Leslie Speaker - 2101? - Hohner ORT 100!

[Tracii]

Okay, Hohner ORT 100 - here goes:

The delivery guy asked me to lend him a hand, but I've been heaving it into and out of my car by myself. It's possible. A cheap little cart from the hardware store helps a lot.
The footswitch seems sturdy enough and the fixed cable is about 3 to 4 meters long. However, the two switches
(on/off and slow/fast) are too close together for my liking, so I'm going to look for a different solution.

Sound-wise, I can only safely compare it to the Leslie 2101, it's been too long since I've played any others. The Hohner supposedly has a reputation for sounding harsh, but it's not as bright as my 2101 - might be because of the proper (i.e. audible) lower rotor. I think it sounds fine. A bit glassy maybe, but nothing that the EQ can't fix.
This thing is VERY loud! I've found it impossible to even try to coax some sort of overdrive out of it. I tried a Visual Sound Open Road, which is a very dynamic low-gain overdrive pedal designed for guitar and bass, and was very happy with the result.

[Tracii]

Further insights:

The noise level is acceptable to my ears. In Fast mode, the wind drowns out everything anyway. When it arrived, the Slow speed setting produced a weird grating sound that I first mistook for mains hum - turns out it was the bearings of the lower motor. I gave them a little whack and they're nearly silent now; we'll see for how long.

The only noise that remains is a very low hum from the lower rotor. When the opening is facing me, it's gone, and when the wall/edge (don't know what to call it) is facing me - i.e. the rotor is pointing away - then it's there, so it must be some sort of reflection... But you can really only hear it when you're not playing, so not an issue for now.

[Tracii]

Re the Hohner ORT noise level:

At home in my music room slash guest room when there are no guests the inherent sound of the rotating parts and the aforementioned hum is audible but forgivable. In our rehearsal room, there is the usual noise floor (amps, P.A., snares, reso heads, five guys breathing and telling stupid jokes etc.) that I simply cannot hear it. So if you're planning on recording, you might have some extra work, but for playing and gigging, you can probably use it as is.

[DJKeys]

You…you do realise that this is probably the worst place (after MusicPlayer's Keyboard Corner) to get somebody to talk you out of buying a Leslie, right?

I think Gearslutz is the worst place to be talked out of buying gear!!

[uhura]

Hi Tracii,
are you still satisfied with your ORT100?
Would you say that the pure tweeter sound is definitely better than that of the 2101?

[Edgar1974]

I’am new here,

Found this post on the Hohner Ort 100 leslie clone
I use a Ort 100 from 1976 for 14 years
When I got it, it was techinal and mechanical not in the best shape but it had potential for bringing it back to life.
First started out to find information about it, I known about this leslie from my younger years.
It was original made for a Hohnervox 4 accordion with a second stationair cabinet OAB 100, same amp diffrent speaker system.
Using it for other organs anolog or digital is a diffrent story.
And to get my leslie operational again was taking some challange.
I had ideas about what I wanted, and about the sound.

The only questions were what original parts are still available and what are good replacement parts for the limited dimensions of this Leslie.
mechanically/electrically this is not such a problem because several European brands used the patented Space Sound system.
But audio technically it's a different story.

have consulted with various organ technicians about the possibilities for a Leslie box with such a limited content in terms of optimizing the sound, while keeping the Leslie as original as possible.
The amplifier has also been recapped
The original driver has been replaced by a 16 Ohm Monacor KU-516
Replaced the mid/bass speaker for a 12 inch Eminence Delta 300 watt 8 Ohm speaker
the Crossover was defective and an Eminence 2 way 800 HZ has been replaced.
replace speaker cables.
Amplifier reduced to 85% of total power.
A BBE Sonic Maximizer was placed between the pre and power amplifier to accelerate the high tones and slow down the low tones for a better balance between driver and mid/bass speaker.

completely replaced the motor unit of the rotor horns and replaced the bearings of the bass drum.