Alternative Gear for Jerry Sounds- Pre/power amps, speakers

[strummingturtle]

what about power amps? anything like the QSC i should check out?

i

Clay[/quote]

I have a mosvalve mv-962 power amp that I got used for about $200 and it sounds great and is a work horse built like it will last a long long time.. I have it paired up with a sms classic and powering one sometimes two jbl's. They work very well in getting a nice jerry tone in my opinion.

[tigerstrat]

Is there something special about QSC power amps other than their general quality, reliability and value? You could probably get identical sound characteristics from a dozen other brands of power amp, like Mackie, Yorkville, EV, JBL/UREI, Crest, Crown, Carvin, and on and on.

H&K Bluesmaster seems to be making the rounds of these threads based solely on its use by Kadlecik. FYI, for about a decade prior, he used a "red knob" (mid-80's) Fender combo as a preamp (with the speaker removed).

[jeffm725]

Is there something special about QSC power amps other than their general quality, reliability and value? You could probably get identical sound characteristics from a dozen other brands of power amp, like Mackie, Yorkville, EV, JBL/UREI, Crest, Crown, Carvin, and on and on.

H&K Bluesmaster seems to be making the rounds of these threads based solely on its use by Kadlecik. FYI, for about a decade prior, he used a "red knob" (mid-80's) Fender combo as a preamp (with the speaker removed).

Spot on, nah, I dont think any of those SS poweramps are going to sound too much different. Maybe a touch here and there, but I cant imagine them being too different if you think of what their actual intent is.(to provide pure clean, transparent power for PA's)...QSC is just about the reliability and value per watt.

John K used a super 60 iirc? When I played with him in 2000 I think that was what he was using. Ironically he paired it with a QSC poweramp and a PRS NF3 (or it looked exactly like an NF3!) that had been modded with Super 2's.

[claytushaywood]

so... to get back to the original gist of this thread. what are there in terms of speakers besides the jbl's. i'm really not into risking it on ebay. even if the sellers accept returns they are like 3 or 7 days in which id have to buy two jbls to even be able to try em out. what other speakers are out there besides vintage jbl's? i was comparing the weber california's and the eminence commonwealths and it seems like the commonwealths are much much closer to the original jbl specs. i really dont even see how the webers are close (granted im just learning about speakers) but the commonwealths have a 4" voice coil. weber-2". common 4"... weber- 80 watt!!! common- 225watt... then there's the fact that the weber's have almost no specs listed for their speakers... am i just not finding the info or what? here's the links

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/
http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speake ... nwealth_12
http://www.wald-electronics.com/images/E120-8-16.pdf

i know weber has a popular name... ive played his amp kits--- nothin special. those expensive alnicos he has are pretty awesome, but so are most $300+ alnico speakers of any type. it really looks like the commonwealths are much closer to an actual jbl e120. the one thing that im seeing is the sensitivity of the common is 100db and the jbl is 103db. apparently there arent always accurate measurements of those elements. though eminence has some other speakers with higher sensitivity.

i guess my question is... if i buy a jbl on ebay, could i take it right to a shop or someone knowledgeable about speakers and have them see if its gonna be problematic? or is the test hooking it up and listening?

thanks again fellas

[Tennessee Jedi]

I have a 2 x 12 w/ Weber Neomags and like them.
Some people think they are too bright/treble-y though

[mijknahs]

Hook up and listen. You can also check you local Craigslist to see if anyone has some for sale locally. Also, if you get K120s they are the "expensive" Alnico. There is nothing that sounds like a good JBL in by limited opinion by I've never tried Commonwealths. Maybe they really are a good replacement. I wouldn't know.

I bought a Weber Neomag and it didn't sound anything close to my JBL E120s. The JBLs are way deeper and thicker sounding.

Jim

[claytushaywood]

man i really do research a lot of stuff before i post here, but of course i figure it out right after i post. so the neomag is whats up. says they're temporarily out of stock. is this the out of stock confusion on the website that ive seen posts about on here? still low on the wattage though. i suppose im learning why everyone is saying get an original jbl!

[FBlades95]

I have a 2x12 with Commonwealths, and I love everything about them! they have that high-end quack; very usable speakers. I almost like them better than some of the JBLs that I've tried.

[WildEye]

I held off a long time before buying JBLs for the same reasons. Once I got a "push" I took a risk and got them - Soooooo happy, the only thing I regret is waiting so long. I did have the advantage of finding someone on ebay within 10 miles from me so I knew I could test them and take it back without any shipping hassle - but now that I'm a monday morning quarterback I would have bought them from alaska and shipped them back three times to get a good pair and still have been happy.

[TRG]

I have a pair of Beyma Libertys and I think they sound great. I must admit that I've never personally tried a JBL E120, but there are other folks on this board that have tried both and think they sound very close.

http://www.usspeaker.com/beyma%20liberty-1.htm

[Smolder]

Im a long time player and fan of the dead, but relatively new to chasing Jerry tone. I don't know how you can get much closer at a reasonable price than a used twin. Pickup a factory re-cone K or E, have a few mods done, and run the thing on half power with a single twelve. It can be done for under a grand, but likely closer to 1200. It's plenty loud for most bar gigs, and you'd be mic'ing on a bigger stage anyway. The only major thing you're not getting is the wet/dry speaker configuration.

[hawk900]

i guess my question is... if i buy a jbl on ebay, could i take it right to a shop or someone knowledgeable about speakers and have them see if its gonna be problematic? or is the test hooking it up and listening?

thanks again fellas

3 things to test #1 test the ohms between + and - terminals. Technically you should test Impedance with an AC setting.(more accurate) Most multies test in DC Impedance close enough to tell quality of speaker. An 8ohm speaker to see if reasonably alive the reading can be from mids 6's to high 7's in ohms.
#2 is tow inspect all glued edges and looked for sloppyness aka patch job. Most of the black glue should be uniform in diameter all the way around.
#3 Listening test. Depending on recone or non recone you should slowly over a month work your way up to a loud volume on a recone to break it in constantly listening for cone flutter, On a speaker thats put in the time go through all volume levels and treble and bass levels constanly checking for flutter.
I have yet to be disappointed with ebay and made some good contacts on there. My first JBL e120 was a recone from a great reconing service in Detroit. I scored 3 k120's still original jbl boxes all original and never in use from an out of bizz studio in Toronto. The coolest find with a sad twist were 3 e120's that came from a 4by12 cab used by SRV in which the cab's floor with castors came loose from his last tour ever in 89. They sound amazing and totally clean and broken in tested one by one with a Hafler SE120 SS amp and a blackface FET tubless pre(not recommended) I built in my spare time.