Weber 30 Watt Alnico and the 18 Watt cabinet

[Jason]

All,

I recently bought a Weber Alnico Blue Dog [30 Watt--not the 15 Watt] for my 5E3. On a whim, I tried it in my 1X12 18 Watt [Armadillo cab]. It does not fit--the EL-84's physically touch the bell. Bummer. Anybody else have this problem? Guess I'll stick with my V-30 for now [sounds great].

Jason

[markh]

You can alway take the bell off, the Alnico magnet structure is much smaller than the bell.

--mark

[Jason]

Mark,

The bell on the Weber is welded onto the frame. Can you remove the bell onteh 15 Watt version?

Jason

[jaysg]

: The bell on the Weber is welded onto the frame.

That's odd. Ted must have changed it. I have one and the cover comes off with a screw. If you look at the pics of my amp, you'll see that I offset the speaker for balance and to avoid the el-84s.

[Jason]

jay,

What cracks me up is that it fits perfectly within a 5E3 cabinet! Kind of ironic isn't it!

BTW, Ted will be carrying the Celestion Alnico Blues soon--at good prices! I checked out Music 123, and they raised thier prices on the Celestions--they used to be around $200-220. Now they are above $300!

I am trying to find these at around the $200 mark--then I'll buy one for my 18 Watt.

Jason

[LeeM]

Ted recently said on his BBS as a result of the huge price increase on the Celestion Blue, he probably wasn't going to carry them after all.

[markh]

Well, it's a little late now, but you may be able to special-order alnicos from Ted without a bell - he'll build all kinds of custom combinations of his stock parts upron request.

--mark

[Jason]

All,

Thanks for the info--what's up with Celestion anyway? First, they moved the standard range to China and now a huge markup on the Blues. Damn! From what I heard from Celestion in an email a couple months ago, they will be keeping the Blue, G-12H30, Greenback RI in the UK while all others have either been made in China or are going to be moved to China. That probably explains the recent huge $$ markup on the Blues...Oh well.

As far as Ted's stuff goes--I love his drivers. They sound great and seem to take a bit of abuse. If you noticed the older Webers, they had stamped venting on the frames that did not have rolled edges. Now, at least in his Blues, they have a rolled vent edge which gives structural stability. Accroding to Ken Fischer, the older Webers used to occasionally get a rub when the amp/speaker was tossed around a bit too hard. According to him, it was because of the tight voice coil gap [compared to a Celestion, Eminence, or EV] and the frame vents being non-rolled edges. My Alnico Weber seems to be a tough little driver. Sounds pretty good as well.

Thanks for the info.

Jason

[BibFortuna]

Ted offering Celestions?

woah, that'll flip you over one. what's wrong with his 15 watt P12B? i loved mine in my old jenkins cab. not as taut, and a bit looser sounding, but killer nonetheless.

[Jason]

Mark,

Haha--I screwed up The bell is removable--looked permenantly attached where it meets the frame. Well, I took the label off and unscrewed the bell--and it barely fits. Sounds damn good though.

Thanks for making me take another look at it.

Jason

[markh]

I didn't want to doubt you, but I *know* Ted magnitizes his magnets in place once the speaker is complete, and that would be tough to do with a bell cover in place.

--mark

[Jason]

Mark,

Do you know if the Celestion Alnico Blue makes for a good fit in this amp? By taking the bell off of the Weber, you get about 1/4" or less of clearance between the right hand EL-84 enveolpe and the magnet structure. Do you know whether the Celestion gives a bit more room here?

BTW, that's pretty interesting info regarding magnetizing the ring magnet. So, the Alnico is "charged" after the speaker is put together?

Jason

[markh]

There's more info on the Weber site. When they recone, they demagnitize to clean out the gap, then remagnetize when they're done.

I don't know about Celestion blue size vs. Weber - I've never been able to justify that price!

--mark