Radio & Speaker Systems

The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ. more...

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Separate Leslie speakers were a "must have" accessory for all Hammond owners, particularly after its characteristic sound was popularised by such acts as Procol Harum on "A Whiter Shade of Pale", Lee Michaels (Do You Know What I Mean), or the Spencer Davis Group on "Gimme Some Lovin'". Another wide user of the Leslie Speaker is the sixties psychedelic band, Steppenwolf.

Although the Leslie speaker and the Hammond organ are spoken of as one organized musical system, Hammond never owned or manufactured any speakers or parts for the Leslie Corporation, much less advertised for it. Hammond refused to package any Leslie speakers with its organ sales using, instead, its own speakers which produced virtually no "Leslie like" special effects. There are reports of the Hammond Organ Company strong-arming piano and organ stores into not selling Leslie products. Threats would go as far as telling the dealerships that the Hammond Organ line would be pulled if they sold Leslie products. Hammond did grudgingly repair Leslie units, only when asked to, in order to cement the bond of loyalty between itself and its customer base. Most techs now will fix both Hammond Organs and Leslie Speakers.

History

Don Leslie, at the outset, was refused hire by the Hammond Organ Company, but did work for the local electric company, in a contract with Hammond, to replace the old fifty cycle rotor tone generators with the new sixty cycle units, in customer's homes. The speaker's first name, in 1941, was the "Vibratone". (The name was used later by Fender Guitar Company for a speaker system and effects unit containing a Leslie rotating speaker. Fender also used the name "Leslie" after Leslie sold his company, in 1965, to CBS, which had also acquired Fender.) From 1941, when the first units were produced, the speaker went by several names including "Brittain Speakers", "Hollywood Speakers" and "Crawford Speakers", before returning to the name "Leslie Vibratone" in 1946. Seventeen years after it had rejected him, Leslie offered to sell the company to Hammond. After thirty days he had heard no word from Hammond. Don Leslie said: "After seventeen years, the thirty day period is up. Too late".

Leslie never advertised his speakers. After demonstrating a prototype (a rotating baffle in a hole in a small closet with a big speaker in the closet near Leslie's home organ) with Bob Mitchell, an organist with radio station KFI near Los Angeles, a contract was made to install another prototype in the station's studios, where Mitchell would be the only organist authorized to use it. Mitchell was so impressed that he even tried to patent the speaker, but discovered that he couldn't. Soon afterwards, Mitchell became an organist with the Mutual Broadcasting System, and played a Hammond with the Leslie on its shows. The national exposure was swift and sure. Organists, professional and amateur alike, wanted to have "that sound". The Leslie of that time was over sixty inches tall (about the size of a modern refrigerator), and was named the 30A. Don Leslie made a whole series based on the 30A, called "Tall Boys" (31 series). In the 1950s, Leslie introduced the 21H for use in homes, concert hall venues and smaller radio sound stages.

Read more at Wikipedia.org