replacement speakers for a kustom 2x15 cab. help?

[cisv_34]

I need to replace a speaker in my kustom 2X15 tuck and roll cab and i figured while i was at it i would replace them both. and suggestions on replacement speakers, i use a kustom 250 head, that is about 125 watts. i might upgrade to a louder amp at some point so if they could handle 200 to 250 watts that would be a plus but if they can't that is not a deal breaker. thanks in advance for any help.

josh

[lfh]

The 250 was the top of the line, so if the cab originally came with that head it had JBL D140F:s or Altec 421A:s, see



What drivers are in yours? If it's either one of the above, I'd suggest a recone instead of a replacement. If there are lesser drivers in there, I'd look for a pair of JBL K140:s (the successor of the D140F). Provided that you like a darkish vintage tone (think Stax, Motown etc), the old K:s are good even by today's standards, and it'd keep your cab kinda original. (D/F:s are more expensive and also have a lower power handling if the original cone assemblies are still in place.)

Great rig, BTW!

[jnewmark]

Definitely go withh a recone, or JBL K140's, or even E140's. Played that cab for many years with JBL's. A very sweet tone.

[will33]

Going to have to take measurements of the box and ports to really see what will work best. That said, eminence Legend CB158's are some of the friendliest I've seen towards various sizes and tunings. They're also good drivers as far as excursion, power handling, sensitivity...all that. Voicing is on the warm side, not what you'd call forward or aggresive in the mids. Beta's are another option but they can get boomy in smaller ported cabs.

In either case, I'd suggest increasing port area and recalculating length if you ever intend to use them with a more powerful amp than you have. Can keep the current chrome rings for looks but add 2 more ports. Otherwise you'll get chuffing if you play at levels the new speakers will be capable of. Be interesting to see how this turns out. I like the look of that Kustom stuff but never all the way figured out an upgraded version in terms of performance while keeping the classic look.

[jnewmark]

Alsso, and I don't know if this makes a difference when choosing drivers, but , in that cab, the drivers are rear loaded, not front loaded like today's modern cabs. I've had quite a few problems trying to loaad K140's into modern cabs, just to discover that the speaker hole is'nt quite large enough for those old JBL's.

[will33]

If they are JBL's I would say yes, recone. I had the unpleasant experience of using a blue tuck-n-roll kustom rig for a month or two while other stuff was out on repair. I don't know what was in it but it wasn't any kind of tone I'd care to have again. No lows at any appreciable volume...distorted mids, not the good kind of distorted, etc. To be fair there may have been something else wrong with the rig, not just speakers but the whole experience left me thinking, "looks cool, sounds like crap". Maybe yours sounds better.

[cisv_34]

the cab has the standard kustom speakers in it, not the jbl's or altecs. i'm going to look into the JBL K140's, hopefully they will fit my budget. thank for all the quick replies.

[cisv_34]

and i love the tone i can get out of mine, it's got a beautiful deep bass and strong mids and the bright switch keeps the highs audible. my only complaint is the volume, if i could get this to be 50 watts louder it would be perfect. I did record with a 250 through a 3x15 cab and it was amazing, but that would be a huge pain to drag around.

[will33]

Your experience is quite different from mine then but mine was a loaner, who knows what was going on in there. The jbl's can be had, not sure what your budget is. The legends are good retrofits for a lot of cabs at about $130 each.

[dhomer]

Driver and cab design technology has advanced quite a bit since tuck'n roll.. I'm in general agreement w/Will.. measure the inside of the cab and the ports, download WinISD Alpha, and start modeling some of the Eminence 15's. What you want to avoid is a big response hump over that 0dB line.. That's boom. I also agree you'll likely have to at minimum change port depths, and/or add more ports.. Reverse-engineering like this is not the recommended way to build a cab, but there might be something that'll work.. I you got the old square magnets in there, its entirely possible Betas would actually be an upgrade. Might be able to gain volume through greater efficiency as well..

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by dhomer

What you want to avoid is a big response hump over that 0dB line.. That's boom. .

It may be boom but it's also what allowed vintage cabs loaded with short xmax drivers to get usable volume with the low powered amps of the day. It will also be pretty much unavoidable with that cab, as it's too small internally to work well with long xmax low Qts modern drivers, especially with a low powered amp.

[will33]

There's gotta be an inbetween that'll work well, beta's are gonna boom like crazy in that cab unless he seals it. Legends are a lot more friendly until you get way too small, which this thing might be....don't know.

[smoothdave]

Josh, I've got one of those cabs as well, and I was wondering what you ended up with and whether or not you are happy with the result. Thank you.