Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Can anyone recommend a good guitar speaker repair shop? A month ago, my '78 Princeton Reverb's original speaker failed. I've always loved the sound of the amp and would like to get the this speaker redone. I don't mind sending it out of state.

I don't know of a shop for you to get the speaker re-coned, but here is something to consider. I used to have an early '70s Princeton Reverb amp several years ago that I bought from a friend. She had the amp for a few decades before selling (actually, it was a trade) to me. Someone previous to her owning the amp had installed a Celestion G12M-70 into the amp. This was (still is) a really great sounding amp (a friend of mine now owns it).

So, perhaps instead of a re-cone, consider a different speaker altogether, maybe even a 12" one.

This!

https://www.jensentone.com/vintage-ceramic/c10r

You might get in touch with these folks:

http://www.speakerrepairpros.com/

Based on the information on the website, they are former employees of Orange County Speaker Repair, which went out of business in 2016, and with whom I had experience with repairing speakers. They have a section on how to pack your speaker for shipping, in fact.

As an aside, I have a reconed (by OCSR) JBL D110 in case you need a 10" replacement other than a Jensen. It would be at a good price (not at a jacked-up Reverb price! I'd have to confirm the impedence, of course).

I've had great luck with Ted Weber's reconing services. They reconed a 1956 Jensen P12R a decade ago that I have from my 1956 tweed deluxe and did a great job. It is still working well.

https://www.tedweber.com/recone-services/

Although it looks like they can't recone any smooth cone speakers like a P10R. I forget what came in the Princeton Reverb, but if it was a smooth cone speaker you would be out of luck for the time being. Weber's speakers are fantastic and you could always get one of those in the interim.

There is a local shop to me called Jamac (Portland, OR) that does good work. One thing I will say about them is that I wanted to get some Celestion Blues reconed and he wanted to use the cone he had instead of the original H1777 cone that I sourced from Celestion directly. I understood why he wanted to do that as he makes money on the parts, but it would change the sound to the negative so I insisted he use the factory correct cone. That said, he does good work and if you want the original correct sound, make sure the correct original parts are being used if possible.

Greg

Thanks, guys for all of the suggestions! I decided to go ahead and get a replacement speaker to get my Princeton Reverb working again. I was considering an Eminence Ragin Cajun but opted for the 20 watt GA10-SC64 Allesandro instead. It turns out to be a match made in guitar amp Heaven! The bass is snarling, bringing back that Telecaster growl. The highs are crystal clear without being ice picky. Not only does the new speaker sound great, now my amp is noticeably louder! The Princeton's original Oxford speaker was quite good, but the GA10 sounds tremendously better. I still plan on getting the Oxford's failed coil replaced just to have it on hand, but I'm really happy I went with the Allesandro!

Glad to hear!

FWIW, the factory speaker in both of my Kustom '36 Coupes is a 12" "KEI" (Kustom-Eminence-Integrated) speaker that is definitely a keeper.