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One of the best Super Reverbs I've ever heard. Could this be why?

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  • One of the best Super Reverbs I've ever heard. Could this be why?

    Like many of you, we service a steady stream of vintage fenders. We've got a customer who's one of our Super Reverb guys. He seems to go on these benders where he'll acquire a few, one right after the other.
    Anyway, I've always been a fan of a black face Super, and I've had the opportunity to work on many of them. But, the last one he brought in really stood out to me. I mean, it sounded outstanding. It seemed to display a really nice sounding punch in the attack, chimey quality, with quite a bit of output.
    I can't remember what was serviced in the amplifier, but I do remember working in the chassis and bench testing the amplifier before I was able to audio test it. This is what struck me about it. There was nothing internally which would have lead me to think there was anything special about this particular amp. No "voodoo" transformers, coupling caps, resisters, or NOS tubes which set this apart.
    But there was something which I hadn't seen, at least to my memory. It had these 4 grey, unbranded alnico speakers I didn't recognize. They looked old, if not original to the amp, but I didn't think they were CTS. I made sure to take some pictures before it left the shop so I could find see if I could identify them. The only identifier was a numerical code on the end bell. Here are some pics:

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    At first I thought the manufacturers code was the "038" number, but it wasn't. The manufacturer/date code are the bottom digits.
    Much to my surprise, these turned out to be vintage Eminence speakers (manufacturer code "67"), and were made in Week 39 (Sept 22-28) of 1969. I didn't realize that eminence was in production at that point. But, now that I know, I'll be on the lookout.
    If I have a 50% chance of guessing the right answer, I guess wrong 80% of the time.

  • #2
    Nothing comes close to affecting the sound of an amp as much as the speaker does.


    I recall those days of the 1960s, 20% parts, and you could line up a number of new same model amps and play them, and they would each have their own sound. You could pick one you liked best. Or you might buy the one in the store and find a buddy had one that sounded better. And the only difference would be the tolerances of the parts.
    Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.

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    • #3
      I've got a Univox 4x12 cabinet with those speakers, ala Jeff Beck, they have those weird spider like dust cover things.

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      • #4
        I have easily serviced over 100 Super Reverb amps. I have a 1966 SR that is my main playing amp.
        Out of all those amps, I have seen those speakers in maybe 2 or 3 Super Reverbs.
        One of them belongs to a serious professional who lives in my area.

        He and I both came to the same conclusion you did.
        Those speakers are the absolute best match for a Super Reverb. They sound fantastic.

        Steve

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        • #5
          I have to wonder how close they might be to Eminence's contemporary alnico 10 offering, the 1028k. I've never heard those vintage speakers but I did have a quad of 1028k's in a sealed cab for a time and it was a fabulous sounding cabinet. The Legend series speakers have been around a very long time. I don't even know how long but their site says, about the Legend series: "This is the tone that started it all." Many manufacturers have used them unbranded or rebranded and they have served as the platform from which many proprietary rebranded speakers made by Eminence were designed. A customer has a quad of the 1058 ceramic 10's in one of my amps and those sound good too, but the 1028k's in a quad cab were magical.

          In other words, there may be no need to keep your eye out for the vintage speakers. They, or something very similar could be right under our noses.
          Last edited by Chuck H; 02-12-2019, 02:30 PM.
          "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

          "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

          "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
          You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

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          • #6
            No doubt. I happened to come agross a great deal on Eminence 12” Red Fangs. The price was so good I grabbed 2.
            I’m using one in simple open back 1X12 cab and i love it. If was going for a 4x10 cab thing (which I love), i think I would seriously have to consider checking out eminence current production 10s.
            If I have a 50% chance of guessing the right answer, I guess wrong 80% of the time.

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            • #7
              I've found Eminence to be super helpful on speaker identification and technical info on their speakers, I wonder if they would be able to tell you more about them and something modern that might sound similar.

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