Eminence-made Herald drivers

Eminence-made Herald drivers OK for guitar?

Maybe I was too trigger happy. I snapped up these 12" speakers with the intention of using them for a 2x12 sealed guitar cabinet. The EIA code is definitely Eminence. The metallized dustcap and folded paper surround certainly looks like the speakers Emi was making for musical instrument amps at the time.

That is no assurance that in other respects the speakers are built like MI drivers. They could be heavier coned, or with a more compliant suspension, or different gap or excursion or what have you.

I emailed the numbers to support at Eminence but it was too late to get an answer. I posted about them on the Gear Page but there was no response. So now it will be a horse race between receiving the speakers and receiving the reply from Eminence.

But just to get an idea what I'm getting I thought I'd see if these ring a bell with anybody at AK.

Well............... if the magnet is a single layer 54oz slab as opposed to the 108oz dual layer slabs used in their "bass drivers" of that era, then it's almost a sure bet they're short Xmax MI speakers. You could also find very similar drivers branded with Becker, CTS, or Oaktron from the same era, there was a connection deeper than appearance.

There was another view in the auction that seems to show the magnet as a single slab, so looks like I will be good to go.

Connection as in Mr. Bob?

Connection as in Mr. Bob?

Click to expand...

If you're referring to Bob Gault, i'm really not familiar beyond the brief history noted at the Eminence website.

By "connection" i was inferring that some of those companies were bought up by others or otherwise merged with or co-operated with them, and also those companies at some points sourced parts like baskets and magnets from common suppliers which is/was nothing new in the industry.

One example i can think of right off the top of my head would be the early field coil Altec 601 duplex speaker in a stamped steel frame, that frame is identical to the stamped steel frames that Utah built the 15 inch woofers for the 60's vintage Seeburg DDS1's on. It's obvious to me that those frames were struck from the same die, and thus raises the question was Utah making frames and selling them to Altec in the late 40's? Or, did Utah in the 60's source their frames from the same sheet metal fabricator as Altec did in the late 40's?

I'm no expert here, but can pretty confidently tell you that when speakers from that era appear very similar in construction, it's often a little more than just coincidence.

Herald Electronics was a US based electronics parts distributor similar to Calrad and Philmore. All of these distributors sourced their raw speaker drivers from a variety of sources. I purchased a 60's vintage Herald 6.5 inch coaxial alnico magnet driver that was made either by Pioneer or Foster, with the tweeter design making me think Pioneer.

Those woofers look like they should work really well for guitar within their performance limits. Let us know what you think after mounting them in the cabinet.

I have some Eminence built Peavey Ram Drivers that look identical with the exception of the motor structures...... my Peaveys have much smaller alnico magnets with the typical U shaped steel piece covering them. They're also 5 years older.

Eminence wrote back but the manufacturing dates are too far back (1976 and 78) for their records to have details on the construction of that particular model. It will be a job for my ears.
Just wish I knew what the power capacity is so I don't smoke them. My amp is I think 80 WPC but with the existing speakers (which are torn and glued)I can't goose the volume past 2-1/2 (like 9 or 10 oclock) in practice, and even outdoors they drown out the wedges at halfway up.

Those aluminum dust caps look like MI speakers to me. I wouldn't hesitate to put them in a guitar amp.

Well, at long last our drummer was NOT out of town for work so I was able to load them up and try them out. They are definitely not voiced as bass-only drivers. They have noticeably more treble extension than the drivers they replaced. That makes distorted and modulated tones stand out in a song mix really well. They may be a bit lighter on bass than the old drivers, but then I dropped them in an existing enclosure. All in all they seem suited for guitar.

From the resurrection of the dead (thread) department:

Awhile back (a little more than a year ago I think), I bought a pair of Kustom KPC12 PA speakers. (These are recent-era Kustom, built in China, and really not that great of a speaker...I think Musician's Friend sells them new for about $70 apiece.) I didn't really know any better, and the seller offered me a "deal" on the pair: $100 with a pair of stands. I went ahead and got them.

The original woofers, whatever they were, had been blown by the original owner, the seller. He told me, "I replaced them with Peavey woofers." Oh, ok.

I've NEVER been happy with the way they sound, so I decided to do something about it. I pulled one open and found out that the woofers are NOT Peavey, but are, rather... Herald Electronics drivers with 5" square "Muscle Magnets", identical to the ones pictured above. So I know they're Eminence drivers, and not actually built for PA, but trying to find more information on them has been a chore. Actually, this thread was one of the first things that came up in my search for info, so I decided to come here.

I'm kind of figuring that what the seller actually meant was that he pulled these from a Peavey cabinet. I did find another thread elsewhere that said the Mace amps used these speakers.

Anyone know what the power handling, impedance, and (at least roughly) the frequency range of these? Better yet, the Thiele/Small parameters, so that I can plug these into my box program? Alternately, what would be the closest current woofer in terms of T/S parameters.

There's an Eminence 1" HF driver at Parts Express that I'm thinking about getting for these Kustom boxes. If the Herald woofers will respond adequately from around 3 kHz down to somewhere around 125 to 150 Hz, then this would still make a decent low-power top box to go over a sub. Obviously they're not made for deep bass, but if I can make these into about 100W top boxes, they'll serve for the purpose I have for them. I'm not expecting thousand-dollar performance, but maybe I can make these boxes sound halfway decent.

Interesting thread, I doubt if anyone minds it being "dug up". I have a pair of similar 15" Eminence drivers, but with large-ish Alnico motors, that definitely came from a MI cab. I found the cab at a thrift, but it was badly damaged, like it had fallen off a moving truck or something, LOL. I emailed Eminence awhile back, but all they could say for sure was that it was from a "custom" run, and they didn't really keep records from that far back. :scratch2: I still have the early SS mono amp in my basement, that was mounted in the bottom, but never really researched it. One of these days.

OK, I apologize for going off-topic, but it's "kinda" on topic. I decided to grab a few pics of that amp, hoping someone might recognize it. Keep in mind, this was in a 2x15 cab, which is why I say it's kinda on topic. Is there any value to this, for you geetar players? :scratch2: I'm not too concerned with making anything on it, I just didn't want it to land in a landfill, if it was any good.