Peavey speaker design history?

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Hey Mike Brown... What can you tell us about how the 1501-4 was developed for steel and how the tone of Peavey 15" speakers has evolved over the years. Any comments on the JBL style aluminum dust caps? I just threw a Peavey 1501-4 in my 15" loaded Twin Reverb in place of the JBL D-130 and the Peavey sounds really good in there. Comments on JBL vs Peavey?

Brad Sarno

Mullen U-12
'69 Fender Twin Reverb
Peavey 1501-4

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Brad, it was good to see you last week at Tom Brumley's steel guitar show in Branson.
On the subject of speakers; It has always amazed me how any company could guarantee speakers for steel guitar. The big string on the C6th is way down in the bass register. Maybe Mike could tell us how the limiter keeps speakers from blowing. Mike, does Peavey own the patent on the removable speaker cone? If you had to guarantee speakers, seems like a replacable cone would be the only way a manufacturer could reasonably stay in business.

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Thanks for your interest Brad and Keith. As a matter of fact, we started using a JBL in the original Session 400 back in the '70's. Unfortunately, JBL wouldn't stand behind their warranty when it came to steel guitar amplifier use. Fortunately for steel guitarists, the Spider/Peavey speaker was born and used in the Session. There may have been some attempts by other companies to use this design, but apparently no one has perfected it as well as Peavey as I haven't seen anything on such a product.

The 1501 and 1502 BW's were used in steel amps up until the mid '90's when we introduced our BW KEVLAR impregnated cones. The latest 1501 version originated in approximately 1995-96. The complete BW line of speakers was switched over to KEVLAR except the 1501.

I've told this story many, many times and it is true. I was asked to bring my steel to work one day to try out a new speaker design but I didn't know why I was asked to do so. I work in the same building as our transtucer engineering team and they had taken the 1501-4 and wanted to make sure that they were still on track with our quality standard 1501 BW. But, they had "tweaked" the design a bit to make it easier to manufacture, since all other BW's were of the KEVLAR design. So, I was brought into a sound room with two speaker cabinets with unidentified speakers in them. I played awhile and was asked which one I preferred for steel guitar. I told the engineer that I preferred the speaker on the right. Later that day, Hollis Calvert(Peavey steel player sales rep) came in and I asked him to sit down and play and he came out and stated that he preferred the speaker on the right. Later that same day, a steel playing buddy of mine named James Thrasher visited this facility. So, I thought that this was a great time for him to provide an opinion. He came out of that room and stated that he liked the speaker on the right. At the end of the day, I asked the engineers just what speakers we were comparing. The speaker on the left turned out to be a JBL and the speaker on the right was the BW 1501-4 ohm shallow basket! That's the origin of the 1501-4 ohm BW shallow basket.

I'm not sure if we own the patent on the design or not. But, the way that our patented DDT(distortion detection technique) circuit works is that it sense oncoming clipping and activates the circuit so the signal remains clean. However, if you keep driving the power amp with the DDT light continuously lit, the speaker could fail or the voice coil would burn.

The aluminum dust cap is preferred by steel guitarists. That's all that I can say about that particular feature.

We often wonder why our competitors haven't provided a solution such as this for their speakers. It makes sense to me that if a speaker fails, that the most economical way to have it repaired is to replace the cone/ voice coil portion only because the magnet literally never fails. This is the beauty of the replacable basket design and it has been a great success story on its own.

Mike Brown
Peavey Electronics Corporation

Keith Hilton · From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721

Kevlar? Does that make them bullet proof Mike? Kevlar sounds a lot better than paper to me.

Larry Behm · From: Mt Angel, Or 97362

Mike what is the story behind the creation then discontinuation of the 1501DT? Many steeler love this speaker.

Does the factory have any baskets in old stock they will sell?

Larry Behm

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Keith, DON'T use them for target practice as they are not THAT bullet proof!

Larry, the 1501-4DT is no longer active in our product line. We previously used the 1502-4DT in some of our bass amps also, but they were converted to our Sheffield series of speakers. We chose to continue the 1501-4sb paper cone and discontinue the 1501-4 DT KEVLAR because the paper cone was preferred.

Forum Index > Electronics		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: