anyone have pic of cts alnico 10' speaker?

[liwei]

i found a guy selling 4 cts alnico 10 speakers (made in 1973,i think they're from a super reverb).he said they're not reconed,but i don't think so.Does anyone have the picture of this speaker with original cone? can't find one on the internet...

btw,how much a fair price should be?thanks!!

[rudutch]

1973 Fender Super Reverb pictures by rudutch - Photobucket

the best I can do, it is a 1973

[liwei]

1973 Fender Super Reverb pictures by rudutch - Photobucket

the best I can do, it is a 1973

thank you. your sr looks pretty new.are these 4 speakers reconed or original??

[rudutch]

one of them had a different tint to the cone, they all were dusty.. I am guessing they were what came with the amp.. I can't check as I sold it

[liwei]

very helpful. thank you very much!!

[Enzo]

Look for the number 137, that is the code for CTS. It is easily seen in the rudutch photo. If you see 137 on your speakers, they are CTS, whether they are original or not. Most cones have various numbers stamped on the rear surface. If you see the CTS code there, then chances are they are the original cones.

[J M Fahey]

Hi Liwei.
In Rudutch's pictures, specifically on http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...verb/010-3.jpg
you can see a couple interesting details:
Using the code label as a reference (064.....), through the top right window you can clearly see that it's the classic seamed cone, traditionally used by Jensen and probably specified by Fender to CTS or whoever supplied them. They were certainly cutting costs, like everybody else, but not compromising sound or quality.
Probably is the original cone, but if not, it's the real deal anyway.
Check that all 4 cones look the same; it's unlikely that all had to be reconed and any different one will stand out.
What makes me wonder a little is that on the two left windows you can clearly see the darker/brighter ring that indicates some light doping. It's very smoothly made, looks factory applied, not some reconer applying it with a brush by hand.
If that SR were a blackface one, I would doubt because the original ones were undoped plain paper, but in a '73, maybe they already started doping. Good for you, or those cone edges would be crumbling by now.
*If* the guy selling those speakers lets you post some pictures, good, but I doubt it.
I've been reconing since the early 70's and building speakers since around '76 or '78.

[liwei]

lot of information, thankyou J.M

i don't have much experience about speaker...i have a guess,maybe stupid: Is the cone the most important component to the tone?? i mean which part contribute most to the tone different betweet, for example ,a jensen ceramic and a celestion greenback ?in other words,if i put a jensen cone to a celestion basket(and mag),can i get jensen tone??

[J M Fahey]

Hi liwei.
*Everything* colors the sound of a speaker: cone, voice coil, magnet, gap, adhesives, dust cap, doping.
Even age: you have 2 similar speakers, one original from the '60s and another freshly reconed with *the same* OEM parts that were kept in a shoebox for 40 years, and they won't sound exactly the same, at least at the beginning.
Compare it to good wine (or whiskey), that mellows and smoothes with age.
Much of the beloved "alnico tone" comes from that.
I guess Ted Weber's success cloning classic speakers, which could not be fully achieved by monster companies like Eminence , Jensen or Celestion, comes from the intense commitment he felt towards good sound.

[Chuck H]

It's true that Alnico ages and changes (weakens?) within a couple of decades while ferrite and ceramic magnets age/change so slowly that you may not hear a difference in a lifetime. The paper cones may still mellow though on speakers with ferrite and ceramic magnets. Still, it makes me wonder...

The guitar pickup guys have caught on and started doing some "degaussing" on magnets for vintage repro alnico pickups. How come we aren't doing this with speakers???

Chuck

[J M Fahey]

Yes, Alnico is a "soft" magnetic material , easy to magnetize (good) but easy to demagnetize also.
It can even lose some power when it's physically hit, such as with a hammer.
Obviously, any amplifier that has been carried from Club to Club in a car's trunk over bumpy roads for 30 years has had its fair share of hard knocks.
Pickup makers have found that very strong magnets make loud pickups, but an unwanted byproduct is that they magnetically "brake" the strings, killing "mechanical/natural" sustain.
The same happens with speakers.
Historically JBLs had been the loudest speakers, but a Twin with a couple orange basket E or K 120's was for me the same as going to the Dentist, while lighter, cheaper Jensens or Eminences were perfect.
A friend of mine who makes very high quality bookshelf speakers slightly de-magnetizes them for uniformity, and to get an exact "Q" of 1 which gives the flattest response, so you're not that mistaken at all.