A while ago I mentioned I would take a picture of my rotary setup. It’s been a long, long while now–but here it is. (Pay no attention to the sound guy’s rat’s nest… I didn’t do it!) For my money, I get the advantages that a quality Leslie sound provides in a low-price and portable setup. Of course you can always go out and spend more than $300 for all the newest gear, but I didn’t, and I sure get a better sound than others who did.

I paired a Motion Sound Pro 3 with an Acoustic B100 bass amp. Here’s why:

Price: Total amount spent = $300. I bought the MSP3 on Craigslist for $200. I found the Acoustic B100 at Guitar Center in Boise, Idaho, while on tour for $100.

Sounds Great This is a solid-state setup (the only bummer here). But, you are able to adjust the overdrive, bass tone, and level difference between treble and bass.

Real Rotary: The duo essentially recreates a sound similar to a Leslie 147 with the back off and turned around, but with no need for a 1/4″ adapter or any further hardware. Don’t worry about the bass not being a rotary speaker, our ears aren’t equipped enough to REALLY notice the difference at 700Hz frequencies and below.

Compliments I think we all want to get noticed with our gear, right? Making others point, say wow, or ask for tips make me feel proud to play an tonewheel clone. In fact, I’ve seen people who know nothing about musical instruments point and say, “Look at the thing inside there go!” I want to explain what it is, and why it’s doing that. But overall, I’m happy because they’re paying more attention to me than the guitar player. Mission accomplished 🙂

How I hook It Up:

Basic setup is easy…

1. Setup Hammond Xk-1.
2. Run a 1/4″ instrument cable from the Hammond Xk-1 left out to the input on the MSP3.
3. Run a 1/4″ instrument cable from the MSP3 mono out to the B100 input.
4. Plug a pedal into the 1/4″ rotor control jack on the MSP3.
5. Mic rotor with one or two Beta 57s.
6. Mic B100 with Beta 52A.

Setup Specs:

MSP3: 6.5″H x 20″W x 16.5″D and weighs 27 lbs.
30W solid state amplifier with 700Hz crossover. Everything 700Hz and below is routed to the bass amp.

B100: 100W amp 1 x 15″ bass cabinet. Passive and active inputs, can control gain, volume, lows, lo-mids, hi-mids, and highs.