Recone blown EV 15B? or replace it?

[Ampeg SVT]

I had another thread about this, the problem was diagnosed.

Now I want to know what I should do. Should I recone the speaker? or should I buy a replacement?

I dont have that much money, and as this is an older Mesa, both speaker areas are isolated so its like two 15" cabs put together.

Should I buy a new speaker? I dont have enough to go out and buy a pair, would I need to do other things if I got a replacement or would I just rewire it and thats it?.

Or should I recone it and just leave it be?

 

[projectMalamute]

I'd get it reconed.

I think those Mesa cabs sound great.

A bunch of people will be along to explain that the 15B or 15L isn't as good as modern designs. They will probably even have charts and stuff.

I still think the EV + TL606 sounds great(of which that thing is essentially two of em bolted together). Better than most stuff, modern drivers with impressive specs included.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

Alright, i had BillFitzMaurice tell me to replace them with 3015's. But thats 3 telling me to recone them.

Yeah before I bought the cab I had a few people explaining that the excursion isnt as good as modern speakers.

I plan on switching my GK to something a little more vintage sounding down the road and I hear this is a good cab for vintage tones.

Ill wait and see what others have to say though.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

I don't know squat about 3015s or excursion, but I know I love my 15Bs. Send it down to Orange County Speaker Repair for a recone. They do great work.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

For vintage tone, definately recone. It may feel a bit silly as the recone may cost the same as the 3015, but one of the links in the tone chain is the speaker and the 3015 will sound different. Better to someones ears, but that's a personal preference.

Just my 0.02€
Sam

 

[robgrow]

+1 for recone. Nothing else sounds like an EVM-15B.

 

[jbassbob]

I'd get it reconed.

I think those Mesa cabs sound great.

A bunch of people will be along to explain that the 15B or 15L isn't as good as modern designs. They will probably even have charts and stuff.

I still think the EV + TL606 sounds great(of which that thing is essentially two of em bolted together). Better than most stuff, modern drivers with impressive specs included.

My old Bag End has an EVM-15L that I had re-coned. I guess it depends on the sound your after but I absolutely love it for Blues

It also seems quite fast as it can get as bright and clean as you'd want. I'd say go for the re-cone.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

I noticed it got bright easily (which is good, I like a slightly clean tone sometimes too), I was thinking it was because of my head (GK1001RBII).

Ill still wait for some more opinions as I am sure there are more people that want to know about this as well.
Looks like I will recone though.

 

[Fealach]

Newer speakers are better if you are concerned about weight, power handling, and frequency response. Those EVs don't produce the lows a good modern speaker can.

However, if you use your ears to decide rather than specs on paper (or a monitor screen) it's not so clear cut. Those obsolete old EVs sound different than the modern replacement will, perhaps BECAUSE of the limitations of the old speaker. Great mids, one of the best for an old school blues or rock tone, though not limited to those genres. There are 2 camps here, one group would pull perfectly functional EV speakers out of every cab and sell them for scrap metal because the specs are poor, while others would put them in everything because the tone is so wonderful.

I sold my Diesel 2X15s when I got into 5 string, they just didn't have the lows I wanted. I do love them for 4 string bass though, or in a rig that doesn't use them for the lows.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

I would like more lows in my sound, I never got to hear this cab without the blown speaker though so I dont know what its like, also the previous owner did a weird thing with the bottom speaker.

But the lows were lacking a bit, otherwise if I know that I could get more lows out of the speakers then i will just recone it.

If I were to get new speakers for the cab then wouldnt I need to buy a crossover or something? or do i just take the old speakers out and plug the new ones in and be done with it?

 

[billfitzmaurice]

I would like more lows in my sound

You won't get them with EVMs. This chart shows why. EVM maximum power trace in white, the pink is an Eminence Kappalite 3015. Both in a 3 cu ft cab tuned to 45Hz.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

Great, I might be able to get a set of used 3015's locally, do I need to do anything other than just get the speakers and replace them or do I need to do anything else?

 

[greenboy]

Great, I might be able to get a set of used 3015's locally, do I need to do anything other than just get the speakers and replace them or do I need to do anything else?

Shouldn't have to. Looks by Bill's graph that they live similarly at the same tunings and cab sizes, though one actually isn't going to run out of LF excursion easily.

 

[greenboy]

Should keep the EVs around and recone them later though. There is a market for things of the glory days, and some of this stuff is ideally suited for tube heads and the sounds that come with that turf.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

Is there an inexpensive alternative to the 3015 out there?

 

[greenboy]

Yeah, but it won't be as good - price means something here though partly that has to do with neodymium prices.

Take a look at Carvin's raw speakers. Probably the best bang for the buck out there, and seem to live well in the same boxes. They have some new neos too which might give you the weight advantage.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

Weight isnt something I really care about, its about getting something that works and sounds good.

I would go for the 3015's if it werent for the fact that I blew $350 on the cab recently.

I was thinking about the Carvins but I was told by someone on here that they were garbage.


I also have a question about the installation, the speakers were hooked up by two wires, the plugs they were inserted in didnt have any soldering or anything just little enclosures that you push open and stick the wire in, are other speakers like that or do I have to pull out a soldering gun?

This is a very new thing for me so I just want to know about this stuff.

 

[greenboy]

I was thinking about the Carvins but I was told by someone on here that they were garbage.

Actually most of them are OEM Eminence drivers, some of them have better T-S compromises than their stock Eminence counterparts, and at good prices. They'll pretty much replace anything you find in Ampeg cabs, etc. Truthfully, almost every bass cab company is using about the same budget level of drivers in mild variation, most of them supplied by Eminence, so a lot of the "this sucks, this is good" stuff you hear is Ford/Chevy/Mopar talk that I used to hear in the High School library during lunch hour over copies of Hot Rod magazine ; }

EDIT: in that regard, reverence for some of the old JBL and EV drivers is warranted. They were premium drivers compared to what bass cab manufacturers of the time supplied in their stock configs.

 

[Ampeg SVT]

Alright so if I were to get the Carvin PS15-8ohms then would I need to have the cabinet tuned or something, i keep reading about tuning the cabinet.

Edit: There is also a slight possibility that I can get the 3015's.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

If You choose other drivers than originally in the box, you model the new speaker in WinISD or similar program (or do the math with pen and paper ). Or alternatively trust someone elses modeling results.

That means ONLY BUY speakers with published T/S parameters if You don't have a necessary test equipment to test the cab.

Regards
Sam