Thanks for your videos on the Leslie 12. I picked one up based on your reviews. Very few vids on this speaker. I read in the Leslie 12 manual that the side opposite the controls is considered the front. And when you stop the rotating speakers the lower baffle faces forward. But the upper cone does not but the upper speaker is still designed to project to the front regardless. I will test that and edit this post for completeness. This is designed so that if you are mic'ing the front and you stop the rotation the sound projects from the front single side. Or when say using another keyboard synth sound that you do not want rotating. The Leslie 12 sounds great in slow or fast rotation modes, the sound projects from all 4 sides of the speaker through the 4 sided speaker holes and throws itself around the room pushing air out as it goes. Compared to say a Leslie simulator played back in stereo speakers in which the sound stays in front of you. Still a nice effect but to hear the physical Leslie speaker creating the doppler effect caused from the rotation is immersive and fills a room. The sound is more present and open reflecting off the various surfaces in the room. I imagine the best benefit is for live performance or as a practice amp as it causes you to play differently reacting to the sound. Once recorded and played back through stereo speakers, the Leslie simulator verses the mic'd real Leslie speaker differences will become more alike since they are both in stereo- left-right format. I have not experienced the glitching foot switch rotary speed on/off/fast/slow issue you describe, knock on wood. edited: I see below you solved the faulty solder contact problem and that your problem was fixed. Good as new and great news.
Interested to hear what you figure out on that rotation thing - I know technically the front is the "pretty" side. In my experience neither the top or bottom horn stop in a consistent position, although I haven't tested since I got it fixed
@@DavidThackerMusic The Leslie 12 manual says by design the lower baffle stops facing the front. BUT the horns stop where ever yet the upper speaker is designed to project its sound to the front regardless of horn position. I'll test that and report back.
@@DavidThackerMusic after a quick test, the lower rotating baffle has a red dot on the back of it. It either stops with the red dot straight back, or at about 20 degrees to the left or right suggesting the lower speaker rotary baffle does project toward the speaker front when stopped. The rotating horns stop in various positions like you say. However listening in the studio and walking around the Leslie 12 speaker, when stopped, I do hear a clearer more present sound from the front logo side of the speaker (opposite the controls side). It’s subtle but it does seem to hold up as to what Leslie states in the manual for the Leslie 12. The sound of course comes out of all 4 sides when it spins. When stopped it is subtly clearer to my ears at the front. But honestly for practicing could work with the back side facing toward you for ease of reaching the knobs.
Ive owned the Leslie Studio 12 since it came out. Years of hard touring and 100's and 100's of shows. I had the same problem until I finally paid to have it serviced a few years ago. They had to re solder lots of the connections on the inside. No problems with that very annoying design flaw you mentioned.
Hi David, thanks for the tip about the speed input! Did you figure out how to stop the rotor spinning slowly on stop or is that normal? Or does yours even do it?
Hey David, I've heard mixed opinions on whether to Mic the 'Ugly side' vs the Front (logo badge) side. The manual recommends the Front side as that is where the horn sort of stops. Which side do you mic and why?
I generally have the ugly side facing me so I can adjust EQ/gain, and then I throw a mic on the sides or the back, but never on the ugly side. Sometimes I even put 3 mics on it, two on the top and one on the bottom. My experience micing the ugly side is that it had way more "whoosh" Wind noise from the spinning horn, keep in mind I have removed the top wooden peice from the ugly side so it may have more wind noise than there would be if that wooden peice was still there. Also - my experience is that the horn stops randomly, never in the same place twice. I know the manual says it stops facing forward but I have literally never seen it do that.
Hey David, I'm glad you were able to solve the rattle issue. Is it possible to use both an expression pedal in the speed pedal input and a foot switch simultaneously? You had mentioned the expression pedal input gets "priority," which somewhat makes sense considering the design, but will it let you switch back to your presets (fast/slow/off) using the foot switch after using the speed pedal?
Nope! When something is plugged into the expression input it seems to disable the other input. The good news is I recently finally came around to bringing it in, and the amp tech managed to find some kind of corrosion on some crucial peice, he resoldered it and it works perfect now! Better than it ever has. No more issue w the spinning of the Leslie, and since I figured out the rattle myself, she's running the best she's ever run!
@@DavidThackerMusic Good news and makes sense. Bad connection internally on that solder point. And no more rattle. Fantastic. As advertised, The Leslie 12 is Leslies smallest dual rotary speaker enclosure. That's pretty cool. And your finding of comparing it and your clone wheel to a real B3 organ and Leslie 122 and it sounding the same is a great testimonial. One reviewer made a good point that the Leslie rotating speaker is the biggest part to making the clone wheel organs sound like the vintage real Hammond organs. I'd agree with that.
That rattle might be easy to fix. You can't always tell where they're coming from. Spend a little time loosening and re-tightening every screw you can get to inside, and you might fix it. It had a really annoying rattle in a Traynor K4 amp. Turned out that the high frequency driver just needed retightening.
Thank goodness! Great recommendation from a viewer. You tried out the suggestion, found the problem, and solved it yourself. Saved money. Good for you!
I think the Leslie studio 12 has some wiring issues, I had lots of issues with the spinning stopping between fast and slow. But the box itself is very sturdy. I wouldn't call it fragile, I would just say electronically I think it was poorly designed. I have since bought a 3300 and haven't had any issues with it
@@DavidThackerMusic could you add a foot switch to the dummy plug or disable the input? I had a Leslis 900 in the 1970’s and the new solid state amps were attached to the woofer metal grill.. I would just unscrew the grill like removing the wood grill on the tweeter horn and let it lay on the tweeter wood grill during the gig and it even stopped rattling and kept cooling. You could not move it far because of short wires connecting to the inside..
What might possibly be the problem with the speed jacks are the jacks themselves. You should open it up and take a look at them as you plug/unplug and look for anything obviously wrong. If plugging/unplugging corrects it, the jacks might just be the problem, maybe something shorting out inside. Just an idea.
There ended up being an issue w some contacts on the circuit board coroding and they just needed to be re-saudered. Working better than ever currently!
The rattle would drive me nuts, $1,700! Leslie should have put a 110/240 voltage red switch on it. Peavey does on their Amps. Then, can use anywhere in the world. I love the sound of a real Leslie speaker.
I'm still on the fence between the Studio 12 and the 3300 full size. Both are sold out everywhere and you can't even find used ones, so it's not like I can hear them in person at a music store. How crazy is it that Leslies have been around since the '50s yet there's a nationwide shortage of them. Do they only have 1 employee building them or something? Some online music stores say they have no idea when they will get more.
I love the studio 12, highly recommend it, but honestly I'm almost getting to the point of buying the 3300 myself. There are just some gigs where 100 watts don't cut jt
@@DavidThackerMusic I think the Leslie 12 is a perfect small Leslie solution. So far, I love it. It's called the Leslie Studio maybe for it's smaller size, but also for the idea you could stop the speakers and amplify other keyboard sounds with it. In a studio sized space it fills the space and prob would work to record it. Live and bigger space maybe the 3300 bigger model. However Jimmy Alfredson, a Hammond pro artist, reviews the 3300 and loves it, however he changed out the tube for a warmer sounding tube, and he runs an additional sub speaker out for his live gigs to achieve a tighter, fuller bass. (So adding more costs to the stock 3300 which is pricy already). So I'd look up his You Tube video on this. Search Jimmy Alfredson Leslie 3300 to find it.
It's definitely not hard to believe that that 12" speaker trounces a vintage Leslie; gospel musicians have complained for decades about the lack of bass response on classic Leslies. i had a Motion Sound Pro-3T/Low Pro that destroyed all 8 of my Leslies' bass.
![[MY OPINION] and Pro's and Con's of the Leslie Studio 12 vs. the Motion Sound Pro 145](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VHbP675zOFs/mqdefault.jpg)
![[MY OPINION] and Pro's and Con's of the Leslie Studio 12 vs. the Motion Sound Pro 145](/img/tr.png)
![เจ้าผู้เดียว - ดิด คิตตี้ [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/q0NLCYKBOTo/mqdefault.jpg)
great info - thx for taking the time to get an honest review up.
This was good information, thanks! Good luck in this quarantine time.
Thanks for your videos on the Leslie 12. I picked one up based on your reviews. Very few vids on this speaker. I read in the Leslie 12 manual that the side opposite the controls is considered the front. And when you stop the rotating speakers the lower baffle faces forward. But the upper cone does not but the upper speaker is still designed to project to the front regardless. I will test that and edit this post for completeness. This is designed so that if you are mic'ing the front and you stop the rotation the sound projects from the front single side. Or when say using another keyboard synth sound that you do not want rotating. The Leslie 12 sounds great in slow or fast rotation modes, the sound projects from all 4 sides of the speaker through the 4 sided speaker holes and throws itself around the room pushing air out as it goes. Compared to say a Leslie simulator played back in stereo speakers in which the sound stays in front of you. Still a nice effect but to hear the physical Leslie speaker creating the doppler effect caused from the rotation is immersive and fills a room. The sound is more present and open reflecting off the various surfaces in the room. I imagine the best benefit is for live performance or as a practice amp as it causes you to play differently reacting to the sound. Once recorded and played back through stereo speakers, the Leslie simulator verses the mic'd real Leslie speaker differences will become more alike since they are both in stereo- left-right format. I have not experienced the glitching foot switch rotary speed on/off/fast/slow issue you describe, knock on wood. edited: I see below you solved the faulty solder contact problem and that your problem was fixed. Good as new and great news.
Interested to hear what you figure out on that rotation thing - I know technically the front is the "pretty" side. In my experience neither the top or bottom horn stop in a consistent position, although I haven't tested since I got it fixed
@@DavidThackerMusic The Leslie 12 manual says by design the lower baffle stops facing the front. BUT the horns stop where ever yet the upper speaker is designed to project its sound to the front regardless of horn position. I'll test that and report back.
@@DavidThackerMusic after a quick test, the lower rotating baffle has a red dot on the back of it. It either stops with the red dot straight back, or at about 20 degrees to the left or right suggesting the lower speaker rotary baffle does project toward the speaker front when stopped. The rotating horns stop in various positions like you say. However listening in the studio and walking around the Leslie 12 speaker, when stopped, I do hear a clearer more present sound from the front logo side of the speaker (opposite the controls side). It’s subtle but it does seem to hold up as to what Leslie states in the manual for the Leslie 12. The sound of course comes out of all 4 sides when it spins. When stopped it is subtly clearer to my ears at the front. But honestly for practicing could work with the back side facing toward you for ease of reaching the knobs.
Ive owned the Leslie Studio 12 since it came out. Years of hard touring and 100's and 100's of shows. I had the same problem until I finally paid to have it serviced a few years ago. They had to re solder lots of the connections on the inside. No problems with that very annoying design flaw you mentioned.
Wait which issue did you have fixed? I have it currently in the shop cause the pedal input has completely stopped working right now unfortunately
Hi David, thanks for the tip about the speed input!
Did you figure out how to stop the rotor spinning slowly on stop or is that normal? Or does yours even do it?
I just bought the Reface CS a couple months ago!! 🤙🤙
Hey David, I've heard mixed opinions on whether to Mic the 'Ugly side' vs the Front (logo badge) side. The manual recommends the Front side as that is where the horn sort of stops. Which side do you mic and why?
I generally have the ugly side facing me so I can adjust EQ/gain, and then I throw a mic on the sides or the back, but never on the ugly side. Sometimes I even put 3 mics on it, two on the top and one on the bottom.
My experience micing the ugly side is that it had way more "whoosh" Wind noise from the spinning horn, keep in mind I have removed the top wooden peice from the ugly side so it may have more wind noise than there would be if that wooden peice was still there.
Also - my experience is that the horn stops randomly, never in the same place twice. I know the manual says it stops facing forward but I have literally never seen it do that.
Hey David, I'm glad you were able to solve the rattle issue. Is it possible to use both an expression pedal in the speed pedal input and a foot switch simultaneously? You had mentioned the expression pedal input gets "priority," which somewhat makes sense considering the design, but will it let you switch back to your presets (fast/slow/off) using the foot switch after using the speed pedal?
Nope! When something is plugged into the expression input it seems to disable the other input. The good news is I recently finally came around to bringing it in, and the amp tech managed to find some kind of corrosion on some crucial peice, he resoldered it and it works perfect now! Better than it ever has. No more issue w the spinning of the Leslie, and since I figured out the rattle myself, she's running the best she's ever run!
@@DavidThackerMusic Good news and makes sense. Bad connection internally on that solder point. And no more rattle. Fantastic. As advertised, The Leslie 12 is Leslies smallest dual rotary speaker enclosure. That's pretty cool. And your finding of comparing it and your clone wheel to a real B3 organ and Leslie 122 and it sounding the same is a great testimonial. One reviewer made a good point that the Leslie rotating speaker is the biggest part to making the clone wheel organs sound like the vintage real Hammond organs. I'd agree with that.
That rattle might be easy to fix. You can't always tell where they're coming from. Spend a little time loosening and re-tightening every screw you can get to inside, and you might fix it. It had a really annoying rattle in a Traynor K4 amp. Turned out that the high frequency driver just needed retightening.
I actually fixed it! It was an issue w a dust cover over the upper driver. I'm gonna make a video about it one day
Thank goodness! Great recommendation from a viewer. You tried out the suggestion, found the problem, and solved it yourself. Saved money. Good for you!
With experience with Leslie's boxes, do you think this one is more fragile than the others? the sound is valid, but I'm afraid of being problematic.
I think the Leslie studio 12 has some wiring issues, I had lots of issues with the spinning stopping between fast and slow. But the box itself is very sturdy. I wouldn't call it fragile, I would just say electronically I think it was poorly designed. I have since bought a 3300 and haven't had any issues with it
David, could that speed control problem be rectified by putting a dummy plug in the gas pedal input?
I've tried that and it seems to favor the expression pedal input, so once you plug it, the fast/slow binary switch doesn't work
@@DavidThackerMusic could you add a foot switch to the dummy plug or disable the input? I had a Leslis 900 in the 1970’s and the new solid state amps were attached to the woofer metal grill.. I would just unscrew the grill like removing the wood grill on the tweeter horn and let it lay on the tweeter wood grill during the gig and it even stopped rattling and kept cooling. You could not move it far because of short wires connecting to the inside..
What might possibly be the problem with the speed jacks are the jacks themselves. You should open it up and take a look at them as you plug/unplug and look for anything obviously wrong. If plugging/unplugging corrects it, the jacks might just be the problem, maybe something shorting out inside. Just an idea.
There ended up being an issue w some contacts on the circuit board coroding and they just needed to be re-saudered. Working better than ever currently!
The rattle would drive me nuts, $1,700! Leslie should have put a 110/240 voltage red switch on it. Peavey does on their Amps. Then, can use anywhere in the world. I love the sound of a real Leslie speaker.
I've actually figured out the rattle! One day I'll make a video about fixing it
I'm still on the fence between the Studio 12 and the 3300 full size. Both are sold out everywhere and you can't even find used ones, so it's not like I can hear them in person at a music store. How crazy is it that Leslies have been around since the '50s yet there's a nationwide shortage of them. Do they only have 1 employee building them or something? Some online music stores say they have no idea when they will get more.
I love the studio 12, highly recommend it, but honestly I'm almost getting to the point of buying the 3300 myself. There are just some gigs where 100 watts don't cut jt
@@DavidThackerMusic I think the Leslie 12 is a perfect small Leslie solution. So far, I love it. It's called the Leslie Studio maybe for it's smaller size, but also for the idea you could stop the speakers and amplify other keyboard sounds with it. In a studio sized space it fills the space and prob would work to record it. Live and bigger space maybe the 3300 bigger model. However Jimmy Alfredson, a Hammond pro artist, reviews the 3300 and loves it, however he changed out the tube for a warmer sounding tube, and he runs an additional sub speaker out for his live gigs to achieve a tighter, fuller bass. (So adding more costs to the stock 3300 which is pricy already). So I'd look up his You Tube video on this. Search Jimmy Alfredson Leslie 3300 to find it.
@@DavidThackerMusic Why wouldn't mic'ing it give you the volume you need?
Yeah, stores out of the Leslie Studio 12 and Motion Sound Pro-145. I will buy a Motion Sound Pro-3X.
You sound like you dig the Leslie but bottom line? Is it bad ass or is it bunk?
Its badass
It's definitely not hard to believe that that 12" speaker trounces a vintage Leslie; gospel musicians have complained for decades about the lack of bass response on classic Leslies. i had a Motion Sound Pro-3T/Low Pro that destroyed all 8 of my Leslies' bass.
Unable to find any decent demo of the Leslie Studio 12, while the organ has the chorus off. Hint, Hint.
Venmo @david-thacker-2 *hint hint*
This guy needs to take a get to the point class.
🤣
I thought the video was fine. It was honest and informative. If a listener needs to, they can always adjust the playback speed to 1.25 or 1.5