(NNSD - new neo speaker day) There's a Tornado in my Raezer's Edge!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

OK! I installed the Jensen Tornado 10" neo driver in my RE cabinet and made comparison videos between it and the OEM driver. It was an educational experience all the way around - here's what I learned:

1. I thought I had a Stealth 10, but I do not. I have a Bass 10. I bought it new in 2003 and obviously soon forgot what model it was. Back then, I was still young and dumb enough to schlep a Boogie EVM Thiele cab on gigs - I only used the RE at home and on small jazz dates. Not that many years later, I got old enough to want a break from hauling duty and started using the RE instead. So I bought a gig bag for it. I matched up its measurements with the bag from Studio Slips for a Stealth 10 (the only RE bag for which Susan had a template at the time). My cab seemed to be an inch or so deeper than it "should have been", but it was the correct 14x17 - so I assumed it was my measuring that was off and bought the bag. Yes, it was a little snug - but I'd had that experience with other SS bags, and they always loosened up just enough with a few weeks' use. So in my mind, it was a Stealth 10 from then on. Now I realize that it always seemed a little heavier than the 22 pounds listed for a Stealth, which is because the spec says it weighs 30 with the OEM driver! And years later, the bag itself fits like a glove - but the give-away is that the carrying handles still barely meet in the middle of the top. When I changed the speaker yesterday, I happened to look at the ID tag (yes, that was Rich's home phone # - it was long ago in a galaxy far away) and got a big surprise:



2. I have no idea what the original driver is. There's no ID of any kind on it. If anyone knows what this is, please let us all know.



3. The interiors of the Stealth 10 and the Bass 10 appear to be identical, from the few pictures I've seen of the Stealth in reviews and "for sale" ads. So I assume it's the heavier driver that took it lower - and I could be wrong, if this turns out to be the same driver that came in the Stealth. I've always loved the sound of this cab for solo jazz, but I also thought it was a bit bass heavy - and the Ampeg B15 I used from 1964 through 1970 was my reference standard. Now I know why! I'm not at all sure now why I chose it over the Stealth 10, except that it was a "bass" cab and I always favored bass amps. Today, I probably would have taken the Stealth 10 instead - but I'm now very glad I have what I have.

4. The Jensen Tornado Neo is a great all around speaker in this cabinet - jazzy when wanted, but smoother by far than the OEM driver when fed a good bluesy OD signal. It's a bit more efficient and/or an easier load to drive than the OEM unit. It's noticeably louder with the same guitar and amp using the same settings. From the level meter in my recording software (OBS), it's 3 to 5 dB louder. This is consistent with its rated efficiency of 97 dB when fed 1 watt and mic'ed at 1 meter (3 dB more efficient than an 8 Ohm P10R, for example). The bass is much tighter and still deep enough for a 7, with range to spare. I tried it briefly with my '57 P bass, and it's still a fine bass cab. The upper range is cleaner, clearer and more open but the bottom has a hair less heft. So it's a better funk and fusion cab but a bit less rich on the low strings for straight ahead jazz. The midrange is clearer, and there's enough added upper midrange to bring out the wood and sparkle of any archtop that has it (and probably any upright bass as well). It seems to open up the sound of my laminated Ibanez AF207, and it lets my solid bodies with good pickups sound very jazzy (and even a little hollow-bodied, at least to me). It really lets my Eastman 810CE7 glow, too. I'm sorry, but I did not record the Eastman because I started to go bat sh1t crazy after trying to play the exact same riffs the exact same way so many times from memory. So far, I love this speaker in this cabinet.

5. The Stealth 10 and Bass 10 cabinets themselves are clearly not identical except for the extra inch of depth. Mine now weighs 22 pounds, which is what a stock Stealth 10 weighs. Its original spec weight was 30 - so it lost 8 pounds! There must be a few extra pounds of wood somewhere in the Bass 10 that aren't in the Stealth 10. The panel thickness may be greater in cab and/or baffle, and some added weight may be in the heavy braces that form the port tunnels in the bottom - I've never seen the inside of a Stealth 10, so I can only guess.

6. The demos. I used my Quilter MicroBlock for all videos, with gain at 10 o'clock, Q fully left, and volume at about 1 o'clock. The cab was mic'ed with a good cardioid dynamic angled about 30 degrees upward, 3" from the grille cloth, pointed toward the cone aimed about 2" below its juncture with the dust cap. I ran the mic into my TASCAM DR40x as a DAI feeding the same signal to both stereo channels. There is no processing except normalization to get the volume levels as close as I could without using an SPL meter. The blues riff is through my Wampler Tumnus with all knobs at 12 o'clock. I was particularly struck by how much smoother the OD sounds through the neo at the same settings. The pickups in the Tele are custsom Lace Alumitone 7s wound for me to the same spec as the 6 string versions George Benson uses (according to Gabriel at Lace, who suggested this and sent me clips to demonstrate the difference between these and stock Alumibuckers).

EACH PAIR IS STOCK VS NEO

Ibanez AF207 fingerstyle: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square:

Ibanez AF207 picked (1.14mm Dunlop Jazz III): Gone With The Wind:

Forshage/Raines Tele 7 fingerstyle: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square:

Forshage/Raines Tele 7 fingerstyle: comp riff with walking bass:

Forshage/Raines Tele 7 picked (1.14mm Dunlop Jazz III): simple blues riff with mild OD from Tumnus:

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

UPDATE!

I just called RE, spoke to Geoff, and emailed him a picture of that OEM driver. Here's what I learned:

The Bass 10 and Stealth 10 cabinets are identical except for the extra inch of depth in the Bass 10. So almost all the weight lost in the swap to neo is in the driver (which I did not weigh before boxing it and putting it away). He does not know what the original speaker is, and had the same response to its picture that I had when I first saw it in the flesh - "Wow!" He's not seen this particular one before, but he's seen similar looking ones from Eminence. So he suspects that it was an OEM custom made by Eminence to Rich's specifications. But it appears that we'll never know for sure.

I was originally planning to sell it if I liked the Tornado, since storage space is at a premium in an apartment half the size of the house in which we lived for 35 years. But I think I'll hang onto it for now and try a bit harder to identify it. I'll just have to push harder to sell my Boogie EVM12 Thiele cab (or the driver itself) and my pair of unmounted Bag End 12s with 6 pound magnets (all of which now occupy one complete shelf in the gear closet).

Score one more for technology!

[sgosnell]

Rich made all sorts of one-offs, and apparently didn't keep detailed records. I had a cab he made that was labeled 6/8ER, with a 6" and an 8" speaker, no tweeter, so I'm not sure what the ER meant. Neither did Geoff, when I asked. I sold it when I got my Stealth10ER (which does have a tweeter), and I'm sometimes disappointed that I did. The only real downside was that it was bigger and heavier than the Stealth 10, and took up room. Weight is no longer an issue, because the cab isn't going outside the house any more. Only the Little Jazz gets fresh air, and not much at that.

I think I prefer the neo speaker in your videos. The stock speaker is very bass heavy, and the neo is much better balanced - plenty of bass but not overpowering.

[Gitterbug]

For the lack of better words, the Neo is more musical and balanced. Nice clips!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

For the lack of better words, the Neo is more musical and balanced. Nice clips!

Thanks, Markku! Those are great words, and I agree with them. I love the sound.

I think I was a bit too much of a bass freak when I was younger. Looking back, part of that came from playing solo jazz with a bass line on a 6 string. I did get a bigger sound palette from a bass amp with little or no compromise of the high end of the guitar’s range - but my guitars in high school and through college were a ‘59 345 and then a ‘60 175, neither of which had much high end anyway (and little or no wood or air in their tone).

I loved the great archtop sounds I heard from Mundell Lowe, Bucky P, Johnny Smith etc. But I could barely afford a used 175 and only dreamed of a carved spruce top with that wonderful sound. Besides, guys like Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, and Wes (my favorite) all played 175s and had that “electrified jazz” tone that I liked and could achieve with my instrument.

Especially back then (I started gigging in 1960), there was little or nothing over 3 kHz from any guitar or bass amp with a single driver, and I used big ones. My first serious amp was a Magnatone with 4 twelves in mid 1961. Then came a Pro with a 15, and finally I discovered the Ampeg B15 that I loved so much in late 1963 and used until the early ‘70s. Musical and balanced were apparently not my main concerns back then.

We grow old too soon and smart too late Have a wonderful holiday!

David