Kossoff whats he using?

hywelg

Here. Can be clearly heard after about 1:50, best with headphones.

Sounds like  a leslie but theres more too it I think??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfS2Tw_0WiY

breadfan

I've always thought it was a Leslie, too - it's all over the Free studio albums.

shaunm

Always thought it was a Leslie too

victorludorum

breadfan said:

I've always thought it was a Leslie, too - it's all over the Free studio albums.

This.

Get yourself a Ventilator and away you go!

Neill

breadfan said:

I've always thought it was a Leslie, too - it's all over the Free studio albums.

Yes - but he never used it live AFAIK.  

english_bob

If there's more to it, it's probably the piano and Hammond playing the same riff.

I thought it was "Rabbit" Bundrick, but Wikipedia reckons it was just the band on that album, so probably Andy Fraser or Paul Rodgers.

JMP220478

this .... 

hywelg

So if he was playing through a Leslie what would he have used as a pre-amp? Superbass didn't have an FX loop (pre-amp out). 

english_bob

hywelg said:

So if he was playing through a Leslie what would he have used as a pre-amp? Superbass didn't have an FX loop (pre-amp out). 

There's a question you'll probably never get an answer to. The album was self-produced by the band, half of whom are dead now, and none of whom probably knew that sort of thing in the first place.

Apparently the engineer was Richard Digby-Smith, who is on Facebook, and may or may not welcome nerdy questions about stuff he did forty-five years ago.

There was an official Leslie preamp unit designed to get a guitar signal to power different models of Leslie speaker, but I'm not sure that was made until later, so somebody would have had to build something. Island Studios (now SARM West) might have had something on hand for everybody to use, or it might have been made for Kossoff specifically.

ICBM

I think it's quite likely they just connected the second speaker output of the Marshall to the input of the normal Leslie preamp. The Leslie sound is clearly quite overdriven, so you're either hearing the amp overdrive re-amplifed, or the Leslie preamp distorting more than it would normally, or both.

english_bob

ICBM said:

I think it's quite likely they just connected the second speaker output of the Marshall to the input of the normal Leslie preamp. 

That would seem like the simplest way to go about it, wouldn't it?

Sassafras

He was mostly using heroin.

hywelg

ICBM said:8

. The Leslie sound is clearly quite overdriven, so you're either hearing the amp overdrive re-amplifed, or the Leslie preamp distorting more than it would normally, or both.

That's what I heard, more distortion than a Superbass normally produces, but that distortion sounds, never mind the speaker rotation effects, very much like a Hammond on full chat. 

I wonder how did Jon Lord run his m100 Hammond thro the Marshall and thence to a leslie? Similar fashion? Wouldn't the input voltage swing be just too great for the Leslie? Bearing in mind everything was louder than everything else!

ICBM

hywelg said:

That's what I heard, more distortion than a Superbass normally produces, but that distortion sounds, never mind the speaker rotation effects, very much like a Hammond on full chat.

To me the Leslie sounds more distorted than the cleaner (although still overdriven) amp sound in the same recording too - and a slightly scratchy type of distortion which might just be the horn in the Leslie, or more distortion added by the preamp, I can't tell.

hywelg said:

I wonder how did Jon Lord run his m100 Hammond thro the Marshall and thence to a leslie? Similar fashion? Wouldn't the input voltage swing be just too great for the Leslie? Bearing in mind everything was louder than everything else!

I think he used standard cabs on the Marshalls as well, so probably the same. Given the technology of the time, if there was anything special it would only need to be a simple two-resistor divider to bring the speaker level down to something that didn't fry the Leslie preamp. Hammond organ output voltage is quite high anyway, so even that might not be necessary.

Years ago I had a Leslie, and I simply disconnected the amp section entirely and fitted a jack so I could use it as a plain speaker cabinet, connected to the amp as normal, but it didn't sound like Kossoff.

english_bob

ICBM said:

Years ago I had a Leslie, and I simply disconnected the amp section entirely and fitted a jack so I could use it as a plain speaker cabinet, connected to the amp as normal, but it didn't sound like Kossoff.

Fingers, innit?

ICBM

english_bob said:

ICBM said:

Years ago I had a Leslie, and I simply disconnected the amp section entirely and fitted a jack so I could use it as a plain speaker cabinet, connected to the amp as normal, but it didn't sound like Kossoff.

Fingers, innit?

Must be . I had the Les Paul, the 50W Marshall bass model, the Leslie... still didn't sound right!

welshboyo

Sounds like a Leslie and a metric ton of talent....

Sometimes you need to listen to the stuff outside of the big hits to remind yourself how good Kossoff was - thanks for reminding me!!

hywelg

Yes @welshboyo, ; exactly what I'm doing. In order to endure going to the gym twice a week for 2 hours I've been listening to all my music, something I don't have time for at home. I'm in the bad habit of constructing playlists of all the stuff I like rather than listening to everything and there are indeed some fantastic songs that you don't really know. 

I'm on the second play through of Free At Last and looking forward to going to the gym to listen again.

not_the_dj

There's a bargain "classis albums" box that's only a tenner on Amazon. Misses out "Tons of Sobs" though. 

english_bob

not_the_dj said:

There's a bargain "classic albums" box that's only a tenner on Amazon. Misses out "Tons of Sobs" though. 

That's an extra fiver then, and all £15 well spent IMHO.

Pretty sure all the Free albums were recently been given the "remastered with extra shit you'll only listen to once" treatment, so you could buy each separately, get slightly better sound quality, a few curiosities, and probably still only spend 30-odd quid on their whole back catalogue.

english_bob

Sassafras said:

He was mostly using heroin.

Nope, Mandrax.