Utahs and Oxfords

[Ted]

I have a bunch of blown Utah and Oxford speakers, mainly from 70s Silverface Fenders.


I always get Jensens from older Fenders reconed. But I'm not sure it's worth it with these, which weren't that great sounding to begin with.

So: What do people think? Recone or scrap?

[DRH1958]

It depends on what you want from the amp. If it is originality, get a recone or hunt down originals. If you want it for your enjoyment and good sound, since you didn't like the original sound, get speakers you like the sound of and toss the old ones.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Recone or scrap?

Sell. I cleared out a cubic yard of scrap speakers on ebay about 15 years ago. Some recone shops will either recone & resell on ebay or elsewhere, or keep the frames until someone asks and recone them then. There's a market for everything, well almost.

One guy on the Jersey shore took all my Celestions & other heavy duty speakers, another guy all the way out in North Dakota took the Jensens & other lightweights. Got about $30/frame for the heavies & $10/frame for the lightweights & threw in a couple of freebies. Buyers paid shipping. Hassle: had to spend time packing & hauling to UPS. Benefit: elbow room in the garage, no pile of useless old cardboard boxes ready to tip over. All in all it was worthwhile.

[J M Fahey]

It also depends on where you are.
In USA there's tons of modern Jensens for a reasonable price, those who want OEM/vintage have lots of organ "pulls" and such, and junking not_so_famous ones, or perceived as second raters (although they were perfectly fine for Leo in the day) can be junked, specially because reconing is relatively expensive.

Outside USA they can be perceived in a very different way.

Here in Argentina Customs will complicate the business, they will pay same tax as new, working ones, plus International Freight, but if I had, say, a Container with 1000 or 2000 of them I could make a lot of money reconing and selling them, what matters in the eye of the public is the "Fender" sticker in the back.

Short ago somebody posted a similar case in Australia, getting a perfectly working Oxford was considered a lucky move.
Buyer knew that a Celestion or a "good Eminence" was better but way too expensive but this one was much cheaper and "good enough".
FWIW it was mounted in a cabinet and when driven by a Fender clone sound was very good.
That did not surprise me at all.

FWIW2: classic Ampeg V4 4x12" cabinets are perceived as killer, loud and fat sounding cabinets; guess what they are loaded with?







yup: Oxford/Eminence/OEM_speaker_of_the_day

Of course, all them sound killer because most people listen with their eyes, and nobody can fail to notice the massive build cabinet, the unmistakeable blue-white-silver grill and the prestigious Ampeg badge.

Guess what? those cabinets do sound killer ... and use popular, not elitist speakers

Oh well.