Gyrophonic 'Leslies'

[gyrolarry]

Hi, I'm new here and I'm hoping for some advice about a pair of Allen Gyrophonic Projector speakers I was approached about. Here's the background:

A local church's music minister approached me about two 'Leslie' speakers the church didn't want any more. After I regained conciousness, I made arrangements to look at the units, all the while wishing and hoping they'd be pristine 122's or 147's. Upon arriving at the church and going into a room overlooking the sanctuary, there was a massive beast with 3 12" woofers and 3 3" tweeters on a plywood disc. And underneath are what looked to be 2 staionary 15" woofers. What the heck? And hooked up to the disc was what looked like a washing machine motor and pulley. Again, what the heck? (I was in a church, so I couldn't say, 'What the @!%*'). My heart sank, but I was nonetheless intrigued by the mechanical monster. It must have been as big as a refrigerator (and there was another one in a different room). All I could tell from the scant labels was that it was made by the Allen Organ Company. No dates. But... it has a solid-state amp (yes, another bummer. I was really hoping for a nice 75W mono-block or something.). My guess is the late 60's or so. And they were beat - old cables, lots of dust, one motor was frozen, etc.

So my ponderment to the forum is whether I should attempt to remove these units and refurb them, or let them be. I can't find any technical material on the web about these Gyrophonics. There isn't any cult following here as there is with the Leslies.

Any suggestions out there?

Larry

P.S. I may have replied to another thread here with this same info. However, I couldn't find my reply anywhere, so I posted a new thread. Please no flames about cross-posting.

[bowtie427ss]

The raw speakers are likely Jensen, probably where the bulk of any value is at this point. Even tho solid state, i've seen those amplifiers bring as much as 75-100 bucks.

[gyrolarry]

Hmmm... perhaps the gut-and-sell plan is financially better than fix up, rebuild the electronics, slap on black vinyl or black enamel, put on some casters and a front grill, mount blue LEDs on the disc (just kidding <g>), and hope some musician will want to buy it (rent it?) for the road? Visually it would be kind of neat to see a pair of refrigerator-sized wood boxes spinning 36" diameter wood dics in opposite directions on the stage. That is assuming I can get one motor assembly to spin opposite. Anyway, I was also hoping that I could use it, them, with my Korg CX-3 (B3 clone). I'm building my own Leslie, but this might work as well, even though I can't figure out what kind of vibrato effect I'll get with spinning speakers facing out. Do these units actually affect the sound at all? Still unsure.

Larry

[geaugafletcher]

Listen to any rock/funk/soul tune with the famous Hammond B3 organ playing...likely they had Leslie speakers to go with it and that's the characteristic wild vibrato that ramps up and makes it SWANG.

:)

Neat old gear, but not valuable for Hi-Fi. There might be local musicians interested. Give PaulC and GordonW an ask - they're two guys who have some insights into the pro music scene.

[Paul C]

Leslies are not audio speakers, but musical instrument (specifically organ) speakers. Yes, the twirling baffle gave a spinning vibrato effect. The speed was controlled by a footpedal.

Listen to Booker T. & the MG's (of Green Onions fame). Keyboardist Booker T. Washington could really work the Leslie to great effect.

[gyrolarry]

Thanks to all who have replied. Leslies I know. Gyrophonics I don't. The Gyros have the speakers facing towards the audience, all spinning around. Imagine a Lazy Susan with 6 speakers glued to it (magnets down), then stand the Lazy on end (vertically) and spin it. This is the Gyrophonic approach to spinning speakers. I really don't know what to expect. Maybe a lot of whirring sounds as the 1/8HP AC motor turns everything? As I said, it's like washing machine-meets-Leslie.

Larry

[hammr7]

I posted this in another thread, but it bears repeating before everyone in the world starts looking to trash Allen Organ Speaker systems.

"In recent years, a lot of Allen components were actually made by Allen. Allen was the one big organ company that never really did the "Leslie" thing. Their gyrophonic system accomplished the same task, and was one of the few that didn't infringe on Leslie's patents. And while Allen used Jensens on early organs and on some later large speaker systems, most of their post 1970 speaker systems have Allen drivers. These are quite good for their application (organs), but have none of the demand of the Jensens. Unless you find a buyer who has an Allen organ, they often sell for next to nothing.

The solid state amps are similar. They are quite reasonable, but most don't have the name recognition and therefor don't have any demand."

So if you find Allen Speakers along with Solid State amps, there is a great chance that the stash IS NOT the find of the decade, or even the year.

[Note: Much of the Jensen hype is due to vintage tube guitar amplifiers, and the need for "tweed" guitarists to have perfect period replacement speakers. Allen speakers, like those produced by Cleveland, and to a lesser extent Utah and CTS, aren't considered acceptable and often go without a single bid at you know where]

[gyrolarry]

Well, that about sums it up. I had an inkling (sp?) that this was not the find of the year because I found almost nothing about these speakers on the Net. I was more interested in the mechanics, but that alone won't sell these units after I've refurbed them. And due to the time and effort involved in trying to remove these units from the church, I think I will pass on the offer. That way I'll have more time to build my Fender Bassman clone tube amp.

Thanks again to all who have replied.

Larry