Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2020 2:00:14 GMT
When I traded my Dual Showman cabinet for an Ampeg bass cabinet a couple of weeks ago, the fellow that got the Fender cabinet told me an interesting story as we were loading it in his vehicle. He related something he was told by another musician about transporting speaker enclosures that have a heavy magnet structure. Apparently this guy had the weight of the oversize magnets tear the speakers off the baffle board in the cabinet, so now he always loads cabinets face-down so that can't happen. Initially, the idea of loading a guitar speaker grill-side down seemed counter-intuitive, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
A few months ago, I had a chance to acquire an Altec Lansing 421 15" bass speaker that had a frozen cone. I paid 20.00 for it, thinking that even if it needed a recone, it would be a deal and it was a speaker I'd always wanted to own. It turned out to be a learning experience.....The technician at the Vancouver Audio Clinic, who I'd contacted about reconing the Altec, explained to me that it wasn't necessarily just a question of reconing with a new voice coil to replace a toasted voice coil (which was my assumption about why the cone was frozen). Apparently, the huge magnet structure in those Altec 421's is so heavy that if the cabinet is dropped hard, the weight of the magnet actually puts things off-center. It becomes a nightmarish thing to deal with.....It involves cutting out the cone, degaussing the magnet structure, then mechanically recentering the center pole inside the magnet, doing a recone including a new voice coil, spider assembly, and cone/surround, and then finally re-magnetizing the speaker. He had an Altec 421 that he offered to sell me, saying it might be cheaper than trying to resolve the problems with what I had. I ended up having to pass because of the cost, but it gave me a lot to think about....Those heavy magnets are more susceptible to off-centering because they're typically transported with the speaker and baffle board vertical. So, putting the speaker face-down for transport actually makes a heck of a lot of sense.
If nothing else, it made me aware that no matter how long you've been around music gear or been gigging, there's always something new to learn. I ended up trading my original JBL 2x15" bass roadbox for a single 15" Altec Lansing 418 to use with my guitar amp, but if I ever have to move the new box anywhere, I'll be putting it down face-first for sure.
