Famous Leslie Guitar Parts - Volume 1

If anything sounds cooler than a giant Leslie cabinet with its spinning drum and rotor, I've never heard it. I recently acquired this 1974 Leslie model 145 to be used by the keyboard player in a band I play in called Skydog. But before I gave it up to him I just had to get a few guitar licks in. This particular Leslie was in excellent condition when we got it, but I spent an afternoon thoroughly cleaning it and tweaking a few things. It sounds fantastic now and really screams when paired with a guitar.

The model 145 is a two speed Leslie that features a '147' model amp. This of course had the old 6 pin Leslie hookup which meant that we had to use a Leslie "combo preamp" from the 70's to make it work with guitar. I close mic'ed the rotor with a pair of Audio Technica AT-4041s hard panned L/R. The drum was mic'ed with a large diaphragm AT-4033. The rotor was actually throwing off enough wind on "fast" to where I had to use a pop screen to keep the noise down. Mics were fed to a Mackie 8 channel board with XDR pre's, then directly into GarageBand via an Apogee Duet. No other pedals were used and the only effect added was a little reverb for spacial enhancement. Guitars were: 2018 R9 Les Paul (completely stock), 2007 Tom Rodriguez Stratocaster with Lindy Fralin pickups, 2001 Fender Custom Tele with Lindy Fralin pickups. Song titles are in the video, but needless to say these are some of the most iconic Leslie tracks ever recorded. (Please excuse my lousy Hendrix licks - not my strong suit.) Sorry about the weird focus problem in the middle. I think the rotor was confusing my camera. Enjoy!