REVIEW: Hammond-Suzuki made Leslie 302

["Mark Longo" <longo@zk3.dec.com>]

        Greetings,

        Following are some facts and some of my subjective inmpressions 
about the Hammond-Suzuki built Leslie 302.  I use this amp with my 
Hammond-Suzuki XB2 in a live performance setting of mostly small to medium 
sized night clubs.  


Overall Impression
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        My overall impression of the 302 is quite positive.  It is a small, 
relatively portable box (but *not* a feather weight!) in a road-ready 
package including castors and handles (traditional walnut cabinet version 
is available as the Leslie 322), that provides decent volume levels 
(especially with the below described adjustments) and it has the trademark 
Leslie sound (though it's not quite a vintage Leslie).


Specifications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Model: Leslie 302/322 (manufacturer is Hammond-Suzuki)

Weight: 110 lbs

Dimensions: 27"H x 25 3/4"W x 20"D

Amplification: Bass Amp 65 watts RMS
               Horn Amp 35 watts RMS
               solid state
               cross-over is fixed at 800Hz

Controls: Master volume, bass tone, treble tone, power switch, 
          remote switch

Inputs: 11-pin Leslie male connector compatable w/ XB organs 
        (30' female/male cable included), 1/4" guitar style input, 
        1/4" footswitch jack for rotor speed (footswitch not 
        included), standard AC power recepatcle w/ 10' cord.

Speaker System: rotor for highs, front mounted 12" speaker 
                with electronic rotor simulation for lows.

Wheels: four medium-duty snap-in castors

Price:  I believe the list is somewhere around $1400 US, though 
        I got mine through Guitar Center for $1050 US, plus 
        sales tax.  I had to do quite a bit of shopping around 
        to get that price.


Sound
~~~~

        The Leslie 302 sounds like, well, a Leslie; and while in my opinion 
it does not sound exactly as fat and creamy as a vintage Leslie, it *does* 
have the Leslie sound.  It's also louder (especially after the below 
described adjustments), lighter weight, smaller, and considerably more 
portable than a vintage Leslie.

        In some ways, the 302 is to the vintage Leslies what the XB2 is to 
the vintage Hammonds.  With some coaxing you can get it to do a very nice 
job of vintage Leslie emulation, though in a side-by-side blindfold test a 
Hammond jockey worth his salt can tell the difference.  Still, the tonal 
differenace is not huge and becomes even less noticable in a band mix.

        I expected that the electronic simulation of the low end rotor 
would annoy me, yet I haven't noticed this at all.  I should mention 
however that I have never owned a Leslie with a rotating bass bin so your 
milage may vary.  But the human ear is not very descriminating when it 
comes to subtlety in low frequency sounds so maybe that's why I don't 
notice that it's simluation...  also, I *think* the treble rotor's fast 
speed is a little faster than the vintage Leslies I've heard.  There is a 
potentiometer on the circuit board in the top of the cabinet that can be 
used to adjust the fast speed across a wide range.  The treble rotor 
accelerate/decelerate time is less than a second while the bass rotor 
simulator accel/decel time is more like 6-8 seconds.  The accel/decel time 
is not adjustable.

        I personally find that both the XB2 and the Leslie 302 tonality as 
setup at the factory are a bit on the thin side, especially as compared to 
a real B-3.  The adjustments I had done to the Leslie by Goff Professional 
(see below) took care of much of this (also turning the treble control on 
the XB2 all the way down helps).


Volume
~~~~~

        The 302 out-of-the-box was not quite loud enough for my needs.  
This surprised me since it's a 100 watt amp.  I play in a small Blues and 
R&B band and my volume competition is a fairly loud drummer and a guitarist 
with a twin reverb and an average volume bass player.  When I first got the 
unit I tried it out in a small club and found that with the XB2 and Leslie 
volumes all the way up, the Leslie bass and treble settings all the way up, 
AND with a little overdrive added from the XB2 I could make the rig *just* 
loud enough but I had no head room at all and the solos didn't quite cut it 
volume wise.

        I called Hammond to ask what my options were and they sternly 
warned me about violating the warantee by having custom work done.  Thanks 
Hammond.  Instead they suggested that I buy a second 302!   hmmmm...  I 
told them politely that that wasn't on *my* list of options.  They 
reluctantly told me that they send all their custom work on the east coast 
to Goff Professional, just south of Hartford.  I called Goff and they said 
they could fix my volume problems quickly and easily.

        I took the Leslie (and my XB2) to Goff and played through it while 
the tech fiddled with it.  He wasn't too forthcoming about what he was 
specifically doing but I watched him carefully and I think all he was doing 
was tweaking pre-amp output levels in the Leslie.  I believe what he did 
was to boost separate pre-amp outputs for both the highs and lows to get 
the volume output I wanted, and also balanced the high/low pre-amps to 
suite my taste on tone.  The difference was amazing.  I estimate that the 
output was increased by 30-40% and the tone got much fatter.  (He also 
showed me how to boost the minimum overdrive pot in the XB2 to fatten up 
the tone some more).  This might not be the sort of tone you hear in church 
but this is much closer to the heated B3 tones I love.  Four note chords in 
the mid-range at high organ output levels now give me a touch of that 
"frying eggs" tone that I've always associated with an overdriven Leslie (I 
always play with the 302 full up and adjust the volume on the organ).  
Mid-level volumes yield clean but fat tone.

        I don't know if Hammond-Suzuki sells repair manuals or schizmatics, 
but if you're a little enterprising you could probably make these 
adjustments yourself (wait till the neighbors go on vacation though).  But 
be very careful about what you touch, there's probably some high voltage 
somewhere in there.


Details
~~~~~~

        The 302 out of the box is very very noisy with a prominent 60 hz 
buzz.  A 60 hz buzz through a slowly rotating horn is a nausiating thing.  
Fortunately this problem is almost completely cured by doing a ground lift 
on *either* the XB2 or 302 power cords, but not both.

        The 30' Leslie 11-pin cable that comes with the 302 has those 
cheezy old-style bakelite plastic connectors on both ends.  Maybe Hammond 
thinks it adds a nostalgic touch but that brittle plastic reminds me of the 
bad old days (how 'bout going for nostalgia by-way-of *tone* eh?).  Also, I 
was warned by a Goff tech to be careful not to roll castored road cases 
over the Leslie cord on stage or it will need replacing *fast*.

        The 302 can be driven using the Leslie cable or a regular 1/4" 
guitar cord.  I did A/B comparisons with a good quality guitar cord and 
found that the Leslie cable sounded a tiny bit hotter and a little more 
"open" and fat.  You would never notice this without an A/B comparison and 
a very good pair of ears, but I could hear a slight difference.  Maybe the 
Leslie cable uses differential signal paths and has better connectors...

        The other reason to use the Leslie cable is that it sends the 
Leslie fast/slow command from the XB2's leslie tab switch and/or footswitch 
and also sends a "power on/off" command that lets you power on/off the XB2 
and the Leslie together (though the Leslie cable doesn't carry AC power to 
the Leslie).  You can plug a footswitch directly into the Leslie to control 
speed but then you don't get fast/slow feedback on the XB2 leslie tab 
light.


Conclusions
~~~~~~~~~~

        The 302 is a compact and more portable version of the old Leslie 
we've loved over the years.  But it's not an old Leslie.  This is both good 
and bad.  It's louder, lighter, smaller, and more lugable than the old 
standard but at the cost of a small tonal deficit.  Still, it *is* a Leslie 
and in my opinion earns that name.  


        Mark Longo