Electro-Harmonix Lester ‘The Ultimate Rotary Speaker Emulator’

ehx-lester-leslie-speaker-emulatorElectro-Harmonix has introduced a pair of new ‘Lester‘ effects pedals, that they describe as ‘The Ultimate Rotary Speaker Emulator’:

  • The Lester G was designed with guitarists in mind, and includes a dedicated compressor that maximizes the rotary speaker effect on guitar; and
  • The Lester K is tailored to the needs of keyboardists looking for Leslie-style rotary speaker effects.

“The Lester G is the ultimate rotary speaker effect,” says EHX President and Founder, Mike Matthews. “The Lester K is great for keyboards and, if a guitarist already owns a compressor, they can also use the Lester K to get really close to the Lester G.”

Here’s Bill Ruppert’s demo video for the new EHX Lester G:

Here’s a demo of the Lester K by Jon Skibic:

Below, EHX President and Founder, Mike Matthews, busts out his keyboard to show you just how ‘cool and funky’ the new Lester K and G Rotary Speaker Emulators sound:

In the next video, keyboardist Dave Sherman offers a guided tour of the EHX Lester K Rotary Speaker emulator:

Pricing and Availability

The EHX Lester G and Lester K are available now, for US $298.70 and $237.40. See the EHX site for more info.

18 thoughts on “Electro-Harmonix Lester ‘The Ultimate Rotary Speaker Emulator’

  1. I don’t get it?
    You’ve created two pedals – one for guitar and one for keyboard – why on earth do you then demo the keyboard version with a guitar?
    I would have loved to hear an organ thru it…….

  2. lol

    taking a Nord to demo a rotary effect pedal is a mistake !
    I own a NS2 and a NE5, there is everyhting onboard
    you don’t need an external pedal anymore
    Nord has recently updated with a nice Leslie 122 + drive emulation

    Anyway, for those still willing to carry one more external pedal, how does this EHX compare to the Neo Ventilator 2 ?

    Anyhow, its good to have some choice, thank you and good luck to EHX for this nice addition to the market. I wish you success sincerely.

  3. What about the old Pomplamoose demos? Those were fantastic! Raised the bar for everyone. And these pedals are great. Can’t decide between the two. I want one for my moog, and one of those VoiceBoxes. Heard one on a theremin and was blown away.

  4. Sounds great! But wouldn’t it be more great if you could separate the foot switch from the actual box so that I, as a keyboard player, could adjust the knobs without having to reach the box at my feet. Or the other way around, if I would place the box on the keyboard I’d have to use my hand instead of my foot but since the switch are made for your foot, switching it with your hand is harder to do in real time, while playing.
    Something to think about for your engineers for the next update. I’d buy it in a blink!!!

  5. This effect needs an external footswitch jack on the unit so you can plug in a remote footswitch for your foot to turn on and off. Maybe even a stereo jack so I could plug in my 2 up footswitch to turn on and off as well as fast and slow.
    Put the unit on the keyboard top so you can twiddle the knobs (hard to do with your toes or crawling under a keyboard stack) and use feet for switching the unit.
    Then this would make a real “keyboard” effects pedal – kinda like my 145 with the Leslie preamp they used to make.
    Lester K must have been designed by a guitarist.
    Add an external jack for a footswitch and I’ll order one.

    1. Da Rock, the “Lester K” doesn’t have an external footswitch jack, but the “Lester G” does have a jack for an external footswitch. (I’m not sure if there’s anything that the “Lester K” has that the “Lester G” lacks, other than the Lester K’s stereo input – the Lester G only has a mono input, though it does have stereo outputs…)

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