Old speakers in an Orange 212 open

bbill335

I've got a lead on a pair of old Fane speakers that I want to put in an Orange open-back 2x12 cab.

They're 8ohm, 50w, and have a smooth cone (not the ribbed pulsonic cone I've seen on some examples).

I want classic. I want it to sound like it's from the 70s. I want big, full, singing, all the nonsense labels we attach to nice noises.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with the Fanes and, really, what I want is Celestion greenbacks/creambacks? 

LooseMoose

You're never gonna know until you hook them up. Chance they could be b0rked? If not, give them a go!

bbill335

LooseMoose said:

You're never gonna know until you hook them up. Chance they could be b0rked? If not, give them a go!

I think I might, they're cheap enough.

cosmiccarrot

I'd check there not pa speakers, generally guitar are ribbed cone. Get some more details from the seller.

bbill335

cosmiccarrot said:

I'd check there not pa speakers, generally guitar are ribbed cone. Get some more details from the seller.

They're these ones http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162220565994

I just want some cool, old speakers without breaking the bank on hundreds of pounds' worth of celestions

Bygone_Tones

Go for the ones with ribbed cones for a start.  Also look for any pre-1973 with the pulsonic cones and cast frames. They dont need to be Hiwatt or Sound city to be nice sounding speakers.

Generally speaking, the larger the magnet the more 'thick and syrupy' they will sound. Also I normally half the power rating when using them. So treat a  50 watter like  a 25 watter. The reason for that is because they dont tend to like being pushed hard and will start flabbing in my experience.

Bargains are out there but the key to buying good vintage speakers is to collect them in person and test them yourself before forking out any money. It avoids them getting trashed in the post, and saves you buying coil rubbing horrible sounding speakers.

There are some nice Goodmans out there too.

ICBM

I would agree with all that, except that sometimes the smooth-cone ones can sound very nice too, if you're OK with a thicker/softer tone.

Unlike Celestions, Fanes do not like being pushed hard and their ratings are much less conservative than Celestion's - half is about right if you're going to overdrive the amp, and it's probably why Hiwatt used to label their 4x12"s with four 50W Fanes as 150W, not 200W - so they didn't get used with a 200W amp. Even a DR103 is pushing them pretty far when it's cranked up.

Goodmans even more so… they can be lovely-sounding speakers, but they're very fragile - the ratings are more like hi-fi in the sense that they're rated for maximum clean power only, and they're easy to blow. As a result they had a terrible reputation for being poor quality, but actually they're just rated in a totally different way. If you've got one of the more desirable old Alnico models it's certainly not wise to run it with an amp of more than half the speaker rating, and possibly even less.

bbill335

You guys are EXACTLY who I wanted to weigh in on this. Thanks a lot!

Regarding the try-before-you-buy thing... I can't do that most of the time, so I might just have to rely on buyer's protection if they don't work as advertised.

I will sleep on it and see how I feel about it all tomorrow. Part of me's thinking I should just get decent new speakers, I don't believe in mojo and I wouldn't even be using a particularly old amp with them...

Too much choice.

bbill335

Update: I have a Rola G12S that I don't know what to do with! I am so dumb! It's a T1517 but just one is useless to me unless I can find something to match it.

bbill335

Code is KE11V which, other than the V, seems to date it at 11th May 1972. That's assuming I'm not completely wrong.

Bygone_Tones

date code is Oct 72. they are good speakers, under-rated by most people. i think the 1517 is the selmer version of the 1417. both basically the same speakers but the 1517 usually has the green cover on the back. 

what amp are you using? if its something powerful like a 50 watter you might want to step up the magnet size to a G12M or G12H.

bbill335

It's for a 30watt Orange Rocker 30 so, if I found another g12s, I'd be ok right? Celestions can take it, can't they? I tried it for 5 mins with ~20watt Traynor YGM3 and it sounded pretty good, bass light and throaty with good spank. Bit inefficient for the Traynor, but two with the Orange is a nice prospect at this stage.

I'd like projection without overwhelming dB's, which these might actually be good for. I was thinking I'd just go with Heritage G12Ms but another one of these for a good price would be a lot cheaper!

Bygone_Tones

Should sound good in my opinion if you can find a genuinely good working pair. G12S are a good choice if you want to keep the volume down, or G12L if you want to reduce even further.

But sometimes just buying new is a safer way to spend your money, or at least something made in the last 10 years. Most of the vintage speakers on ebay are in poor condition and worth nowhere near the asking prices, despite what the people selling them claim, and then there is the gauntlet of having them shipped.