"Great" and "Not so Great" 
by Allan - (Deja Blues) from East Bay Area, California, September 2005

First I have to say that I am a long-time Sweetwater customer and plan to be for as long as they are in business. They know how to get, and how to keep, your business. If you are shopping around for the Pro-145 and you decide that is what you want, you should buy from this website. These people will NEVER disappoint you.

Now that I am off my soap box, on with the review:

I play a Hammond XK-2 that has a digital Leslie. That arrangement works but it wasn't "the real deal". I decided to get the Pro-145 to get the true mechanical rotor effect. Out of the box it was awesome and quickly made up for the figurative "week on the couch" I endured for forking out that kind of $$$.

This thing gets tons of "oohs" and "awwws" from everyone that hears it. People come up to me after the show asking "How did I get that Leslie sound?". I show them the unit and then the drooling starts. It is really, really cool. I love it and wont leave it.

Now the not so good stuff. The cable for the pedal switch took a dive when someone barely propped something against the amp slightly bending the control wire that was plugged into the "foot pedal" jack on the front. Five minutes before the gig and an open circuit on the footswitch. Great, no Leslie effect. A quick thinking stagehand pulled the TRS plug out halfway and I got fast rotor with the brake on. It got me through the gig but it wasn't pretty.

At the time I didn't know if it was a jack issue or the wire so I cracked open the back of the Pro-145 since I was curious anyway. I know, "Why didn't you take a meter to the cable and switch first?". I was curious of what was inside this thing, ok? That is my story and I am sticking to it.

First comment after looking inside: cheaply made. Microphones are really cheap looking. Don't plan on working on this thing unless you intend to do total disassembly. You can not get to the circuit board without disassembling the entire rotor assembly. The wiring was very thin and looked like it came from Chicken Shack (no disrespect intended). If I was a contortionist that could cram myself into an 18" box I might have been able to solder in a new jack had that been the problem but it just isn't repair-friendly.

My problem ended up being the open wire on the cable where the footswitch cable connects to the jack. When I opened up the jack I discovered that the wire was as cheap as could be. I ended up buying a Pro-Co TRS cable from our good people at Sweetwater and made up a new footswitch cable. I soldered it up and I am back in business.

Bottom line is this thing definately sounds awesome. It is also lightweight and easy to menuever. It looks great and you will be the envy of the stage. I just worry what I will do if it needs to be worked on again. You will buy it for the sound but you may gamble with the cheaply built assembly and "iffy" quality on the inside.

Amazing Sound 
by Anonymous from Los Angeles, CA, February 2005

I spent about an hour in a room with a real B-3/Leslie 122 and a Nord Electro 2 61-key connected to the MS-145. I tweaked the controls on MS-145 until the sounds were virtually the same. Incredible when you think about it.

Great Leslie 
by Don Sharkey from Houston Texas, May 2004

This unit is as good as you can get. Tremendous sound with

a multitude of variables (sound, rotor speed) to achive any sound

of a classic rock organ. This unit is loud and sweet.

Write Your Own Review!
We all love gear, and we all love talking about gear with our friends and bandmates. Why not share your thoughts with the hundreds of thousands of customers who regularly visit Sweetwater.com? Write your own customer review on this product! To begin, just Click Here!