distortion

[docjohn]

i 've recently have been doing some upgrades to my b3.put in a new ferrous driver in my 122,a new cap in 122,replaced the bass speaker,and new tubes in b3 and 122.if i set my leslie volume to 5 or above,get a lot of rattle/distortion.the tubes are sovtek;electroharmonic for the 6550's.if i leave the soft/loud switch down,it's better-but still there.also,i've reset the tone and percussion control on the back of th preamp.got the percussion really dialed in,can't figure all the noise.this new driver was supposed to be louder.any ideas? the only thing left in the leslie is the crossover(that hadn't been replaced)

[TheReturn]

WELL IN MY OPINION I ACTUALLY LIKE THAT OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION SOUND IN THE LESLIE. IT GIVES YOUR SOUND A MORE MEATY/CHURCHY SOUND.

IF YOU REALLY LISTEN CLOSELY TO ALOT OF GREAT/CLASSIC RECORDINGS OF THE ORGAN (Gospel or Non-Gospel) YOU WOULD HEAR THAT OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION SOUND.

BUT IF I DIDN'T CONVINCE YOU TO LEAVE THE LESLIE ALONE, HERE IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT, OVERDRIVE OF LESLIES USUALLY COMES OUT OF THE TOP ROTOR SPEAKER. SO IF YOU JUST CAN HANDLE IT ANYMORE REPLACE YOUR TOP ROTOR SPEAKER WITH THE NEWEST SPEAKER YOU CAN FIND.



I HOPE THIS HELPS
CATRON/TheReturn

[docjohn]

hey bro! me too,but i've replaced the driver with the new ferrous one,replaced the bass speaker-had a reconed one a friend gave me, swapped the tubes and capacitor in my 122.but,this distortion is not cool,like i said think it may be something else.if i set the organ volume tab to soft it's not as bad,but with my leslie only on 5,going from soft to loud and mashing the volume pedal really rattles instead of good groove.originally,with the old driver,i could get to 7 without the noise.thanks,be blessed

[RMS2003]

Just out of curiosity, what there any particular reason to replace these parts? Were the original parts malfunctioning in some way. You know what they say; "if it ain't broke don't fix it". I have a feeling I know what the problem is since you replaced the driver. Did the driver require a new mounting plate? If so, above that mounting plate should be the spindle plate. That's what the horn spins on.

The spindle plate is on the right


Okay, notice on the spindle plate pictured above, there are 2 washers. There is a metal washer and rubber washer. There is also a third washer that sets between this plate and the mounting plate. Are all three washers present?

[RMS2003]

I wish the Admin on this forum would allow editing posts so I wouldn't have to make another post. I forgot to post a couple of pics of the mounting plate in case you weren't sure what I was talking about.

The driver mounting plate should look like one of these. The picture on the left shows the driver already screwed in.

   

[docjohn]

hey rms!  actually the tubes were about 12-13 years old,and the 6x4 gave up the ghost.the organ was starting to sound lousy.so in with the tubes.got some better,was told to replace the cap and upper driver.as i replaced these,again some improvement.pulled the bass speaker out,looked like it might be dry rotted.had a brand new reconed speaker,so swapped it out.the replacement driver came with an adaptor plate,thanks for the diagram-will pull it out and check the washers.again,got some improvement each time-the highs are better,just this other issue.thanks for the input-will check driver and get back.thanks be blessed.

[RMS2003]

Hey Doc, did you find anything out yet?

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

[docjohn]

yes i did, cleaned the tube sockets,going to shift the buss bars,need to recheck my connections on the driver.i took the driver completely out again,retightening all washers,nuts etc.that DID seem to help.so,after this i might need to get my amp checked for  age related stuff.going to try a bros 122 with my b3,see if that makes a difference.got a feeling after talking to an old time tech ,the bussbar fix will be all i need to do at this point.for an old 55 /56;LORD has really blessed me with this b.gotta be careful doin the bussbars.thanks,be blessed rms

[RMS2003]

So the 2 rubber and 1 metal washer were there?

[docjohn]

yes,one side wasn't as tight as the other.think maybe tubes were'nt making a good connection.the new driver came with it's own adaptor plate,all i had to do was take the 3 old washers and nuts/bolts and attach.the driver then just screws into the adapter.pretty simple,have a blessed day

[RMS2003]

Hey doc, sounds like you did everything right. The reason I was making such a big deal about the 3 washers was because back in November I replaced a blown Jensen V21 driver in a Leslie I was putting together (the driver came with the cabinet). Someone said they wanted the driver even though I told them it was blown. I sold it to them for like $40 I think. So anyway, I didn't think about it at the time, but I should've kept the mounting hardware and washers. Because I didn't keep the parts I needed, the new driver had to be fitted on a new style mounting plate. I was playing one night when I heard this terrible noise coming from the Leslie. It sounded distorted like you described, but not the pleasant distortion. I thought I tore the cone of the woofer because I was playing pretty loud. So I turned everything off and opened up the Leslie and took a look. The cone was perfect. So I put everything back together and playing again. Same result playing at high volume. Long story short, I found out the horn was rattling when I would hit certain bass notes. Later I discovered I was missing the 3 washers I needed. What was going on was the horn bearing was hitting against the metal spindle plate.

In addition to solving the rattling problem, it also took care of tone leakage problem I was having. The the rubber washer under the spindle plate acts as a sealer so the sound from the driver doesn't leak out. The result of this tone leakage is very unpleasant. Once I got that washer in there, the sound improved drastically.

Thankfully BBorgan sells these washers brand new, so I was able to find them without a problem.

[docjohn]

thanks ryan,this week got a chance to play my b thru another near perfect 122.LORD is good!but,still had the same issues-if i set the console vol "soft".leslie @ 6-7,much past 1/2 vol get sort of a rattle.console vol @ loud,leslie @4-5 same thing.also,on both manuals,the upper 4 octaves F and F# are consistently distorted,scratchy.as i check the drawbars,noise is worse on the white drawbars;sometimes there is one of those harmonics "bleeding" in and out-like your pulling on the drawbars(which i'm not)  so,going to call BT productions,ask about doing the bussbar shift.by the way.tony lebrasca is a good guy also.so,be blessed

[RMS2003]

Well at least you know now it's not the Leslie. The organ hasn't been serviced in a while, it may be time for some work to be done on it. I've always heard good things about BT Productions, so they should be able to help you. Good luck brother.