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Lil Orphan Ampeg

#21
sorry to hear about the original speaker's demise......

whenever i have a need for a reasonably priced vintage inefficient speaker, i look for an old oxford ceramic 12 w/original cone. they suck up the power, distort smoothly, and sound bitchen' and with alot of amps (harsh twin reverbs come to mind).
 
#22
I haven't had time to look at the efficiency specs, but Ted offers several reproduction
AlNiCo alternatives for Fanes, CTS and the Blue Dogs.

When the speaker went today, I was playing lightly at 1/2 volume, so it may have
been on it's last legs anyway.
 
#23
FFTT said:
Yes I live in utter shame and foolishness and feel lower than the putrid festering boils
on the buttocks of a flea!

The original driver sounded so darn good at very comfortable working volumes.


Unfortunately, Ted is very seriously ill awaiting a lung transplant.
Weber VST has suspended re-coning for the time being.

The entire music community has sent thousands of prayers, mojo and blessings
to Ted and his family.

I will get the original driver re-coned, but then it will stay in storage.
Click to expand...

Yeah See your BASSISM is showing. Pure Guitard would shove another in and blow it up too.

Er the other one was on its last legs? Boy talk about cheesey justification. Well yeah after you woke it up from years of peaceful slumber and shook loose a blood clot.

The poor thing had a stroke the next time you asked it to do anything.

Ah it will be fine once fixed. It sure sounded good though. Hopefully after another 45 years the new cone will sound as good. Then there's always speaker cream...

BOB
 
#24
Retro Music, the shop that sold me the amp is going to keep an eye out for another period correct CTS AlNiCo.

I'm already beating myself up enough for not following my gut instincts
to pull the original driver for storage.

It just sounded so good!

I'm probably going to end up with a conservatively rated 30 watt
AlNiCo that isn't too boomy or too shrill.

The problem is that there are too many to choose from and most
good AlNiCos run upwards of $200.00
 
#25
Yes Weber has not been reconing for a dang good while now.
The guys at Northwest Speaker here in Atlanta do a fine job of reconing.

Pretty sure Weber's Shop is still functional is it not?

You can order a Blue Dawg with a 30 Oz Magnet on it and it will be much quieter than a standard. He built me one like that for my 5E3, a smaller magnet than standard for a given model.
 
#26
I e-mailed Weber for suggestions.

The amp had this wonderful quiet roar and the speaker stayed clean up to
about half volume then broke harder as you turned up the volume. Perfect!

It sounded underpowered until you really listened and consider what
this amp sounds like with a great signal chain for recording or with a good PA.

The higher efficiency drivers will give you more clean headroom and make the
amp more suitable for cutting through the mix with a louder band, but I was
totally fine with quiet roar.
 
#29
jokerjkny said:
cause they squish oh so nice...
Click to expand...

Tehe. 'Tis true! I have two original 10" AlNiCo speakers in an early '60s Beltone amp I have. Low wattage things, they are. Squish out sex magic.


...but I'm still interested in his reasons. If he's purely interested in it for the sake of "well, that's what was in there," then we could perhaps suggest other options that are also lovely and less expensive. But if he wants it to be tonally consistent, well then....
 
#33
I'm being careful with the Reeves through my 73' SVT 8X10

The Ampeg R12R did have new caps, so it wasn't 100% original, but yeah
I'm still totally bummed out about the original driver.

I've always preferred AlNiCos in every amp I play through for bass or guitar.

Juicy, squishy and all kinds of jangle at the top end.

The R12R is not a very loud amp with the original driver and that
kinda fooled me into dropping my guard.

When the speaker blew the next day, I was only at 1/2 volume
messing around with the tremelo settings, just barley strumming
and it suddenly just quit.

This was the first time I have ever lost a speaker in any amp.

You can't make me feel any worse than I already do.
 
#34
dmusic148 said:
Umm, sure. As if the amp had never been cranked in those 45 years. Chill, dude. It's an old speaker, and it died, that's all. Geez.
Click to expand...

No I take it so seriously I'm going to hunt him down and take his amp away from him. Totally disrespected the thing, he doesn't deserve to own it. :scowl: RIGHT PAUL?

Like I need to explain myself? FFTT says he's a long time AMPEG GUY (who does need to fill out his profile) , I was just giving him some POOPY, yeah and stop bringing it up, he already feels bad enough.

I was hoping to hear he's got it re-coned already.

Sheesh... Sometimes, this place has guys that are way too serious. Hang on here I need to cut myself some more here. AH Much Better.. BOB
 
#36
rbonner said:
No I take it so seriously I'm going to hunt him down and take his amp away from him. Totally disrespected the thing, he doesn't deserve to own it. :scowl: RIGHT PAUL?

Like I need to explain myself? FFTT says he's a long time AMPEG GUY (who does need to fill out his profile) , I was just giving him some POOPY, yeah and stop bringing it up, he already feels bad enough.

I was hoping to hear he's got it re-coned already.

Sheesh... Sometimes, this place has guys that are way too serious. Hang on here I need to cut myself some more here. AH Much Better.. BOB
Click to expand...

OMG, WHY WOULD YOU CUT YOURSELF?! :eek:
 
#37
I'll be taking that eternal dirt nap before I ever sell this amp.

For regular studio use, the amp really could use a well chosen speaker upgrade, but
for collector value, it probably is best to just buy another " period correct "
Ampeg label CTS AlNiCo.

Jeff at Retro Music will try to locate another one for me if he can.
 
#38
JimmyM said:
Geez, I thought for sure that speaker could take it. It's all my fault.

Not really, but I really did think those CTS's could take a Reverborocket dimed.
Click to expand...

Yeah I kinda cringed when I read you saying go ahead crank it up...

Reminds me of a guy who built his own airplane back at my home airport. Everybody was telling him, this thing is a POS you will kill yourself in it. I said to him at a party where I had about half a keg in me. Yeah I think its great and only in America that a guy can (sit on his toilet) design an airplane (on a toilet roll) build it in his garage and fly it. He told me thanks and that I was the first person to support him. Three days later the wings came off at a couple thousand feet.

You can read the NTSB report and I DO have photos of the A/C before the crash.... You want guilt? I also fired a guy from my company and he ate a huge gun... BOOM. I even liked that guy.

Stand By I need to cut myself again... Ahhhhh, so much better. Starting with a speaker is good, I jumped in with both feet.

BOB
 
#39
Wow, that's some heavy stuff. I'm sure you realize that you had zero to do with their deaths, though. Most people would go with the 20 no opinions rather than the one yes opinion. And yours wasn't even a yes opinion but a statement of the greatness of being able to come up with a plane design on the can. Guess it doesn't make it any easier to take when it happens, though.

Still, who'd have thought that an 18w amp could kill a guitar speaker? It's not even that loud.
 
#40
JimmyM said:
Wow, that's some heavy stuff. I'm sure you realize that you had zero to do with their deaths, though. Most people would go with the 20 no opinions rather than the one yes opinion. And yours wasn't even a yes opinion but a statement of the greatness of being able to come up with a plane design on the can. Guess it doesn't make it any easier to take when it happens, though.

Still, who'd have thought that an 18w amp could kill a guitar speaker? It's not even that loud.
Click to expand...

Yeah Thanks, Jimmy. The A/C guy I just kinda dealt with, I was much younger and didn't really know the guy. The Employee sort of haunted me until last year when I actually sat down and talked to HIS BROTHER at length about it. I sort of told him my problem and he told me the problems his brother had that were NON-work related and I was finally able to put it to rest.

Not that loud? Man that thing sounded good! I just KNEW it was going to be toast hahahaha.

BOB
 

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