Old speakers can be resusitated........I hope.

I've been on a buying mission in the last year since picking up two Celestion '60s T1088s locally and hearing(in my combos) how great these old pulsonics are........ having a markedly more rich and round tone compared to the current production Blues.
After this 'find' I looked overseas on ebay etc and bought three more, one of which was described 'as is where is' with no qualification as to workability(it looked okay in the pics) After buying it at the right price I expected the worst.
When I got it I tried it out, and it was gnarly sounding with a loose spider(diaphram) as I could see, I asked my speaker tech if he could check it out. He said after inspecting it that it would need to be reconed as the coil had been burnt out also.
So I proceeded to hunt around the globe for a 16ohm Blue recone kit which I eventually got from a supplier in the US(as I found, these particular kits are not readily available at a reasonable price and or shipping cost) but the US supplier was good in both respects.
Took it back to my speaker guy who when looking at doing the recone said that the speaker magnet had moved(by a millimetre or two) and that he was worried about doing the install fearing that there would be coil rub as a result.
To cut a long story short, I then found through my amp guru another speaker repair man and took all the bits to him. He said that he may be able to get the speaker back to original using the old pulsonic cone, which is something I had not contemplated. He said that the previous chap had 'cut' the cone from the frame which was not necessary as it could have been removed with a solvent that was readily available, and that the coil was in good shape and not 'burned out'........ he checked it and it showed as 13.5 ohms and in good working condition.
So I'll see how this turns out in time as he goes ahead and repairs it.........either it'll be a recone using the kit, or, using the original pulsonic cone as he said might be possible. Fingers crossed.

I would put them on a shelf before I reconed them. JMHO.

I hope to hear a success story about saving the Pulsonic cones! :yah

mdubya said:

I would put them on a shelf before I reconed them. JMHO.

I hope to hear a success story about saving the Pulsonic cones! :yah

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I presume you'd put them on the shelf to look at them..........:hmm
My new speaker man said that he'll have to find some cone surround for the bits my previous guy cut off the pulsonic itself to take it out of the frame......grrrr.
So he's trying to piece it together as best as possible.......we'll see if this works out or not.

goldtop0 said:

I presume you'd put them on the shelf to look at them..........:hmm
My new speaker man said that he'll have to find some cone surround for the bits my previous guy cut off the pulsonic itself to take it out of the frame......grrrr.
So he's trying to piece it together as best as possible.......we'll see if this works out or not.

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Yes, exactly.

I would rather have the original cone torn and ripped or even glued and pieced back together than have it reconed.

I have heard good results using silicone adhesive. I have seen others layer them up with tissue paper.

It sounds like the new guy understands.

Best of luck for good results. :salude

mdubya said:

Yes, exactly.

I would rather have the original cone torn and ripped or even glued and pieced back together than have it reconed.

I have heard good results using silicone adhesive. I have seen others layer them up with tissue paper.

It sounds like the new guy understands.

Best of luck for good results. :salude

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Thanks for your reply.
Yes this bloke knows what he's doing thank goodness, he's worked with one other very good speaker repair guy who passed on a few years ago, and has the same care and attention ethic it seems.