I picked up a beat-up SVT-1510HE cab back in october or so. It was made in the 80's and (maybe?) the 90's and rated at 175watts. A 15", 10", and Fostex horn tweeter are inside. From the factory, the 16-ohm 15" and 16-ohm 10" are ran from the low-out of the internal crossover in parallel. The tweeter comes out of the high-out, into a 3-way adjustable L-pad. Anyway, I picked it up used at the local shop with the same problem that most of them developed: a blown 10". Other issues included: ripped grill cloth, shredded tolex on a small section on the front, casters removed, and blue and yellow painted lettering on the tolex. I picked it up for cheap and it has become my project.
The first step was to use winISD to see what better drivers would work in there. In fact, the 4-ohm Gamma 10a and 4-ohm Kappa 15 I had laying around worked as perfect replacements for the blown 10" and low-powered 15". The horn was just fine. I dropped those in there, then the fun began...
I generally don't like the tone of a 15" and a 10" getting the same full-frequency signal. My idea is to use my power amp (Crown XTI-1000) in a bi-amp fashion: Channel one handles only the 15", with a lowpass crossover point at 300Hz. Channel two handles the 10" and horn with a highpass crossover point at 300Hz. The internal 8-ohm passive two-way crossover was replaced by one that sets a 3KHz crossover point between the 4-ohm 10" and 8-ohm horn.
For an amp input, I've installed a Speakon NL4 jack: +1/-1=15", +2/-2=10" and horn. So, this cab can only be run in a bi-amped manner (unless I decide to build an outboard speaker crossover network for it). The factory 1/4" input jack has now been 'capped' with a screw-on lid.
This setup works great! I can't believe how much louder, fuller, and more natural the tone is! Plus, I can adjust the low/high levels right from the front of the power amp.
Let's get to appearance. I found a suitable set of 3" casters to throw on there. But, the tolex and grill needed some work. I decided to make this 1510 have a custom/boutique appearance by adding some color.
Other than the paint on the back of the cab and the ripped area on the front edge, the tolex was in good shape. However, I bought some Duplicolor Vinyl and fabric paint/dye to really have some fun. After removing all of the cab's components and cleaned up the tolex, I put on a burgundy finish. It actually looks like factory burgundy tolex! The stuff is really easy to work with and dries quickly. After it dried, I put the casters on.
The last part is the grill cloth. This is where I need the advice from my fellow bass bretheren. What color grill cloth to use? I have white, off-white, black and tan, and yellow/brown tweed (interesting to see) grill cloth at my disposal. I can tell you that the black and tan, though I thought it would look great, does not look right against the burgundy. Any suggestions?
I'll get some pics up when it's all finished. BTW, sorry for such a long post.
