The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a new Fender De Ville amp that came with the 4 10s in it....Very good sound, but I am going to install a BW 1501-4 into it!...The front mounting board on the Fender is removable with about 6-8 screws. I'll cut the same size mounting board, only with a hole to fit the BW. The De Ville has a 8 ohm load if used with the stock 4 10s. But, it will handle a 4 ohm min load if you use the main speaker out(at 4 ohms), with no ext. speaker. The De Ville has a real rich and warm tone as it is. I am just wondering how the Black Widow will do?

I hope you don't end up in divorce court... might want to get a pre-nup agreement.

I have a Blues Deluxe that's similar to the DeVille, but with 40 watts and a single 12. It's real nice for a home practice amp, just not loud enough to gig with. Aren't the DeVilles 60W??

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bterry.home.netcom.com

I did a similar thing with an Aims amp once. The owner (my step-father-in-law) got drunk one night and kicked out the four 10" speakers. I took it home, cut a new front baffle fit for a 15" speaker, and mounted a JBL in it. Sounded great - it actually improved the amp.

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Bobby Lee www.b0b.com/products
Sierra Session S-12 E9th, Speedy West D-10, Sierra S-8 Lap

Yes, it is a 60 watt amp, but it seems so loud!...I just want to have something to work with. I think it will end up sounding like a Vibrasonic!( I hope so)

It will definately have a better range of tone ,But I don't think it will be as loud. Check this out with a amp tech.

I don't know Buck, it is really loud.

Chris Lang wrote: I am just wondering how the Black Widow will do?

Isn't it easy to test the Fender amp with the Peavey speaker still in the Peavey box?

Well, I do not have a black widow mounted in any cabinet yet, so it would be hard to get a true opinion.

Hey Chris, give me a shout. I have a classic 115e that you can try.

Chris...If you can locate someone in your area who has a Peavey Nashville or Session amp with the 1501 BW, maybe they would allow you to try their speaker before doing the installation. The Peavey speaker plugs into the amp chassis using a 1/4" jack, as does the Fender I believe. Simply unplug the speaker in each amp and run the speaker cord from the Peavey to the input on the Fender. (If you place the amps back to back, the cable should reach). FWIW...I had a Hot Rod Deville 212 and performed this experiment and actually preferred the tone of the amp with the stock speakers.

I have a HR deville 410 and regularly unplug the speakers and use the 115 Black Widow from my Nashville 400..still in the cabinet..sounds great for steel..and I switch back as I prefer the 4 10s for tele..no impedance problems so far

It is hard to compare a highly efficient JBL to stock speakers. Probably would sound better.


However if you were put in 4-10" efficient speakers (JBL,SICA,etc) you might be in for a big surprise.

Each time you double speakers the amps output goes
up 3db. From 1 to 2 speaker, 3db. From 2-4 speakers another 3db increase in SPL.

So, a 40 watt amp with 4-10" will produce the same volume as a 160 watt amp one 10" speaker.

Another plus is the fundamental low frequency double when you double speakers.

I was shocked years ago when 1 built 6 Vibroverb clones, same amp as s Super Reverb. For low end and all around performance the Super Had it beat!

Jim Evans and I talked about the 4-10' cab and I learned much from him about 4 speaker cabinets. Jim is now using 4 very efficient 8" speaker in a cab for steel guitar!

I hope to build a 4-8" soon for testing. Keep in mind what these new speakers can do compared to the older ones. Bass players are using 10" speakers in Hartke and many other amps with great results!

My story,

Years ago I bought a Hot Rod Deluxe as a chassis only and had a 4-10 pine cab built for it by JD Newell. I loaded it with Jensen P10Rs.(now no longer a cheap amp) Amazing and quite a loud amp. While different, it responds much like my Super Reverbs with big bottom and loud clean. I first ran it with stock DeVille 10" speakers I had in the shop. They, although near new and in good condition, were pretty flabby on the bottom end.

I recently changed the baffle in my Twin Reverb and installed a D130F. Big change in tone with a rounder sound, maybe a bit better for steel tone wise. But.........the volume loss going from 2-12 to 1-15 is very noticable. In an amp with less power I would not be happy with the output.

Running the JBL in the Twin cab with the HRD chassis also results in a very noticable volume loss compared to the 4-10 rig. If you are looking for better/cleaner tone ungrading the 4-10 speakers in the BDv would be my way to go unless you want to run an ext. cab with a second 1501-4 in it.

RH

It took ten years to get that speaker in?

Yeah, I guess I sort of put the project on the back burner. I'm ready to give it a test run now.

Well, I must say that it sounds excellent. Sweet and warm, with plenty of bite!