Which Speaker for my Peavey Pacer Conversion to AB763 DR?

[Platefire]

Ever since I converted this amp about 5 years ago to a 65 DR circuit I've had a 12" Carven British Series 100W/8 Ohm speaker I got in the early 2000's. The DR AB763 circuit is pretty stock except I got a mid control that is a raw contol past about 4.5 on the dial.

The speaker is way too bright. I hooked it up to my Emenance 10" Ragen Cagun and also my 12" Texas Heat that are in seperate cabs and could see the Carven was way brighter than these. I noticed the Texas heat mellowed the tone out with a lot more lows but some of my response disappeared regarding touch response and volume. This was just a quick taste test to check these speakers against the Carven.

While I'm considing speakers for this, any suggestions on speakers that will compliment the amp but cut some of the ice pick tone. How about the Cannibus Rex? Plate

[Platefire]

Well cancel that, I think I'll be keeping the same speaker. I've been playing with the tone stack. Was trying to cut treble and + up the bass but seems even if you + up the treble and - up the bass the mid control has a big effect. Also you cut treble, it seems to have a dampening effect on response. Treble seems happy around 6, bass low and mids punched up a bit. I'll mess with that more before I invest in a new speaker. Plate

[Platefire]

Doing my research on the internet it seems the Weber 12F150 is one of the most popular DR replacement but a lot of debate about it. The 12F150 apparently has a long break in time before it starts sounding right but Weber has a feature where they will break it in for you if you request it. Plate

[eleventeen]

That's a danged nice build you got there, Plate! I like these amp conversions where an "ehhh" amp is gutted and converted to something nice. Lotta work is done for you if you can scrounge a tolexed box with corners and handle and grill cloth...of course you are going to run into problems with pre-existing holes, but if you can buy such an amp dead for small money, the carcass can be very fertile ground. And when you get done, you have a tolexed amp with a handle and you didn't pay retail for every silly part on the thing.

[Platefire]

Thanks eleventeen, this 1975 SS amp has a lot of  history with me. This marks a change in the late 70's when I went from large Peavey Roadmaster amp (6-12 cab/200 watt head) to a small combo. I actually used that original amp quite a bit when I first got it but for some reason I held on to it all these years and is the only remaining surviving piece from yester-year. I went through a transition in amps where I started off with tube amps in the 60's, and in the 70's -90s used solid state and hybred SS/Tube amps and in 2000's came back to all tube amps. So I thought it a cool idea to re-build this amp with an AB763 Blackface DR circuit. My idea was to retain the old SS Pacer look but have one of the most popular tube circuits under the hood. A tube amp incognito so to speak in SS clothing. I know you didn't ask for all this info but it's kind of "The rest of The Story".

[eleventeen]

Well, Plate, you inspired me! I looked on Craigslist last night and found a FREE allegedly non-working Peavey Bandit on Craigslist. Went and got it. Free! (had to drive 35 mi x 2) So...photobucket isn't working right now, otherwise I'd post a pix....but you know (or can find out) what they look like.

Amp works fine and is in decent shape other than a piece of missing Tolex. Scratchy vol control or two, rattled by the speaker. I will get some deoxit but in the meantime....rotate controls quickly, problem gone. These Peaveys are heavier than I would like. But I can't argue with the price. Sounds decent, but I can't crank it in my place. Full sized reverb can (prolly wrong impedance for tube operation)

I am COMPLETELY in support of rebuilding blah sand amps to whatever, and the Pacer you showed has apparently just the right number of knobs. Clean chassis, too, not too many holes to work around.

[Platefire]

Great Deal, for your gas to go get it and bring it back. Strange, a 1990 Peavey Bandit was the last SS amp I owned before I switched to tubes with an original USA made Hot Rod Deluxe. The Bandit I had was just before they started making Trans-tube circuits. I think is was 80 watts. As far as SS goes, wasn't a bad amp. Had a clean and drive channel with seperate EQ. The Bandit has always been a popular 1-12 SS amp. I've never played over a Trans-tube circuit and always wondered how well it worked regarding memicking tube response/tone?

One thing I will say if you should decide to convert it to a tube amp, like you've already refered to, it takes an astrinomical amount of pre-planning in using the old chassis and utilize the existing holes to your advantage and possibly covering holes that can't be used. So a lot of pre-planning/layout of where everything will go is required. That is a good size cab/chassis that would allow a lot of amp possibilites and off course if the existing amp sounds good, nothing wrong with using it as is. Plate