new speakers for a 2x12 to complement a sunn solarus

[danbress]

I have a sunn solarus with a pair of 6550's in it which I believe is rated around 60 watts.  The speakers in my 2x12 cabinet are original, and I want to replace them because they sound pretty bad.  Can anyone recommend speakers?  

Someone told me the celestion green back's are good.  But they are only rated at 25 watts each, so if I put two in would they be able to handle the power of the solarus?

I play hardrock/punk sound, so I am definatly not looking for a blues tone.  Any advice would be helpfull.

[Fred Cook]

Get 'em reconed?

The original 12" speakers in my '67 Solarus were monsters.

Should be someone in the Balto/DC area who can help.

[danbress]

how much would reconing cost?  I am actually in rochester now, and know of a guy who does great work building amps.  His name is John Nau.  Here are my concerns about reconing

1) Will it cost less than $175
2) Will it sound as good as a new pair of celestions
3) Will the quality be as good as a new pair of celestions.
4) is it possible there the speakers sound bad due to a none cone related problem(Ie busted magnet)

I am just curious
 

[Bill K.]

Check your tubes first! Preamp and output. I'd guess if your speakers aren't blown, the problem is in the head. has it ever been recapped? Check that as well. I would get those speakers reconed if possible. It should cost less than $170 for both.

[danbress]

I just had the amp serviced 1 month ago today by a technician in MD.  And I am pretty sure he did the works on it.  I think I might take the amp to a music shoppe and rip through some new cabs to try and isolate the problem.

DB

[Fred Cook]

Double check everything. Sunns are pretty durable. Tubes and caps wear. Those monster ceramic magnet speakers were right up there with JBLs and the big 12's in Fender Twins. If they don't show physical damage or a clear, level dependent sound of falling apart (coil separated from the cone), I would suspect that they are still fine.

Running the amp through a known good cab is a good start.

[danbress]

I am going to the studio this weekend, And hopefully my boy there will have some 8ohm cab's I can try out.

If i want to run two cabinets off the one head, should they both of 8ohms?  I am considering building another 2x12 8ohm to give me a little more sound reinforcement.  Any thoughts on this?

[Anonymous]

I have a Sunn Solarus that I bought new in 1970; piggyback style with 2 6550s and 60watts RMS rated.

I never liked the sound of my Sunn speakers as they seemed to have no bass response at all; blew one (not sure how as I never ran them that hard).  I finally replaced both speakers with Celestion Vintage 30s and found the tone much smoother and more balanced.  I also replaced the output tubes with a set of Groove Tubes that weren't quite as "clean" as the 6550s that were in the amp.  This gave it a little more warmth as well (I think the GT rating was "5" on the output tubes...I can check if you'd like).  The amp still is very clean, but has more tonality to it.

Any questions, write to me at mcruzzer@aol.com

Jim

[Anonymous]

Two less expensive ways to go with speaker replacement would be Celestion Vintage 30's or Mojo makes speakers that sound very similar to the Vintage 30's for quite a bit less.

[creitzel]

For a punk sound, I would switch to EL34s.   I did that to my late 70's Marshall and the sound was much improved.  Don't know about the Sunn cabs or speakers, but I run my (EL34 equipped) Solarus through a pair of Fender bassman 2-12 cabs and it sounds real good.  I have always liked having a 2-12 cab on each side of the stage.

Ted Weber charges $45 bucks per recone.  Check his speaker board for the straight dope on the recone-or-replace question.  Someone there, possibly Ted, will have good info.  

http://www.webervst.com/wwwboard/guitars/guiboard.html?

take it easy,
Charlie

[louielouie]

i switched to 2 carvin 12's in my solarus with el34 groove tubes & 12ax7's instead of 12at7's. WHAT A DIFFERENCE

[Isaac]

I've been told that the Carvin's are rebadged Eminence Betas. Odds are you can get a better deal than from Carvin. Try http://www.avatarspeakers.com/