The Steel Guitar Forum

I have an early Webb amp and it says that the rms wattage is 225 watts, my question is what is the actual power being delivered to the Jbl k-130 speaker at 4 ohms?

Thanks

Kirk

We put mine on the Mesa test bench once with a sine wave signal generator and a scope, into a 4 ohm resistive load. The wave was perfect up to about 195 watts (incredible!) before it started to clip. So yes, I think there's no doubt that it can deliver 225 watts RMS to the speaker, but you wouldn't want to be in the same room with it at that volume.

Also, it explains why so many people blew out the original speaker in their Webbs. The K-130 was rated for 125 watts continuous sine wave power. If you're going to play really loud, you'd be better off with two 8 ohm speakers.

I bought mine in 1978 and the original speaker lasted until 1992. I was playing pretty loud the whole time, but I didn't have a C6th neck to really push the low end like a lot of guys did.

bOb,

I blew the original JBL out about the same time you did and replaced it with a EV but it just didn't have the "sparkle" that the JBL had. I had it reconed and the voice coil was actually rubbing on the housing, sounds much better with that Jbl than the EV. What about the new speakers they are putting in the new Webb's?

I don't know much about the new Webb amps, Kirk. I recorded a song with one that Tom Bradshaw loaned me and it sounded fine, but I didn't play it at dance band volume.

The Webb I bought from Tom last year had an 8 ohm Eminence Kapalite speaker with a neo magnet.

I bought my Webb around 1980. The JBL lasted about 10 years. I had it reconed and it is still honkin'. I love the sound.

Tom Bradshaw and Bobby Black carried out some experiments with the new Webb 614E amp fitted with a number of different speakers including JBL, Emminence, Black Widow and a couple of others.

Tom told me that they could hear very little difference between all of the speakers, but if anything the JBL was fractionally the best tone-wise. I put a B/W in my new Webb purely and simply because it has a proven track record of being robust and reliable. I bought the amp direct from Tom with no speaker fitted to keep the shipping costs down.

I also put a BW 1501-4 in my Webb. It sounded better that the Eminence. I need to sell the Webb, so I will have to put the Eminence back in.

The K130 in my older Webb started distorting, so I put in an Eminence Kappalite to try out. At first, it sounded really harsh and tinny, but it broke in pretty quickly and I like it now. I have a D130 and a D140 that I've hooked up in external cabinets for A/B testing, and the Eminence holds its own.

what is the model # of the Eminence speaker that is being put in the Webb?