homebuilt rotating speaker cabinet demonstration

[MrRichSpray]

Cheers for tip on springs,

Keep playing

[paulj0557]

When a speaker is spinning in it's own cabinet this is more akin to the Leslie Rotosonic. The Rotosonic produces a richer tone that sounds great for electronic theater organ playing. My Hammond Elegante and Gulbransen Rialto II have the Rotosonic Leslies. It really is a rich tone and IMO sounds great with reverb, unlike the Drum and horn Leslies where the reverb is handled by stationary speakers. Of course I play organ music pre- rock Hammond. My A100 Hammond sounded better with the D&H 122...

[adam872]

Sounds like you're playing a little excerpt of Lila's Dance in there. Nice :-)

[Denvermorgan2000]

Well its a rotating speaker lol thats one way to do it!

[KyleCarrington]

awesome! When you play in resonance does it charge batteries :) cheers man!!

[qbkeys]

Next,....... a GIANT motor drive assembely that spins the entire room around

[angie4josh]

Its hillarous when you kick the speaker!

LOL

[red7media]

"hint" use a steering wheel horn contact spring to connect your speaker wires.

[koneheadx]

your really need lots of spring pressure on the connection - just a bit of scraping or slight jump and you get bad crackling sounds from the speaker.

A vacuum cleaner brush on both sides of the contact-ring (AKA slip ring) works the best. these means youwould need 4 brushes total.

Maybye two horn contact springs at once woule be OK but solid copper on solid copper is not as good as a carbon brush springloaded on copper or bronze....Amp can blow up if its not good connection all the time

[koneheadx]

For connections, I have about 6"" long stainless steel 1/2" thick threaded rod at top and another at bottom that dont connectt.

One speaker wire attaches to a ring-connector that is bolted between two SS nuts on each "axle"

also there is a bronze bushing between the two SS nuts, and a vacuum cleaner brush (or two at 180 degrees) rubs on th bronze bushing to send in current to each speaker wire. Therie s just one speaker a JBL 12" wiht big magnet

No chorus jsut speaker spin n video

[jzf1958]

this sounds so good. Do You have anny pics how you made it, i mean the connections and so on. So i assume tjis is purely the leslie sound not any chorus or so.

[koneheadx]

made some newer more lightweight ones - also collecting old sewing machines to use theri footpedal controlled AC motors to spin the cabinets at variable speed

[Anubis7169]

great demo

even if its not sound/speed controlled

[Blaydrnnnr]

By the way.. I kinda get the explaination of some of this, but I'd luv to have a visual reference of how you got the rotating speakers actually hooked to the amp, ( trhe bushings and brushes configuration.) any chance of a disection so we can see how you got the signal path set up? Thanks again!!!

[koneheadx]

I will look around for some photos of it but the way it works is simple - two speaker wires go to amp, so one speaker wire hooks to one carbon brush, brush rubs on bushing, bushing connects to speaker IN

speaker OUT connects to 2nd bushing, whihc connects to 2nd carbon brush, this connects back to amp.

Two brushes at 180 degrees apart per bushing works really good (4 bruhses total) - never any crackling that way

[Blaydrnnnr]

Man, I have posted many times I'd kill for a rotating cabinet, I'm gonna HAVE to see how these are done. Leslie's have a stationary speaker with rotating Horns I have seen, but I would love to make a true rotating speaker Cabinet. I'm gonna have to try to figure this out..LOL.. Thanks for the vid!!!

[spamandrum]

nice man, this is like the Mesa Boogie Revolver. i ve been meaning to make one for a while. nothing beats the sound of actually spinning the speaker, much bettern than a baffle. I was going to use go kart bearings and hangers, what did you use?

[koneheadx]

Dont send current though bearings - you will get scratching sound

use vacuum cleaner spring loaded carbon brushes ( from vacuum cleaner store)

rubbing on braonze bushings (get from hardware store)

Use thick stainless steel threaded rod for shaft...

I like to "split" shaft

one brush and bushing send curernt IN though ithe top,

other hafl of shaft, bushing and brush send current OUT t bottom of shaft

Use two brushes per bushing at 180 degrees for best contact possible.

[spamandrum]

Im not going to send the speaker wires through the bearings, I will run the speaker wires down the shaft, where there will be a 1/4" phono jack mounted and centered, which will pivot around a hard mounted phono plug on the enclosure

[koneheadx]

That phone jack and plug is good diea but its not to going to have enough constant pressure and surface area to it you will find out !

IF the current breaks for a split second you get big voltage spike kickbacks and diodes in your amp will blow up..

You need those spring loaded carbon brushes take my word for it.. they cost aout $12 from vacuum cleaner store.

two per contact at 180 degress to one another works really great since if one contact jumps a bit, the other covers for it.

[telecaster52awh]

it sounds flat because the speaker was pointed away from the camera.

[koneheadx]

it sounds flat becasue it doesnt rotate!

Speaker pointed at camera is still flat and dead sound but maybe more highs is all.

[koneheadx]

Listen to video at 2:50 and 3:20 to hear difference between rotation sound and no-rotation sound...very flat sound with no rotation.......

[drummerbigd3]

a leslie speaker always has a horn and a baffle in it i know cuz i a drummer/organist and i have 2 of these "homemade version of a leslie" at church inour musician room

[koneheadx]

horn rotates and a baffle does around a stationary speaker.

smaller lelie "spinet" spekers are best choice for gutiar players - also spinning baffles around stationary sspeaker if you want to go with leslie..

[daftweebrush]

Jon McGlaughlan. Cool. Puttin a speaker on a spinny thing isnt exactly what id call buildin a leslie tho. :D :D

[koneheadx]

Leslies are rotating baffle around stationary speaker - sometimes a leslie will have a spinning horn but thats it.

My humble opinion is these things are better than leslies since you rotate the entire speaker and get the real rotating speaker effect not simultaed-rotation with a baffle or electronics

[adilghanty]

this sounds amazing, how long did it take you to complete?

[koneheadx]

I have made maybe 12 of these up to now - the first ones broke down

look in info section here for photo of very newest design

if you use very strong 5/8" or 3/4" thick stainless stell threaded rod and spring loaded carbon vacuum cleaner brushes that rub on bronze or copper or brass bushings which slip over the SS threaded rod you will do alright

I send current in at the top and current in at the bottom (two brushes)

Balance the unit by spinning it verical

Maybe 20hrs to build one

[adilghanty]

thanks a lot, is your sound chorused or is that a result of the rotation?

[koneheadx]

That is nothing but the speaker rotation you hear in this video - no chorus or flanger is plugged in. In middle of video I stop the speaker and play te same thing without the rotation - its a very flat sound like that in comparison... also notice different speeds sound better/different than others ...not demonstrated in this video but feedback and overtones are great with these rotating speakers - any squelch only happens for brief instant so you can get lots more overtones and harmonics

[shawnr26]

That's pretty kool dude! you gotta put a motor on it though. You'll definitely like the sound the speaker system would make when you're changing the speed from fast to slow and vice versa.

[koneheadx]

Hi Shawn

On the newer ones I have motors on them - a small DC motor runing on 9V transformer with rubber wheel rubs on flywwheel also have an old sewing machine motor with a foot pedal spped control readay to go on one too.

[Valerifon1]

Ah Hey man - that's NICE!!! Way better than any pedal... I'm gonna have to builda pair of these now for sure!!! Thanks - Luther

[kraatzys]

Hey man, just wondering how you managed to enable the speaker to rotate without getting the wiring all twisted up? Thanks

[koneheadx]

Bronze bushings you get in hardware store, threaed stainless steel shaft through 1/2"ID bearing on top of plywood speaker box and at bottom too (top and botton Axles dont actually connect) then speaker wires attahch to these "bronze slip rings" that rotate.. then vacuum cleaner spring loaded carbon brushes rub onto these, speaker wires attch to vacuum cleaner brushes and that is how you send current into the speakers while they rotate

balance cabinet by rotating in horizontal position

[spamandrum]

I went over this several time sin my head, and i realized that a 1/4" guitar/speaker jack could pull this off. having the jack mounted vertically at the bottom center of the shaft, it would rotate around a stationary plug that was inserted into the bottom. Im sure it would wear out, but would be very easy to replace

[Robokiller80]

Lila's Dance, nice!

[koneheadx]

Look in "more info" for link to see photo of latest design of rotating speaker that can rotate both vertical and horizontal