Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Other Stuff => Cabinets-Speakers => Topic started by: dogburn on June 14, 2026, 11:14:21 am
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I've got a vintage alnico Rola 12" speaker, and I'm trying to get an idea of its power handling capability.
It has the numbers 14557, 285902, AO-21270-0 on the rim, and 42H1702 on the speaker. I know 285902 indicates Rola was the manufacturer, and that the speaker was made in the second week of either 1959 or 1969 (I think it is most likely a 1959). And the AO-21270-0 number is a Hammond code indicating it came from a Hammond organ rig of some sort.
There was a thread here like 12 years that had some good info:
https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=17591.msg176976#msg176976
And from that thread, I gather the speaker can handle 25-30W, and Shooter was running it in an amp that was about 40-50W. So, does anyone else have additional info on this speaker, or experience using one. Shooter, did you keep using the speaker successfully in that amp?
I currently have the speaker for sale, and don't want to mislead potential buyers. Also, if people here think it's an awesome speaker, I might end up keeping it for a future project (like maybe I'll build a 5E3 some day).
Any help is appreciated!
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One of them went into the wild, owner at the time was happy with the sound, one became my bench speaker that I used for maybe 10 proto-types before the cone failed bad.
my "40W" was tube power-dissipation, at the speaker it was closer to 20W audio
I found they were better suited in clean amps, over-driven they tended to fart-out, if the "distortion" was before the amp, like pedals, then they held their own
bottom line, play through as many speakers as you can, beg/borrow/own or steel, with each build you do, then "match" the amp to the speaker based on the sound not magnet type, power handling (within limit), cool-kid factor, just plain 'ol "wow that sounds like ....."
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Thanks for the feedback, Shooter! I did notice testing it out that it gets a lot of speaker breakup with my Princeton Reverb type build, so it would probably be more at home in a cleaner or lower powered amp. Haven't tried it with my 6G2 amp yet but might give it a try.
I've got a few other spare speakers on hand, but not a big selection. So far, I've been really happy with the Weber speakers I've got and am really liking old Oxfords (my 6G2 has a 12T6 and sounds so good).