Carvin PS15C -- recone, or replace??

[groovaholic]

I recently bought a Carvin V115 cabinet at a pawn shop for roughly $80.

Last week, I was playing my new amp through it and had some microphonics issues with one of the preamp tubes -- the speaker let off a high pitched squeal loud and high enough to make my dog bolt out of the room.

I backed off the gain and made the squealing stop, but shortly afterward, I played a low note and the cab went silent.

Now, I get distorted sound at any volume -- so my guess is that the voice coil is cooked.

The speaker is a Carvin PS15C -- a cast frame 15" made by Eminence.
I can get it reconed for roughly $70.

I liked the sound of the speaker -- it sounded good for bass guitar in a full-range application, despite a small Xmax of only 1.9mm...

Would I be better off spending my money on a different driver altogether?

If so, what driver would give the best performance for the lowest price?
Cab is 4.31 cu ft with a shelf port across the bottom.

 

[will33]

I'd recone it.

I used to have the same cab in the '90's. Very good sounding "full range" 15.

I don't believe the xmax spec. If that were true, my sound would've been a constant distorted mess. It wasn't. Quite clean actually.

Either the spec is off, or it just sounds Really good in it's non-linear region, as that's where mine would've operating on every single note I played for years.

Still wish I had that cab sometimes. Just a really good balance of lows, highs, power, etc. in a single speaker.

The cab should net Internal around 3.8-4 cu.ft, allowing for the space taken up by the driver and shelf port. Tuning was high 40's - 50hz.

 

[Quackhead]

I had a PB300C combo which was loaded with that speaker. I liked the sound of it.

 

[groovaholic]

Might not need to replace OR recone!
Last night, I pressed gently on the cone and the suspension feels smooth.
There is none of the gritty feel that would indicate an overheated voice coil.

So I removed the speaker from the cabinet and what I did find was a loose solder joint on one of the tinsel wires.
I'll re-solder that tonight and see if that fixes it completely...

 

[groovaholic]

Re-soldering the tinsel wire fixed it!

Speaker is back in the game for a grand total of $0

 

[BassmanPaul]

I'm really pleased that you sorted out your problem.

To make this an especially happy post I used an Icon that I have never used before!! LOL

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

I love $0 fixes!