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My cousin gave me a junk 46w cabinet. I have refinished the cabinet (not professional by any means). The Leslie, in addition to the stock amp, 15" jenson, and horns, has an added amp and 12" Jenson speaker from a Wurlitzer model 44" This amp and speaker are a matched set with the Leslie and everything is compatable (no rewiring, just plug in). I wired in a Farfisa reverb box of the same vintage, which also allows me to plug my guitar straight into the leslie through this box. This thing sounds sweet. The switch lets you switch between the organ speaker, the leslie speakers, or all three. Is something like this worth anything money wise?
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IMHO, the more irreversible mods, the less the value for these. The 46W is more or less a version of the 47, but made for Wurlitzer. The 47 is the single speed version of the later 2-speed 147, which is one of the Leslies that people seem to really want. I used to have a 47 and currently have a 44W, which is the shorter version of the 46W. They're both great amp/speaker combinations. You might want to keep it.
A good mod for these is the Hampton 2-speed kit which gives you the slow speed in addition to the stock fast speed (i.e., makes it work just like a 147).
Do you have the original back panel with the model/serial number plate?
Steve -
Yes I do have the back panel. It has the round Leslie metal plate and a paper glued to the back which talks about maintenance and such. I didn't want to cut this out for access to the reverb and added controls, so I just used another piece of wood I had laying around. I agree with the mods. I would have never cut the hole in the front for the 12" Jenson, but it was already done, so whatya do! Thanks for the information! I plan on keeping it just because it was given to me because someone that knew I would finish it up, keep it, and enjoy it. I was just curious about it because I know squat about them!Originally posted by Steve S View Post
The only missing piece that I don't have is the drive belt for the upper horn. Are these available? I still havn't gotten to hear the full potential when playing my guitar through this!
As far as the two speed kit goes, couldn't I simply put rheostat controls to regulate the voltages going to the drive motors. This would give me infinitly variable speed I would think?
Thanks again. GregComment
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Originally posted by hofherrc View Post
The plate has the S/N on it. That won't directly date it but you can get that info from the code stamped on the baffle and/or by component date codes, if you are interested. Look here for details on that: http://www.tonewheelgeneral.com/agelist/agelist.php
The drive belt should not be too hard to come by. You're missing a lot of Leslie character without that upper rotor spinning! I think the crossover is at 800 Hz. Depending on where you are there might even be a local place to get these. If you are in the U.S., BB Organ near Minneapolis, Keyboard Sanctuary in Toledo, Goff Professional in Connecticut are just a few places to check out.
The motors won't run at all if voltage is too low. The 2-speed kit modulates the AC current on & off to make the motors run at the slow speed. It makes the switch at the zero-crossing to make it easier on the motors, but you still shouldn't run them on the slow speed for extended periods, and it's good to do a good motor cleaning before you use one of these regularly.
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