18Watt.com

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

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

--mark

Mark,

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

Jason

: 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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