What Would You Pay For Old Celestions?

[Blackburn]

Old G12 alnicos are around $400 a pop right now and some the ceramics are closer to $350. Anyone feel these prices are not too bad for original Pulsonic cones? I've spent more than the average guy on new stuff (ASW Elegante/Fane AXA Alnico) so these figures don't seem too crazy to me and are actually lower than I expected before I started poking around. I know some people call it crazy to spend like that on speakers, but I've been more than satisfied with the Elegante, not the Fane, and will continue to do so because I do think you get what you pay for. That's just me. Any thoughts on this 21st century madness?

David

[Reeltarded]

Ebay recones if you don't mind competing with my friend Billy. He has snagged some unreal deals in the last year.

Me? I would never pay so much. I have less than that in the cabinets full of them. hah

Is it worth it? Are you restoring a cabinet that already has a buyer and it's worth it? No. No, it isn't worth it then. I think new speakers are also out of range. I quit using the original 20-25s and started voicing everything to sound good with 75s. I can buy a whole 800 cabinet full of those for under $400. That is what I did.

[Blackburn]

Send me one of your 800 cabinets and you can have that voltmeter you're afraid to ask me for. I won't even charge the shipping.

[Reeltarded]

Dood! I need that meter. Especially since I think the ear demon appears to be going on a vacation!

If you need a deal on an 800 cabby with 75s just give it a few weeks here. I haven't been looking even and I turned down a very nice one for $400 just a few weeks back. $350-450 around here. I think I could even drop it covered with the casters down at a bus station and have it to you in less than a day. You might find one locally as cheap though. Ebay has a few drop in the 250-300 range because of shipping offset. Bummer!

[Blackburn]

Just messin about needing a cab. You saw my restored Ampeg V4 so I'm covered 4x12 wise (talk about heavy mothafu*%ing duty) with just 3 ASW Crossroads to go. Their B stock ones are $180 which ain't too bad, when they have them. You should check em out.

And dude if you want I'll trade you the meter. I got the box, papers and all. I'm always down for parts... Or Confederate currency of course.

[David Root]

Two years ago I paid $850 on the Bay for four '77 Celestion blackbacks with original 55Hz cones. I put them in two 2x12 cabinets.

They are superb with an old Marshall head loaded with Mullards, and also sound really good with the Dumble ODS #102 I recently built, quite similar to older G12-65s.

[Blackburn]

That's not too bad for four of them suckers. I've really just been eyeballing the alnico pulsonics. Only two for my personal applications whereas ceramics smoke so much more when they are in a 4x12. I may eventually try the blackbacks because of the big price difference, though. Have any clips of yours?

[David Root]

I would have to get some of my better equipped pals to make a clip of them for me. It's something I need to do on the #102 anyway. I sold the Marshall head recently, it was a '77 too, 50W.

[BIG Dave]

Deals do show up. A few years ago there was a local Craigslist ad that read "Old Marshall Speaker $1000". No pictures in the ad. I emailed the seller asking for some pics. It was a basketweave! I asked him to read me the codes off the speakers as well as the codes off the cones. Yup, all original 1968 Greenbacks! Told the guy I'd be there within the hour, he responds back not to bother if I planned on offering him less than $800, as $800 was the least he would take. I was there in no time with $800 cash (with a guitar and amp to try the cab out of course). I would have given him $1,000 no questions asked if he didn't say he would accept $800!

And then there's the 1963 Princeton I bought for $7 ! All the guy wanted was "beer money"!

[Blackburn]

Deals do show up. A few years ago there was a local Craigslist ad that read "Old Marshall Speaker $1000". No pictures in the ad. I emailed the seller asking for some pics. It was a basketweave! I asked him to read me the codes off the speakers as well as the codes off the cones. Yup, all original 1968 Greenbacks! Told the guy I'd be there within the hour, he responds back not to bother if I planned on offering him less than $800, as $800 was the least he would take. I was there in no time with $800 cash (with a guitar and amp to try the cab out of course). I would have given him $1,000 no questions asked if he didn't say he would accept $800!

And then there's the 1963 Princeton I bought for $7 ! All the guy wanted was "beer money"!

All I can say is... You lucky mothaf&*$er...

Nice one, fellow Dave.

[Jerry2013]

Yup, all original 1968 Greenbacks! !

G12m-20's or25's? What area are you in? I saw an ad for a cabinet around Austin, furhter north, cannot recall, and it was old, but can't recall exactly.
If they are G12M 20-s ( The EVH Holy Grail of speakers), can you tell me how to ID them just in case for the future?

[selloutrr]

You pay top dollar for individual speakers. You can still find reasonably priced speaker cabinets with 2 or 4 speakers for under a grand. Bringing the price below $250 a speaker. Craigslist .

Anything on eBay these days is rather $$$

[Jerry2013]

So , I get it. Your hoggin the info. The less people who know, the better chance you can still score off Ebay.Forget it, I'll look it up myself.

[Reeltarded]

The 20w marked speakers are easy to spot. They clearly say 20w. They are 25w speakers before they had the balls to mark them 25w.

The speaker that isn't a 25w speaker is the PA cab 15w 12. Those sound great for about 3 runs at a solo before the coil melts or the speaker rips near the edge and the surround comes apart in a catastrophic and glorious.. silence that makes everyone laugh.

There. Go fish.

[Scumback Speakers]

Hunting on Craigslist and the Recycler (in Los Angeles at least) is about the only way to find old speakers at the lowest cost.

But you have to know exactly what you're looking for and I'd strongly recommend you bring test equipment when you do. I've received supposedly "good speakers" only to find two out of four had voice coil rub or other issues when tested individually. That's the problem with testing all four in a cab (still mounted). The good ones can mask the bad ones and you might not hear their issues.

As for still finding good deals, sure, that can happen, but usually it's rarer than you think, and you have to be prepared to do some fixes/retrofits back to stock specs.

I recently bought a 69 Super Bass 100w and a 74 slant checkerboard cab with G12M Creambacks here in So Cal.

The SB needed to be returned to stock from it's poorly done "high gain" mod, and once it had decent mustard caps, the 4th preamp tube removed, and the crap installed by some guy doing the "Billy Zoom" mod it went from sounding like a JCM900 buzz saw to the glorious amp it really is.

But once again, it cost $400 with parts and labor to retrofit it. So be advised that you have to be pretty self sufficient with regard to buying used speakers and amps to identify what's good and what's crap.

Speakers are a real crap shoot now. I would strongly advise you to have a waveform generator, and alligator clips hooked up to a 1/4" plug or jack to individually test the speakers at volumes less than their rating to make sure you don't smoke them.

Hope that helps.

Jim