube as well as solid state before I got an old Leslie 47 amp from eBay. The upper driver was changed to an Atlas PD-5VH and I got a standard Leslie crossover to replace my hifi-style crossover. The difference was huge and when driven hard with the high level output of the Nord C1 I could push it into nice power tube saturation.
Around that time I felt that the Yamaha FC7 couldn't give my foot enough control freedom/ range. The pedal is almost parallel to the ground, even when using that thingy to raise the toe a little bit. I found a scrapped Hammond B3 pedal on eBay and I came up with a linkage rig to adapt the travel of the B3 pedal (almost twice than that of the FC7) to the potmeter of the FC7. It resulted in a very smooth sweep from 0 to 100% using the full travel of the B3 pedal. I made a nice block for it to raise it to more or less AGO standard and bingo: when sitting behind the organ, it is very comfortable to "work the pedal" with the foot in relaxing position at about 60% volume. Nice!
A few years later I got to play in my current band, which rehearses in a basement with very narrow and winding stairs leading to it. Unfortunately I couldn't get my 147 clone down there, so I scoured for a different solution, ranging from Motion Sound Pro-3 to Neo Ventilator and all in between. I eventually settled on a Leslie 120 which I modified with horns. The cabinet is juuuuuust deep enough to house the 47 amplifier and I also managed to be done with the awful rattly construction of the oilite lower rotor bearings (they're replaced with proper ball bearings). I also installed some nice carrying handles. Still chipping in at around 80-90 lbs the thing is not as light as I wished it would be, but I can load in into and out of the car by myself and carry it a few steps if I have to. And it sounds wicked and ridiculously loud! It's my main amp now. It is usually dialed down low on stage and miced to retain some width and definition, otherwise I'm lost in saturation because of our two guitarists 100 W volume battle.
Still, always in the back of the head this little thing nagged about a little bit of digital shrillyness in the highs that came out of the Nord C1. Somewhere along the line I came across this internet article: http://www.farmelorecording.com/in-the-press/using-transformers-to-transform-audio/I had a Hammond reverb tank lying around with a small input transformer that I could use. I cobbled up a little stomp box thingy with a knob for a variable low pass filter to tame the highs even further when needed. I believe that transformer is in the order of 1:1.2 or something and I wired it to step up to mitigate potential loss of signal. It adds (well it subtracts obviously, but for sake of clarity...) analogue warmth and the shrillness is gone totally to the point that I leave that low pass filter knob wide open.
After a gig the little 120 was banged about a bit and the amplifier began to show signs of tiredness. It still had all original components (tubes were new though) from the days of yore, and a complete overhaul was due.
Then I came across a posting of mr. Somerville on here, regarding the rewiring of the 147 power stage to 122 feedback topology. A Leslie 122 normally saturates a bit earlier and more gradual than the more rapid grunt onset of the 147. While rebuilding the amp I also performed this modification and I have to say that the difference is quite remarkable - for lack of a better word the sound quality is less "glassy" than a 147, like the saturation blends in gradually as a "wet signal" into the "dry signal" as you step on the pedal.
By now I'm very happy with my rig and the next thing to be replaced is the Nord C1 itself. I'm leaning towards getting a more Hammond-like interface with drawbars e.g. Crumar Mojo or MAG Custom Organs. I'll see what happens then, but I think the custom job swell pedal as well as the modded 120 are here to stay.
When interested I'll be happy to share some photos of the B3 expression pedal and/ or the modded 120.
Thanks and cheers!
Regards,

Sander