Vintage Synth Repair

Hi all, I know this is a stretch but does anyone have any information on a wurlitzer spectra 
tone? I ripped my hardly working organ apart and pulled this thing out of it. A rotating 
speaker on an arm with a counterweight. It literally has a plug! Anyways, just for fun i'm 
trying to get this thing working. I plug it in and it spins real slow, but I know it spins fast 
cause I watched it when the organ was in one piece! Anyways, if anyone has any experience 
with modifying this thing, i'd greatly appreciate it.  I'd like to hook it up to my wurlitzer ep 
just for fun. Looked like the only cool thing that I didnt want to throw away!
Thanks.

I have a model-18 leslie, which is a normal 12" guitar speaker in a
box & a motor-driven styrofoam drum in front of it, venting out
through extra slots in the top & sides of an otherwise
ordinary-looking guitar cabinet design.
the motor has a speed switch, slow or fast (chorale or vibrato, in the
proper leslie parlance, I believe.
this is achieved by changing the connections to the windings in the
motor. could it be that in dismantling the assembly, you've missed a
connection somewhere?

duncan.

The cabling goes to a switch on the organ that controlled the speed and
switched the motor relay from fast (theatre) to slow (cathedral). You could
change the wiring on the relay so it is always in fast, or devise a switch
to somehow switch the motors from fast to slow. Also, the organ had a
crossover in it so low frequencies did not go through the spectra tone.
(especially the pedals). The big concentric plastic wheel on the side with
the belt had a light in it to match the speed of the spectra tone to
electronically simulate that through the straight organ speakers. There was
much more to the circuitry than just hooking an amp up to the speaker
terminals and plug it into ac. Hope this helps.

 

Keith Niver

Master Certified Wurlitzer Technician

Certified MITA Technician

-----Original Message-----
From: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of duncan
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 12:45 PM
To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] Re: Wurlitzer Spectratone knowledge, this is a
stretch

 

I have a model-18 leslie, which is a normal 12" guitar speaker in a
box & a motor-driven styrofoam drum in front of it, venting out
through extra slots in the top & sides of an otherwise
ordinary-looking guitar cabinet design.
the motor has a speed switch, slow or fast (chorale or vibrato, in the
proper leslie parlance, I believe.
this is achieved by changing the connections to the windings in the
motor. could it be that in dismantling the assembly, you've missed a
connection somewhere?

duncan.