The goal of this project is to reimagine the vintage Leslie speaker and update it with modern design concepts. This product is for guitar players who want the vintage Leslie sound without spending several thousand dollars on old, outdated equipment.
Leslie speakers are amp/speaker systems that use rotating baffles to modulate the sound. They were originally created for organs, but were adopted by guitar players in the 1960's such as the Beatles and other famous bands of the time period. As this speaker system is now considered vintage, the price can be in the thousands of dollars. The reason that I decided to embark on this project is because I believe that all aspects of music should be accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford the expensive equipment. This project aimed to recreate this speaker for a fraction of the cost.
The first step in my design process was to create sketches of my idea. By experimenting with MidJourney and Photoshop, I created a concept drawing that successfully combined modern design elements with the vintage speaker aesthetic. Based on this drawing, I transferred to OnShape, a CAD program, to create a 3D model of the design. I spoke with Josh Colyer from CU's IdeaForge wood shop several times, going back and tweaking things. He taught me a lot about different woodworking tools, and how things are typically build with rabbet joints and dados. Once I had a 3D model that I was happy with, I created drawings for each part with dimensions everywhere. This was to refer to when cutting the actual parts.
My final result did not exactly match my initial drawing, but I am still happy with the way that it turned out. For the final design, I chose to use a different material, medium density fiberboard. This was because I had not completed a serious woodworking project like this before and wanted to make the first prototype out of a cheaper, easier to work with material. In the next iteration, I will be remaking the enclosure out of a higher quality material like cherry panels, now that I know how to use all of the necessary tools. I also decided to make the shape of the cabinet into a relatively simple square box, which is slightly different from the original image. I took many opportunities to simplify and cut costs from my original design so that I could learn all of the necessary skills before adding extra complications and details.
