Leslie Model 18 value? or interest?

[SILVERGUN]

I've been storing this Leslie Model 18 speaker cabinet for the last 15 years(?) and I think it's time to let it go....

Just here to get your thoughts and to see if anyone here is interested , before I go trying to sell it privately.....
I have one guy interested in it and I have no idea what it's worth...

I found the manual for the Fender Vibrotone here (similar model), and I understand that it was an early 70's CBS product

I'm just coming to the reality of the fact that I'll probably never use it and somebody somewhere probably would

I just broke it out today and haven't had the chance to test it, but it did work when I put it away

EDIT: Tested it and the switching and motor functions works great but the speaker sounds a little tinny, thin, and possibly damaged, but I can't tell for sure if it's not the way it's supposed to sound
The guy who is interested loves the way it sounds and has offered me $300 as-is

[Willabe]

Those are nice, I used to have one.

IIRC those are supposed to be run off an 8 ohm load. I had a BF SR at the time and ran it from the SR's 2 ohm load. It worked ok, but the volume output was low. I didn't know at the time it needed an 8 ohm source. I never liked the fast speed but the slow was real nice. IIRC, they need to be oiled every now and then or they burn up.

Plexi or 1 of our forum member friends in Canada, (dog gone it I can't think of his name, Glacier amps?) posted on 1 a while back and did a refurbish on it. Or was it Gabe?                   Do a search, there's good info and good pics in it.

That 1 looks to be in pretty good shape, you even have the cover for it? You also have the correct hookup harness including that black cylinder with the octal plugs on each end. That's needed. Some guys sell them without it.

I'd buy it in a heart beat, if I wanted 1 again, for $300 even without a speaker. Think I paid $350 for mine 15 years ago.


             Brad      

[shortfuse]

Tube geek is glacier amps

[Willabe]

Tube geek is glacier amps

Yes, thank you SF! Sorry Tube geek.


            Brad     

[SILVERGUN]

Thanks for taking the time Brad,,,
We took it apart last night and couldn't believe how clean it was,,, oiled it up and just sat around playing for about a half hour in amazement of how cool this thing is.........there is no way a pedal or modeling can even come close to the texture created by the actual movment of air..

I let my friend read your post so that he knew I wasn't ripping him off @$300, and your explanation definitely added credibility to what I had told him....I had bought this one for $200 about 15 years ago, so it turned out to be a decent investment, and I'm not trying to make a killing off of it,,,just raise some money from some stuff that is laying around

The speaker measured 5.6ohms, so I did run it off of my 8 ohm out ,,,,and I still think there is something wrong with the speaker,,,but he's so in love with it, that he deserves to have it,,,and he's cool with the as-is sale.....so I guess thats better than having to put a speaker in it and then dealing with the buyers on E$ay or C' list

I kinda fell in love with it myself a little, and envision a project involving a lighter cab (back friendly), with a vari-speed controlled foot pedal setup...........someday?

[Willabe]

Well your happy, he's happy, good deal.    

No big deal for him to try a different speaker, the price was right to be able to do that.

just sat around playing for about a half hour in amazement of how cool this thing is.........there is no way a pedal or modeling can even come close to the texture created by the actual movement of air. I kinda fell in love with it myself a little, and envision a project involving a lighter cab (back friendly), with a vari-speed controlled foot pedal setup...........someday?

Yeah they sound real good. There's a good amount of cancellation going on with the rotor spinning and the sound waves bouncing around inside the cabinet, try and model that.

You could build a lighter cab but if you change the dimensions it will sound different. Maybe not much, maybe a lot, maybe better, maybe worse?      

The thing is if you drag it out to a gig how many songs are you going to use it on to make it worth while to carry another big piece of gear with you?

I'd have to hear/play through one again next to Sluckeys Warbler in an A/B test to say for sure, but at this point, from the clips Sluckey posted, the Warbler sounds really good to me. And it would be soooooo much easer to bring to a gig.      

Guitars meh! I wonder what one of these            would sound like through either of them?



                   Brad      

[Ed_Chambley]

Missed this, your friend got a great deal.  I have seen them go for $750 recently.

[SILVERGUN]

Yeah....he's a good guy, and deserves it...he's had a rough patch recently (out of work), and contacted me out of the blue to give him a couple of lessons...
I stopped over to see him and have actually wound up giving him a job,,,,,,so I feel really good about this deal

Plus I'm making him put me in his will for this and his ES-135 

I did the tone stack mod on his Blues Jr. and got this thing hooked up right (speaker is OK) and he's grinnin' from ear to ear.....a long way from where he was just a month ago

[Willabe]

and got this thing hooked up right (speaker is OK)

I don't understand. What do you mean, "hooked up right (speaker is OK)"?     

Yeah....he's a good guy, and deserves it...he's had a rough patch recently (out of work

I stopped over to see him and have actually wound up giving him a job,,,,,,so I feel really good about this deal

That is a great deal!    

                Brad      

[SILVERGUN]

and got this thing hooked up right (speaker is OK)

I don't understand. What do you mean, "hooked up right (speaker is OK)"?     

I think we had the wires crossed the first time I had hooked it up....
One of the male 1/4" plugs goes to your speaker, and the other goes to your amps speaker out.....(they weren't labeled)
So when we had them hooked up in reverse it sounded bad.....we had hooked it up quickly originally, and then when he brought his amp in, I paid more attention and "hooked it up right", and the speaker sounded much better that way

[super&plexi]

I would have jumped on it, but all I can do is offer late  congrats on everything, and if it helps any, I had 1, and     have seen a few before closing our used/vintage shop, and there seems to be a few different models of connections for them, and have seen and still have the wire harness, and  Jensen Alnico mid/tweeter pulled from 1 years ago. don't know if that was stock or not.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             but I seem to remember a few had dual 1/4" female connectors(like a steel, or plastic cased cigar) attached to one of the 1/4" males to facilitate hooking up a combo's supplied speaker(s), and a friend now has one with what appears to be a factory supplied cable similar to yours, but one of the 1/4'' jacks IS a female.                                                                        I added a 1/4'' input jack, on an ''L'' plate in the little cord hole, and wired it straight to the multi pin so I could just plug in that way. worked great, and looked almost stock.                                                              Loved it, got many years of gigging out of it, and occasionally had 2 of em, (a buddies, on loan), and taking advantage of a house gig type of thing where we didn't have to strike our gear,(wouldn't want to move TWO of those suckers plus SR & 1959SL & 2x12 every night!) WHEW!. oh yeah, we had two clean ones at the store for a year or two, and no interest, then boom, they were popular again...the Beatles, Badfinger, Stevie Ray, Joe Walsh,...so many records you can hear them on, and I haven't heard a simulator nail it yet   

[TubeGeek]

Ah man I totally missed out on this thread  

My heart skipped a beat and my eyes got big when I saw the thread.

I have a model 16 sitting in a corner that I have never used because I am missing the footswitch assembly.  I need to build one and just haven't prioritized it yet.  

Did you happen to take any pics of the guts of the footswitch?

[SILVERGUN]

Did you happen to take any pics of the guts of the footswitch?

No, but I CAN  

It's still in the family, because I sold it to a guy who I also gave a job to......so I see him everyday, and he is very grateful that I passed this on to him

I'll have no problem getting it back,,,,,but, I'm not sure what's in there???

 

The Fender Vibrotone was the Fender branded model......here's a link to a manual:
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/vibratone/Vibratone.pdf

And here's a link to a diagram of the adapter:
http://www.prowessamplifiers.com/schematics/fender/Vibratone_16adapt.html

[Willabe]

The crossover network might be a problem if you don't have it.

It's shown in the 2 link SG posted including values. The 1st link shows it but doesn't give the chokes value. 2nd link shows H value but not the current rating but that can be figured out with a little math. The choke is what you'll have to look around for. Won't be a problem for you to build the whole wiring harness.

I've read where guys are missing that crossover network and didn't even know it and were wounding why the thing sounded bad.


          Brad