Any experience of the Leslie 3300?

[Hansi]

Hi there,

Think this might be ok here as Leslie is a part of Hammond today and Hammond players the most likely to have tried this.

Has anyone ever used the Leslie 3300 and is willing to give their impressions. Thinking of getting one but as it is not carried by anyone in Iceland I haven't been able to test it out myself. Have seen some videos on youtube where it looks to be ok and read a few reviews but always looking for some more info.

So anyone have an opinion on the thing?

 

[delaware dave]

Here goes:

• loud as hell
• harsh sounding when loud
• if you use foot pedals, you may not get the bass response that a 122 cabinet that will give you. you may need assistance like a separate bass amp.
• Did I mention loud as hell?

The point is that it is a solid state amp and not a tube amp, so a lot of 'warmth' that a tube amp gives you is missing from the sound. Most of the above is more noticeable in a jazz setting. In a rock setting where you are not using the foot pedals and need that extra volume push the 3300 definitely is the way to go. If this is mostly for a studio setting, you might be better off trying to source an original leslie, like a 122/142 or 145/147. Also, you might want to consider a Neo Ventilator, it provides a much more consistent sound.

 

[Hansi]

I have heard about the harsh sound and lack of bass. For most situations I'm in the lack of base is ok as I'm mostly playing blues or rock, for jazz situations I do have a bass extension cab I could hook up to it.

I read a review from Jim Alfredson (the guy doing the Ventilator review) that you can actually mellow it out a whole lot by changing out the tube in the preamp.

Regarding the Ventilator, I am using a C2 (and upgrading to C2D soon) and I feel that has as good of a Leslie emulation as the Ventilator and actually sufficient in that sense, just want a real leslie that I can use in my rock and blues project as for my ear there is almost nothing that can match the physically rotating horn and drum in smaller spaces and even some of the nuances it gives you in the larger rooms as well.

But thanks for the input. I've been looking at a 145 leslie as well but I would have to pay 2-3 times as much for that one as it won't be sold without the Hammond with it (which I want but don't have the space for or means for transporting right now)

 

[Hansi]

Well I've taken delivery of my very own 3300P. Sounds great with my Hammond SK2 (switched out the C2 soon after last post) and frankly I love it.

By fiddling with the controls you can get everything from the mellow jazzy sounds to Jon Lord grit and, as stated by Dave above, Loud as hell

 

[Becky]

Sounds great Hansi! I'm pleased to hear you are enjoying it

 

[Tom Liberatore]

Mine sounds great as well but is on it's third amplifier!

 

[Tom Liberatore]

We just acquired a nice A-100 for our rehearsal cave, it has a 1/4" out that I put into the 3300, wow, is that a hot signal! I made it work by putting the organ volume on soft and running the signal through a volume pedal to dampen things down a bit, sounds good now, nice and punchy. I'm sure there is a better way to do this, any ideas? How do the pros do it?

 

[delaware dave]

Typically a step down transformer is put on the line to reduce the hot signal. Another thing you could do is put a tiny mixer in between the a100 output and the 3300, something like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ROLLS-MINI...546905&hash=item284851cde8:g:EkkAAOSwOjBZY-H8

Channel 1 is 1/4" in and the headphone out is a 1/4" out. The mixer is not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes. Permanently mount it to the A100 with Velcro. Set the level (i.e. normalize it) and you're done. I do the same thing with my L100P into a motion sound Low Pro/Pro3T except I have the opposite issue, output is too weak. I stuck one of these mixers in between the 1/4" out and the Leslie. No one even knows it's there.

 

[Tom Liberatore]

I would like to find a way to do this that doesn't require a power supply, if a volume pedal can dampen the signal it seems that a potentiometer might do the same thing.

 

[happyrat1]

What the pros use is a line input attenuator pad.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=line+input+attenuator+pad&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=m1olWtLtCY72jwO-pqx4

Gary

 

[delaware dave]

Well I've taken delivery of my very own 3300P. Sounds great with my Hammond SK2 (switched out the C2 soon after last post) and frankly I love it.

By fiddling with the controls you can get everything from the mellow jazzy sounds to Jon Lord grit and, as stated by Dave above, Loud as hell

I see you got the 3300P as opposed to the 3300. The 3300P is the "new" plywood version. Jim Alfredson reports that the 3300P puts out significantly more bass than the 3300 and has a warmer sound. So here is a situation where the vendor made an upgrade by just changing out the wood. I believe that they also upgraded the horn driver, reports were that the original horn driver would frequently burn out.