Leslie Speaker - History

History

Leslie originally bought a Hammond organ in 1937, in the hope it would be a suitable substitute for a pipe organ, but was disappointed with the sound in his home compared to the large showroom where he had originally heard it. Consequently, he attempted to design a speaker to overcome this. He initially tried making a cabinet similar to Hammond's own, but then surmised the variation in sound a pipe organ produced because of the different location of each pipe meant he should try making a moving speaker. He tried various combinations of speakers and speeds and discovered a single one running at what's now known as the "tremolo" speed worked best. Further experimentation resulted in the familiar combination of a rotating drum and horn for bass and treble frequencies respectively.

By 1940, Leslie decided his prototype was ready to market, and went to the Hammond Organ Company to demonstrate it. But Laurens Hammond in particular was not impressed with Leslie's attempt to better his own organ design. Leslie 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 customers' 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".

In 1980, the Hammond Corporation finally bought Electro Music and the Leslie name from CBS. To this day it remains part of Hammond under Hammond Suzuki, USA.

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 in 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". Jazz organist Jimmy Smith helped to popularize "that sound" among rock-n-roll musicians in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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.

Today, Leslie parts are available from a number of sources. There are also websites with plans (and photographic examples) for constructing a Leslie speaker, with much improved electronics and speakers. On the web, one can see a 500 W high-performance Leslie.

The classic Leslie is still made and sold to this day, though similar effects can now be obtained via analogue electronic devices and digital emulation. Chorus and phase shifter devices can mimic the sounds produced by a Leslie speaker; in fact, early phase shifters like the Uni-Vibe were specifically marketed as low-cost Leslie substitutes for guitarists, and used a foot-operated fast/slow switch. Although the sound of a Leslie speaker heard in person is quite distinct, some digital emulations of the Leslie Doppler effect have become virtually indistinguishable from the sound of a recorded Leslie speaker.