Leslie G 27

[Tim]

Now this is something I may need to save my pennies for. Anybody have any experience with these amps? They are going for around $1300.00 (at Guitar Center). There are a couple of YouTube video's out there that are very convincing. I always love the Lestlie sound, but the speakers themselves were always so damn big. The G 27 is perhaps just the right size. Comments?

[tulk1]

How cool!!!

[111518]

I love the sound of a leslie ...I played for a number of years with an organist who had the big cab horn/bottom, and no device can truly emulate that sound. Almost made it worth wrestling that monster, and his porta-B(if ever a thing was misnamed...), up and down stairs. For years I lusted after the "revolution" cab that Mesa Boogie made for a while. However, I have read that one thing to consider is that a leslie sounds like a leslie when it has walls to bounce off of: the really rich, complex sound is from the mix of sweep and echo. The room is part of the instrument, which means if you play outside a lot, or where you don't have a wall behind you, or when you really have to keep the volume down, then the sound you get, especially out of one of the smaller leslies (like a motion sound), might not be as rich as you'd expect. Sweep, but not the modulation.

 

I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a Motion Sound, because we play a couple of songs that really use that guitar-through-leslie sound, but this information gave me pause. The band I play with almost never plays in bars anymore, --and when I ran back through my head the places we'd most recently played, I really wondered about hauling an extra cab around and, in the end, still needing to use a pedal to get the sound because we were at a street dance, or in the middle of room, or in a tent, etc. etc. I have a H&K tube rotosphere, and, though it definitely is NOT a leslie, it does give me a predictable sound. I recently read in some guitar mag an account of Warren Haynes' setup. Clearly, he could carry a leslie around if he wanted, but he uses a rotosphere.

 

So, ... I'd still love to have one... but worth considering the type of venues you'd use it. My 2 cents.

[GuitArtMan]

I was really excited when Leslie announced these a few years back. But then I saw the price - eek! I've yet to hear one live other than at the NAMM show (not the best place to demo gear due to the ambient noise). I still kick myself for not buying that Leslie model 122 that someone had modified for guitar - omg!

 

As for the Motion sound. Had one. Was disappointed. First off, it's just a rotating baffle, not the baffle/horn combo, so it's closer to the Leslie 16/18 and Vibratone sound and not the true Leslie sound. Second off, it was very quiet and dark sounding. There was a modification that Motion sound recommended that involved cutting the baffle with a set of tin snips to both increase volume and highs. I didn't do it as i was nervous I might screw something up and be left with a piece of rotating shrapnel. I ended up selling mine as it never did sound how I wanted it to.

[t0aj15]

As for the Motion sound. Had one. Was disappointed. First off, it's just a rotating baffle, not the baffle/horn combo, so it's closer to the Leslie 16/18 and Vibratone sound and not the true Leslie sound. Second off, it was very quiet and dark sounding. There was a modification that Motion sound recommended that involved cutting the baffle with a set of tin snips to both increase volume and highs. I didn't do it as i was nervous I might screw something up and be left with a piece of rotating shrapnel. I ended up selling mine as it never did sound how I wanted it to.

 

I also had one and wow was I disappointed when I heard it for the first time, nothing like a Leslie at all and WAAAY to quiet. It went back the next day.

 

The new Leslie looks nice but that price tag.

[Tim]

Yes, I know the price seems high, but I actually thought these were higher priced than they are. The G 37 is only $100.00 more than the 27. When I think about it though. This is a stand alone guitar amp...you can play it clean and dirty, with or without the effect. When I look at that way, hell, many Mesa's are more expensive, and Matchless' are way more expensive!

[GuitArtMan]

Yes, I know the price seems high, but I actually thought these were higher priced than they are. The G 37 is only $100.00 more than the 27. When I think about it though. This is a stand alone guitar amp...you can play it clean and dirty, with or without the effect. When I look at that way, hell, many Mesa's are more expensive, and Matchless' are way more expensive!

But is it a good sounding guitar amp? My understanding is that it is solid state.

[Tim]

But is it a good sounding guitar amp? My understanding is that it is solid state.

It's got a tube pre. The rest of the amp is SS. The 2 part YouTube video tells you a lot. If I ever got serious I would need to play one, but I am getting very interested.

PS: My Roland JC 77 is solid state and sounds great. Though the distortion absolutely sucks, I bought it for the clean channel and use it mainly for jazz stuff, although, if I want to get great overdrive or distortion, I play through my BK Butler Tube Driver, or my Big Muff.

[Tim]

It's got a tube pre. The rest of the amp is SS. The 2 part YouTube video tells you a lot. If I ever got serious I would need to play one, but I am getting very interested.

PS: My Roland JC 77 is solid state and sounds great. Though the distortion absolutely sucks, I bought it for the clean channel and use it mainly for jazz stuff, although, if I want to get great overdrive or distortion, I play through my BK Butler Tube Driver, or my Big Muff.

I should add that though I would use this as a standalone, you can use it with your favorite amp also.

[FredZepp]

Interesting ...

 

 

 

There are several YouTube vids of specific songs on a Leslie... very cool.

[peteraltongreen]

Now this is something I may need to save my pennies for. Anybody have any experience with these amps? They are going for around $1300.00 (at Guitar Center). There are a couple of YouTube video's out there that are very convincing. I always love the Lestlie sound, but the speakers themselves were always so damn big. The G 27 is perhaps just the right size. Comments?

 

I think I may have the answer. I use a Digitech XP Modulation pedal. This does all the usual modulation effects,but it's Leslie simulator is spot on.I know how unpractical the real cabinets are.I played with A Hammond B3 player for years,and he had 2 whopping cabinets ! ( Ooh my poor back ! )The beauty of the Digitech pedal is it also simulates the belt slip,so,when you stand on the pedal to accelerate the effect,it does what a Leslie does,and naturally speeds up over a few seconds,and the same when you slow it down.It sounds great in Mono,but if you use 2 amps & an auto pan pedal,it would even fool your Granny ! I don't know if these are still made,I've had mine for about 10 years.Worth nagging your local shops to see if anyone still has one.Better still,if they have,you can try it without spending you hard earned cash if you don't like it.

Peter Alton Green

[Tim]

I think I may have the answer. I use a Digitech XP Modulation pedal. This does all the usual modulation effects,but it's Leslie simulator is spot on.I know how unpractical the real cabinets are.I played with A Hammond B3 player for years,and he had 2 whopping cabinets ! ( Ooh my poor back ! )The beauty of the Digitech pedal is it also simulates the belt slip,so,when you stand on the pedal to accelerate the effect,it does what a Leslie does,and naturally speeds up over a few seconds,and the same when you slow it down.It sounds great in Mono,but if you use 2 amps & an auto pan pedal,it would even fool your Granny ! I don't know if these are still made,I've had mine for about 10 years.Worth nagging your local shops to see if anyone still has one.Better still,if they have,you can try it without spending you hard earned cash if you don't like it.

Peter Alton Green

Thanks Peter Green!! I'll check it out.

[TalismanRich]

Way back in the day (69,70) our keyboard player had a Cordovox setup along with the Leslie cab which I later found out was basically a Fender Vibratone (Leslie) in a Cordovox case. He would run his Vox Super Continental through it. It had a really cool sound to it, and sounded great with a guitar going through the amp.

 

One thing I wouldn't want to do today is to retube a Cordovox setup. That thing seemed like it had a hundred tubes in it! Probably would cost a grand or more just for a retube.

[212Mavguy]

I think I'll save up my tacos and try a G27. I like the idea of the Leslie speaker without a built in amp, and I have a few not enough used boutique heads that could be used to drive it. Gonna start hovering like a Buzzard on eBay...

[bolero]

I was messing around with one of the old hammond sidemounted 10" speaker/rotating drum cabinets ( it was huge! ) without the horns. it sounded really good for gtr IMO

 

one of my buddies who's an engineer & also a guitarist came over & couldn't believe it was purely mechanical, he was blown away

 

have an old empty vibratone cab here I plan to get working eventually