
This vintage Leslie-designed cabinet is one of the first—and still among the finest—modulation effects built for guitar.
It's time to discuss the Fender Vibratone—Fender's "Leslie" guitar speaker. The Leslie cabinet is famously known for making the swirling sound of the Hammond organ, which everyone has heard in classic soul, gospel, and blues recordings. But the Leslie is also great for guitars. I try to be a natural-tone idealist, eschewing most effects, but Leslie-style modulation is my guilty pleasure.
I first heard a Hammond organ with a Leslie via Booker T. & the M.G.'s on The Blues Brothers movie soundtrack in 1980. I think I saw that movie over a hundred times as a kid, and I memorized the dialog and could play the songs and guitar licks. The tone, groove, and melody in "Time Is Tight," with Booker's organ and Steve Cropper's guitar locking and trading, hit a nerve in me. I still consider it the best soul instrumental ever.
"I first heard a Hammond organ with a Leslie via Booker T. & the M.G.'s on The Blues Brothers movie soundtrack in 1980."
So, let me explain how this swirling sonic effect works and share how to get great tone out of Fender's rotating pseudo-Leslie. The patent for "continuous modulation by acousto-mechanical means, e.g. rotating speakers or sound deflectors" was filed in 1956 by Donald J. Leslie. Since CBS owned both Fender and Leslie in the mid-'60s, they crossed brands and introduced the Vibratone for guitarists in 1967, based on the Leslie 16. The Vibratone was equipped with a single 10", 4-ohm Jensen speaker and required an external driver amp. In front of the vertical speaker, there is a rotating, circular Styrofoam rotor, with an asymmetrical opening. As an internal motor spins the rotor, the sound waves are intermittently blocked and allowed to pass through its opening, which creates a 3D Doppler effect. The audible result is that the frequency and volume are changed as the sound exits the cabinet at three places—both sides and the top—which simultaneously creates both tremolo and vibrato effects. The rotor has two speeds: approximately 40 and 340 rotations per minute.
Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, and Robin Trower are among the notable guitar-wielding, classic-rock proponents of the Leslie effect. Here, the author drives his Vibratone with a Bandmaster Reverb head.
Since the Vibratone speaker sits deep into the cabinet, it sounds muddy, bass-y, and not as loud as a regular cab. Swapping with a louder 12" speaker is recommended, so the Vibratone can keep up with other amps onstage. Speakers with neodymium magnets can reduce weight in the 77-pound cab. I like to use powerful 40-watt driver amps with wide EQ possibilities to get enough cut and clean volume with the Vibratone. Also, I prefer to not plug in via the cabinet's crossover coupling unit with its high-pass filter. Instead, I install an input jack on the back, simply wired directly to the speaker. Keeping things simple reduces sources of failure, and the amp's crossover introduces unnecessary complexity. Without that mod, I simply dial down the bass on the amp.
Black-panel Bandmaster, Bandmaster Reverb, and Bassman amps are great drivers for the Vibratone since they are powerful, 4-ohm rated, and have enough sparkle. Plus, they sit nicely on top of the Vibratone. I use a second combo amp—for example, a Super Reverb—with the dedicated amp driving the Vibratone. An AB/Y pedal lets me select the Vibratone alone, the Super Reverb alone, or both together. I use two microphones on the Vibratone—one on each side. They are panned oppositely in the PA, with the left microphone panned 80 percent to the left and the right panned 80 percent to the right. This creates a big swirl in the room, and the audience can hear the powerful rotating vibrato effect in stereo through the PA. You don't get this kind of full stereo vibrato in a room with a single amp and a chorus pedal.
Note the sound ports on the top and sides of the cabinet, which, along with the rotor, give the Vibratone its Doppler effect.
The only other amp vibrato effect to challenge the sound of the Vibratone appeared in Magnatone combos of the same era and continues to be part of the recently revived brand's recipe. Magnatone's frequency modulation happens in the electrical circuit, using tube gain stages with varistors, which are resistors that simply drop in resistance value as the voltage across them increases. This circuit-based vibrato is more electrically advanced, requiring more components and more tube and overall circuit maintenance. But the upside is that you can get stereo vibrato out of small and lightweight combos without lugging around a bulky speaker cabinet with its electrical motor, belt, and a rotor that requires oiling and other maintenance.
There are several modern rotating speakers that are easier to find and maintain than a vintage Vibratone or Leslie. I've also found a few good Leslie-effect pedals, like the Analog Man chorus. But they don't beat a mechanically rotating Leslie-designed Vibratone in stereo mode, IMHO. Now, I hope you are inspired to go find your swirl.
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PG’sJohn Bohlinger caught up with Moak at his Nashville studio known affectionately as the Smoakstack.
Grammy-nominated session guitarist, producer, mixer, and engineer Paul Moak stays busy on multiple fronts. Over the years he’s written, played, produced and more for TV sessions (Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill) and artists including Third Day, Leeland, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. But most recently he’s worked with Heart and Ann Wilson and Tripsitter.
Time Traveler
Moak is most loyal to a 1963 Stratocaster body that’s mated to a 1980s-vintage, 3-bolt, maple, bullet-truss-rod, 1969-style Fender Japan neck. The bridge has been swapped as many as four times and the bridge and neck pickups are Lindy Fralins.
Cool Cat
If there’s one guitar Moak would grab in a fire, it’s the Jaguar he’s had since age 20 and used in his band DC Talk. When Moak bought the guitar at Music Go Round in Minneapolis, the olympic white finish was almost perfect. He remains impressed with the breadth of tones. He likes the low-output single-coils for use with more expansive reverb effects.
Mystery Message Les Paul
Moak’s 1970 L.P. Custom has a number of 1969 parts. It was traded to Moak by the band Feel. Interestingly, the back is carved with the words “cheat” and “liar,” telling a tale we can only speculate about.
Dad Rocker
Almost equally near and dear to Moak’s heart is this 1968 Vox Folk Twelve that belonged to his father. It has the original magnetic pickup at the neck as well as a piezo installed by Moak.
Flexi Plexis
This rare and precious trio of plexis can be routed in mix-and-match fashion to any of Moak’s extensive selection of cabs—all of which are miked and ready to roll.
Vintage Voices
Moak’s amps skew British, but ’60s Fender tone is here in plentitude courtesy of a blonde-and-oxblood Bassman and 1965 Bandmaster as well as a 2x6L6 Slivertone 1484 Twin Twelve.
Guess What?
The H-Zog, which is the second version of Canadian amp builder Garnet’s Herzog tube-driven overdrive, can work as an overdrive or an amp head, but it’s probably most famous for Randy Bachman’s fuzzy-as-heck “American Woman” tone.
Stomp Staff
While the Eventide H90 that helps anchor Moak’s pedalboard can handle the job of many pedals, he may have more amp heads on hand than stompboxes. But essentials include a JHS Pulp ‘N’ Peel compressor/preamp, a DigiTech Whammy II, DigiTech FreqOut natural feedback generator, a Pete Cornish SS-3 drive, Klon Centaur, and Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.
Featuring authentic tape behavior controls and full MIDI implementation, the EC-1 is a premium addition to any guitarist's setup.
Strymon Engineering, the Los Angeles-based company behind premium products for the guitar, plugin, and Eurorack markets, announced a new single-head tape echo pedal in their newer small format today, called the EC-1. Initially based around the award-winning dTape algorithm that helped to make the El Capistan pedal an industry titan, development took a different turn when Strymon acquired an immaculate and heavily modified tube Echoplex® EP-2. The new true stereo pedal features two models of the EP-2’s tube preamp with variable gain, as well as a three-position Record Level switch that allows for additional gain control. Glitchless tap tempo allows tapping in new tempos without tape artifacts, and the Tape Age and Mechanics controls modify a large number of parameters under the hood to deliver authentic tape behavior at any setting. Other features include TRS stereo Ins and Outs, full MIDI implementation, TRS MIDI, arear-panel audio routing switch, USB-C and 300 presets. Being true stereo, the EC-1 processes the left and right inputs independently, allowing it to be placed anywhere in the signal chain.
“We decided to start the project by investigating the preamps from tube echo units, so I bought an original Echoplex® EP-2 to begin the process”, said Gregg Stock, Strymon CEO and analog circuit guru. “It showed up in pristine condition and sounded amazing, and we found out later that it had been heavily modified by storied guitar tech Cesar Diaz. His mods created a single unit with the best attributes of both tube and solid-state Echoplexes, so we spent a bunch of time figuring out how to recreate its behavior.” Pete Celi, Strymon co-founder, and DSP maven said “It was so clean and mechanically stable that other nuances stood out more prominently -chief among them being some capstan-induced variations that help to widen the spectrum of the repeats. With the Mechanics control at around 1 pm, you get a hyper-authentic representation of that golden EP-2 unit, with a high-speed flutter that adds dimension to the echoes.”
EC-1 is available now directly from Strymon and from dealers worldwide for $279 US.
For more information, please visit strymon.net.
Brickhouse Toneworks BH-90 pickups offer the legendary tone of a classic P-90 in a humbucker-sized package, with zero hum.
Brickhouse Toneworks, a new manufacturer of high-quality and innovative guitar pickups, has announced the release of the BH-90 pickup. This hum-canceling design offers the legendary tone and responsiveness of a classic P-90 in a humbucker-sized package -- with absolutely zero hum.
The BH-90 captures the true personality of the beloved single coil P-90 tone – its grit, sparkle, and touch sensitivity to playing dynamics – while eliminating the notorious hum that often limits their use.
Available individually or as matched sets, these pickups effortlessly respond to your playing touch, delivering delicate cleans to aggressive distortion. You’ll get P-90 soul in a humbucker size: the BH-90 seamlessly replaces existing humbuckers with no modifications required. They drop right in where your existing humbuckers live.
Key Features of the BH-90
- Cast Alnico 5 Magnets; 500k Pots & .022uf Cap recommended.
- Ultra quiet: Hum-canceling design, and lightly potted to minimize squeal.
- Classic design: vintage external braided lead wire, with output comparable to vintage '50s P-90
- Bridge: 19.5k (Average), Neck 17.5k (Average). Note: the BH-90’s DCR reading is much higher than normal single coil P-90s due to the nature of their hum-canceling design. This is a case where DCR should not be considered as a measurement of output because these are equivalent in output to a vintage P-90 that ranged in DCR readings between 7-9k.
- Made in the USA with premium quality materials.
The BH-90 street price starts at $170 each and starts at $340 per set.
For more information, please visit brickhousetone.com.
The BH90 by Brickhouse Toneworks | Pickup Demo - YouTube
The final installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover details the remaining steps that takes a collection of wood and wire into an impeccable instrument. Hoover explains how the company's craftsman delicately sand and finish the acoustics with a light touch to keeps them shiny and singing. He describes the pragmatic reasoning behind finishing the body and neck separately before marrying the two. He describes the balance between mechanical precision with the Plek machine and luthier artistry for the individualistic, hands-on set ups and intonation. Finally, Richard outlines why the company is now designing strings specific to their guitars.