guitar speakers

[airboss]

I once owned a custom made guitar amplifier using a Fender Rhodes amp as a base. I had a single 12 cabinet that used a 12" Altec Lansing cast frame guitar speaker.

Who knows what the cat number for that series? I seem to recall something like an 812-C or thereabouts. Ring any bells?

Thanks in advance for the replys
Dan

[cclark65]

I think the 417 series were the most famous of the "guitar" speakers. They were used by lots of artists exclusively, such as Randy Rhoads and Carlos Santana.

You can find them on Ebay quite often, although at a premium price a lot of times. The 417-8H series II was one of the more popular revisions.

There is none currently on ebay, but go here and you'll see photos and prices of completed auctions (you'll have to sign in probably) http://search-completed.ebay.com/sea...oo=1&sbrftog=1

[MikeInNH]

About 25 years ago a good friend of mine in college was a guitar in a small local (but very popular band). He was a Computer Science and Music major. At the time he was using a Fender amp and speaker. We were talking one day about the equipment he used and I asked if he ever tried Altec. He said he heard about Altec, but never listened to them. One day we made a trip to our Local Altec dealer and he fell in love. He said he never heard his guitar sound so real and alive. He bacame a Altec finatic. Even bought a pair of A-7's for his home speakers.

[airboss]

Thanks Charles, that is indeed the one. I had it hooked up to 4 6L6s in parallel push pull with a showman output transformer. Wow!

And Mike, you're friend is so right.

The prices I see in Ebay are Cheap for what you get. I'll put the right numbers in and snap the next one up.

Thanks guys

[bfish]

Originally posted by Charles Clark:
.....Now if I could just convince myself to sell the 3 I have laying out in the garage!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Save 'em for your studio.

[Russ Farrell]

Hi Airboss:
The "C" you remember may be for a 417-8C. The 8C and earlier 417's were popular for lead guitar amps. Altec engineering started "improving" the 417-8C by reducing distortion. The later 417-8H and 8H II were improved so much, they made good PA and monitor woofers. But most musicians (and guitar amp companies) liked the Electro Voice EVM-12L type for their upgrade lead guitar amps. The right kind of distortion gives the speaker its unique sound.

The Altec ER-12 designed by Scott Leslie in the early 1980's was easily the equal or better than the EVM's in most peoples' opinion. Scott is a musician, and he engineered in the "right sound". If you get a chance, try one; or the 417A, B, or 8C. They all sound a bit different.

73, Russ

[airboss]

Thanks Russ. I do remember a C.

[cclark65]

Glad I could be of help.

Now if I could just convince myself to sell the 3 I have laying out in the garage!

[417 - Alnico]

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...pro/page14.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...-mi/page07.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...-mi/page04.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...vers/page1.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...vers/page2.jpg

[Russ Farrell]

Hi 417 - Alnico,

I was OEM sales manager for Altec in Anaheim from 1982 until they moved to Oklahoma City in 1984. After Altec was bought by Mark IV, the owner of EV at the time, they may have changed or combined the ER's with their EVM's. I didn"t try to keep track after I left Altec. It sounds like you have done extensive research, and I'm not arguing one bit with what you say. I don't even know if EV assembled the ER's in OKC or Buchanan. (I"m surprised they even kept them in the product line). But here's how the ER's came to be.

Altec had severe financial problems. As one part of the plan to survive, they wanted to take away EV's share of the guitar speaker market (!). Scott Leslie was the engineer assigned to design the speakers. He did FFT tests and listening tests on EV, Celestion, and a bunch of others. Then he went to work on the ER's. I kept in close contact with him since I needed samples for Fender, Acoustic, Music Man, and others to try. It took over 6 months to put together what was supposed to be the final one. He ran the FFT anaysis in the lab and it looked real good. Then he loaded it in a guitar amp. In the listening room he played his guitar for probably 10 minutes. No talking, until he put the axe down and said "Thats sounds like s**t". I'm not a musician, but I agreed, and grinned from ear to ear. Both of us wanted ER's to be really good speakers. Thats Altec's legacy.

His was a gutsy statement; the VP's and above were desperate for big and quick sales. But he worked another 3 months or so before coming up with the final speaker design. It did sound somewhat similar to the EVM, because that's the sound everyone was used to. But not exactly the same, because then why would anyone want to change from EV? The OEM version speakers had no label, no fancy paint job, etc. A small run of OEM's was made for me to use as samples. The first production runs were brought out in retail versions as the ER10, ER12, and ER15.

417 Alnico, I hope this info helps with the history you've compiled. By the way Scott had worked for Fender after college. And you've heard of the Leslie rotary speaker? That was his father.