A bit of vintage speaker rollling...

[212Mavguy]

Somehow there accumulated a total of four Seismic Audio "Luke" 2/12 speaker cabinets at my house. I like their roominess, light weight, low cost and big handles, but most of all I like the sounds I get out of them. At the beginning of this adventure I had speakers in the cabs installed as identical pairs of various types of 12 inch guitar speakers. What started this adventure was the installation of a pair of speakers that ended up a tad too big in the lower mids and bottom in this particular cabinet. A pair of different speakers in an identical cab sounded a tad too bright.

 

Just as inside the guts of a tube amp, when mad scientist-ing with speakers and cabs. obtaining desired results is a balancing act that usually costs money to mess with. It's hard to find a pair of different speakers that play well together in the same cab, but when that marriage is a good match the results are pretty special. So I'm posting some happy story results here of some unusual pairings.

 

I took two cabs and swapped one speaker of each and ended up with two mixed cabs. Tone Tubby has sold ceramic and alnico motor speakers that pair up nicely with each other to dab up some hemp cone tone tasting goodness. So I did the same thing with a pair of speakers built before TT started. The ceramic I used was a JBL MI-12, the alnico was an Altec Lansing 417c, both original cones. Each speaker was rated for 75 continuous watts of the worst garbage possible thrown at it. Both speakers have a wider frequency range than most guitar speakers, the Altec more so than the JBL, particularly the top end.

 

The offspring of that marriage in that cab was nothing short of amazing. Each speaker's contribution could be heard, volume was in great balance, but the third voice emerged, the voice of the union, and that one was unexpectedly and surprisingly nice, particularly in sustaining or swelling single note stuff. When I stacked the two cabs on each other, I ended up with a really huge sounding 4/12 setup that was taller and wider than a typical 4/12 cab. The roominess in cab volume could be heard in the warm tones, yet was not too bassy or boxy sounding, what came out sounded like the instrument's unique sounds instead of the cab imposing it's own sonic thang to excess.

 

Another cab had a pair of reconed JBL D216 50's vintage hifi speakers reconed for guitar, the builder put too much dope on the cone edges and over time past the warranty period, they got too out of balance towards the bass side for that cab they were in, so they got yanked. They will sound great in something like a Pro/ Blues Jr. or Deluxe 1/12 or 18 watt setup, stellar.

 

Alnico-alnico got replaced by ceramic-ceramic in this cab as the next experiment. I had this one mongo humongous hugeomous big butt boat anchor 12 in the basement...An early 70's NOS unplayed Altec ER-12S that was really an Altec Lansing Label slapped on the back of an EVM 12S. It can be used for guitar and bass. The magnet alone weighs at least 18 pounds, It has a beefy 2 1/4 inch voice coil if I remember right, and the black painted eight spoked cast aluminum frame has a bit of an arachnoid look. It is one of the coveted early 200 watt rated EVM's, the EVM 12L Zakk Wylde speaker built today is a 300 watt unit. Another foray down into the basement hoard resulted in an 80's JBL G125, it only has a wimpy 13 pound magnet, has a 3 inch VC rated for the same wattage as the Altec/EV. Both speakers use cast aluminum frames and flattened wires are wrapped in the voice coils to get more metal into the gap between the speaker's magnetic poles. This results in a very honest speaker, one that can make a crappy player sound like poo and a very good player sound like a rock star. To say that these speakers respond to pick attack dynamically would be an understatement. The bad part is the cab ends up weighing a LOT.

 

The resulting tones were a pleasant, amazing surprise. The tone knobs ended up in the same region as the ceramic/alnico cabs, but this cab was a bit louder than the other two. With a 400 watt capacity, I could dime a guitar my Mesa Buster Bass all tube 200 watt head and the speakers will have no issues while flapping pant legs and massaging toes. Yet, the 6-15 class A watt Frank-en-Champ flat out ROARS through it. Tones at low volumes are the same as cranked up loud.

 

I'm glad I have a dolly with big fat tires to move this cab with, for sure! There is not a lot of difference between the EVM 12S and 12L in tones, the 12S dishes out a bit more mids. So the more common EV's should end up pairing up extremely well with the G125. I used the JBL/Altec ceramic/alnico setup out live earlier this week and within in the stage mix it was just perrrrrrrrrrrfect to the front of the house.

 

FWIW these speakers are most definitely worth finding and acquiring. The Cab is easily found on eBay for less then 200 bucks with free shipping.

[myoldfriend]

Thanks for taking the time to post your results.

 

...and for reigniting my GAS for acquiring a pair of 12Ls