The Organ Forum

I'm thinking of swapping out my leslie 130 speaker with one my L102's internal speakers, and having it powered by the organs amp.
Then I'll have a switch to choose between the internal speaker, Leslie or both.

My question is, will it damage the organ amp to only have one speaker connected? I assume it will see 16 ohms compared to 8.

The L's internal speakers are both 16ohm, wired in parallel for a total load of 8ohms

The amp is expected to run at 8ohms, so if you only use one at a time (the amp "sees" 16ohm) you will not damage the amp. A Tube amp needs to see its rated load or higher without sustaining damage. Lower impedance will strain the output section of the amp. However if you dont use a speaker which has a matched impedance with that of the amp you will alter your sound quality - in one way or another you will change the freq. response characteristics and power output capability. in other words, it will work, but not efficiently.  

 Also note that the L's speakers are not identical - they are made by 2 different companies and have a different shapped cone - I am not sure about the specifics but I'd guess that each is tuned to perform better with high or low freqs. Using them separately would very well affect the sound in one way or another. Not sure if your ears would be picky about it. Maybe there is no difference at all - but why did hammond use 2 different speakers to begin with?

 My 2cents are to find a new full range speaker for the Leslie. (whats wrong with the current one?)

Thanks for the info... interesting that the speakers are different. Tonight I'll try disconnecting one speaker at a time to see if I can hear the difference.

I'm doing this because the Leslie is solid state and I want to get slightly overdriven sound.  So I think the Hammond's amp will sound better and overdrive easier. Also I'm using this strictly for recording and home use so high volume is not needed.

Another thing about this Leslie is it only has a lower rotor, and a stationary tweeter. So my theory is it will sound nicer to put a full range driver into the lower rotor and ditch the tweeter. I'm not sure what 12" driver is in the Leslie now but my uneducated hunch is those horseshoe magnet thingys in the Hammond will sound better somehow :)

It turns out the speakers in my L102 are identical - the model numbers are the same.

johnny, maybe one of yours was replaced by the previous owner.

That's exactly what I thought at first - but i've seen it in a few models, and both my own L's (a few production years apart) have the two different speakers as well.