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(February 8th, 2008) They're baaaaaaaaackkkk... In my travels on the 'net over the years, I have seen references to Utah MI (musical instrument) speakers quite often. They were made here in Indiana back in the 50's and 60's by the Pyle family. In the mid 70's, the company name was changed to Pyle, and the emphasis was switched to car audio speakers just in time for the custom van craze and thumpity thump disco music. For awhile, the "Pyle Driver" was THE speaker to have. They also continued to sell to Radio Shack, Lafayette Radio, juke box companies, organ comanies, and companies that installed Muzak and intercoms in big buildings. One of their 10" speakers that Radio Shack carried just happens to be a favorite of Derek Trucks. It is the MH1020. We make a copy of that speaker for Lord Valve (Willy Whitacre, NBS Electronics) in Denver, Co. that he puts in the amps he builds for Derek. Back to Utah. One thing Utah did was use really big magnets and tight gaps. As a result, the speakers were very sensitive, dynamic, and had a broad frequency response. Beyond that, though, they had great breakup characteristics due to the high energy and good control. Of course, I've been saying to myself for several years "Gotta Do It". Well, I finally got around to doing it. I now have the registered trademark on the Utah name and will start producing some of the more popular speakers that are good for harp and guitar. I'm going to start with two or three 12's and then do a 10. As is the case with most Weber speakers, the Utah's will be available in both AlNiCo and ceramic. We are having vintage baskets made and all Utah's, both ceramic and AlNiCo will have magnet covers, as well as unique basket colors. 
(January 5th, 2008) Holy Schnikies... has it been since August for an update?? l Well, you know what they say... time flies when you're having fun. Well, let's see what's new. What is it about these guys who work 20 hours a day developing a hobby into a business only to find they've worked themselves to the point that they have one foot in the grave. I recently went through a bunch of tests only to find out I am now insulin diabetic. What a pain in the ass shooting myself up every night. I also was informed that I will most likely require a double lung transplant within the next 3 years. Now, if that isn't scarey enough, the success rate on that is only 50% at 5 years. Yikes!! Enough about me. What's cookin' at Weber? We have the full line of Neo speakers going now, including a big ol bass woofer 18". In fact, I'm going to do a small tube bass combo using that speaker and a single KT88. I think (preliminary) that I am also going to 'neo' all of our high power series to reduce the weight and see if I can make some decent guitar speakers. I'm finishing up the design on the rest of our Chicago Vintage Series, and at long last, I have our treated vintage cones with the curved seam produced and on their way to us. That is 15, 12, 10, 8, and 6" speakers. I'm still looking at tube HIFI kits. From a quad of EL84's to 6V6's to EL34's. Nice amps, nice chasses. I have several for evaluation and they look like they will be easy to build. I'm still working on a tube tester. I'm trying to decide whether to make it stand-alone, or go ahead and write the software to have it interface to a laptop, or both. The companies who do those kinds of things have cubic dollar prices on them, and quite frankly, there just isn't that much to them. I finally found a decent source for the 50/50uF at 500V and the 100/100uF at 500 cap cans. We should have them on our capacitor page for sale within the next week and a half. The clamp is provided as part of the price. MASS III and MASS 200. Sorry for the delay on those and many of the items on the Amp Tech Tools page. Due to my recent illness and weeks of testing, I got way behind. But, I'm back in the saddle now, am answering emails at 3 in the morning, and feeling pretty darn good right now. I'll have the new MASS's by the end of this month. New kits. 6H50 (this week), 6H100 and 807 (one month), 6G6A and 6G6 kits (two months), bass amp with 18" neo (2 months), 25L15 (called the Pennebaker 25) (2 months), T&L (Supro Thunderbolt), (one month), Sears 1484 head (2 months). And... a re-arrangement of our kits front page. All the regulars, then towards the right end there will be a heading for all of our mod kits. The last heading to the right will be called "Ted's Experiments" These are schematics and ideas that haven't made it to kit form. Maybe they will someday, but for now we're just sharing the information for anyone finding it useful. I've never felt the need to keep all of this stuff private and secret. It's all just a re-arrangement of common circuitry anyway. (August 6th, 2007) New amp kits: 6S100, which is a 100 watt 2xKT88/6550 amp. Big. loud, clean like an old Sunn 100S. 6O100, 100 watt 4xKT66 or EL34. Also very strong, with Tone Drive control. A word about solder. Due to the Rohs requirements and the fact that people are now hoarding it, the price of plain old electronics solder has risen 7 times in the past 6 months and is expected to continue to rise. So, whether you buy your solder from us or another vendor, consider stocking up as soon as possible. We currently have 250 rolls on order at our old price, so we will hang in there with our current price as long as we can. (July 25th, 2007) The 1 and 2 watt carbon comps are still rolling in. I should have all the ones we want to carry in about 2 weeks. We just added more circuit breakers. We will have .6A, 1,2,3,4,5,6,and 10 amps. More kits on the way. We just did the 6O100 --- great sounding 100 watt amp. Next up is the 6S100 and 6H50, which I think both will be killer amps. In other news, I'm still working on the sub boxes, a unique variable magnet speaker (variable sensitivity magnet), and the treble driver I've been working on for quite a while. Also still working on a tube matcher as well as other pieces of general useable test equipment for the casual amp builder. (May 25th, 2007) Well, I did it. I have been threatening to do the tooling and molds for 2 watt carbon comp resistors for a long time, but just couldn't talk myself into it. I finally did it this week. In about 6 weeks, we will have 1 and 2 watt carbon comp resistors on our resistors order page. We spec'd them at 10% tolerance, just like many of the ones used in vintage amps of the 50's. We are starting out with just a few values, and will build from there. For the 1 watt, we will have 470 ohm, 1K, 1.5K, 2.2K, 5.1K, and 100K. Those are the values I have seen used in a lot of vintage amps. For 2 watt, we are going to start with 4.7K, 5.1K, 10K, and 22K. I will do others later and am taking requests now. If you have a value you think I should carry right away, please email me at your convenience. Oh yeah, I also did the tooling and minimum buy for 500 and 600 volt electrolytic caps in 20 and 40uF as well as 220uF at 300V. These are all axial units, in the range of 3/4" diameter and 2" long. I should have all of those in about a month. (May 18th, 2007) And now for something completely different. I've always wanted to offer lower quantities of custom chasses, but the setup costs prohibited that. We think we have that figured out now. By using solid modelling software, we can make our chassis building blocks available to our customers online. With that, they can edit and redesign the chassis, then email the model to us for production. That saves a lot of time and effort. We use a program called Solid Works, and the customer will be able to modify using E Drawings . We think this will work and should have it on our website within a month. Next up are custom turret boards. Same thing there, using a model. You design it, we cut and stuff it. We are going to use a CNC mill to cut and drill the turret boards and should be able to do small quantities without a premium charge. I intend to have several different colors available for the turret boards as well as at least three different turret styles. (April 29th, 2007) I thought I would delve into V Front cabinets. The original was for a tweed amp called the Dual Professional which later was called the Super and featured two 10" speakers angled at about 6 degrees or so with that cool looking metal vertical rib on the front. It's not a problem doing the cabinet and metal, and I already have a prototype of both. However, I am really taken back by the coolness factor of the vertical rib, so I'm thinking of also offering the V Front on cabinets that have only one speaker. We might also incorporate a beam blocker in that cabinet since the vertical rib will be running right up the middle of the single speaker. We will also have the V Front available for 4x10, 3x10 and any other configuration one might want. If you think the V Front with single speaker is a dumb idea, please email me. (April 24th, 2007) Well.... I finally did it. I finally got our NeoMag speakers going. They are very similar to JBL D120F's, D130's, D130F's, and D140F's with the 4" voice coil, aluminum or paper dome, and choice of paper or cloth surround cone. We are building them now and will do some extensive destructive testing to make sure they are ready to go into production. As you know, engineers get all giddy about neodymium magnets because of the seemingly unlimited energy available. However, oftentimes the result is a speaker that is way too sensitive for guitar work and gets really hard and harsh at high volumes with distortion. All engineers did it, but after the speaker was made available and the bad press started rolling in, they had to go back and re-design or quietly come out with new models with different names. The clueless relabelers and others continued to offer the ones they had despite the bad publicity. They just don't get it. So, this was a no brainer for me, I just learned from their mistakes and designed our magnet circuits to be more like the vintage AlNiCo with respect to gap energy and geometry. I think they sound really good, and..... the best part? They weigh less than 10 pounds as opposed to 18-20 pounds for the vintage JBL D series. We will start shipping our NeoMag 12's and 15's the first or second week in May. I'm a conservative old hoot, so these are rated at 75 watts continuous. The voice coil formers are kapton and the voice coil wire is edgewound aluminum. The total weight of the coil and former is the same as the vintage D series craft paper formers. I really want to do the AlNiCo version also, I just have to come up with a decent magnet circuit that is practical and economical. I wouldn't pay $400 for a speaker, and I wouldn't expect you to either. Next up, I think I might do the 10" (D110F) with the 3" coil, and maybe a knockoff of the original JBL LE-8 8" driver. Pretty cool speaker. (March 26th, 2007) Wow... our Resistor Sub boxes are really selling. It's nice to see people dial in their amps to get the tone they have been hearing in their heads. Based on the success of those, I am working on several other Sub boxes. An adjustable power resistor for tweaking in the voltages on the power supply rail, low and high value and voltage electrolytic capacitor sub boxes, power supply choke sub box with 6 values, power tube cathode bias variable resistor Sub Box with test points to attach the cathode capacitor, and last but not least, a tube rectifier sub box where you can dial in the voltage drop and sag. The indicator dial shows the tube rectifier type and the inline resistance. The sub box may be connected to the amp with an octal plug provided or with alligator clips. Both a fullwave and a bridge type are available. The bridge type is for replacing a bridge with an SS recto with sag characteristics. (March 20th, 2007) I wish I had a dime for everytime someone said "Ted, you really should make a.....". I've been told for years that I need to make a 2 ohm speaker available for those guys who have 4x10 amps and want to do a single 12 or a single 15 but not change the output transformer. I considered it, but never seriously because as you go down in impedance, the size of the wire in the voice coil goes up and so does the weight. I can only go so far with reducing the width of the coil to reduce weight because it will affect the sensitivity. I thought about edgewound and other methods, but 2 ohms never worked out well. Finally, after discussing the idea with our voice coil supplier, the idea of a special bifilar wound coil came up. That would allow us to have the correct width coil and I should be able to get the DC resistance of the coil under two ohms, while not adding a bunch of weight. If all goes well, we will have 2 ohm coils available within the next couple of months. We should be able to do this for our 150's, British 12's, and High Power Series. (March 10th, 2007) OK.. I got the 75 and 100 watt Blues and Silvers going, so now on to new products. Still messing with the ultimate bias rite (the one that displays all the grid voltages and also displays power). I'll get it evenutally, promise! I've heard from a lot of people that, while the 5F6 Bassman is the one everyone talks about, many prefer the earlier 5E6 circuit. So, we are going to do that one. It is in the 5F6 chassis, so I added a mids control, but other than that it will be a 5E6A, complete with the 12AY7 preamp tubes. I can't seem to leave attenuators alone, so I am almost finished with the design of what I call "The Tone Stack". It is a MASS with Bass, Mids, and Treble controls to the speaker, and has level and tone for the line out. It also has footswitch bypass. It is supplied with a wall wart to power the relay for the footswitch bypass. Without power applied, the unit is in (not bypassed), and there is also a panel mounted bypass switch. I've also had several people ask me for a 'Top Boost' module. I can't imagine bolting a plate to the outside back panel of a pristine (and valuable) original AC-30 unless, of course, it was an original OEM TB unit (which would be acceptable), so I'm working up a scheme to mount it from the inside so there won't be screw holes in the outside of the cabinet back panel. That's the only way I can think to mount it other than some kind of clamp or something similar. We have straight and slant front 4x12 cabinets available now. We will be updating our cabinets order page soon. The shipping costs will probably make them awfully expensive, though. (February 20th, 2007) There I was about 15 years ago, asking myself, "Why would anyone want a 100 watt speaker?" So, I set out to design and manufacture low power speakers that were very efficient to make a low power amp sound huge. I've received more than an earful over the years about making higher power speakers, so I designed the high power series. That worked for awhile, but then people wanted high power Blue Dogs, high power Silver Bells, etc. So, here we are, 2007 and it's finally sinking in. I've done the prototyping, blown up a few speakers (fun), and have ordered the parts. We are ready to offer most of our speakers in higher power ratings. We will have the 100 series in 15 and 25 watts, the 125 series in 20, 30, and 50 watts, and the 150 series in 25, 50, and 100 watts. The Blue Dog, Silver Bell, and virtually all of our british series will be available in 15, 30, 50, 75, and 100 watts. As is always the case, for all Weber speaker products, the higher the power rating, the warmer and smoother the speaker is. Also, as with all Weber speakers, you may select the amount of dope and the size of the magnet, for instance, if you want a 100 watt speaker to have the honest sensitivity of a 15 watt speaker. Of course, there is always our MyTone Series if you want to roll your own. (February 9th, 2007) New Stuff. We're now carrying splined shaft audio taper pots in 250K and 500K, 10% taper, small body, and will also have the large body soon. We also have some screwdriver slot panel mount bias pots with the locking nut/bushing in 25K and 50K linear. We have expanded our line of transformer offerings to include the entire line of Mercury Magnetics guitar amp transformers and chokes. We intend to also carry a full line of Heyboer transformers as soon as we can get it arranged and the pricing structure all figured out. I continue to develop new amp kits as well as accessory kits for the amp technician and builder. Please check out our kits page for our latest offerings. (December 24th, 2006) Yowzah!!! It's Christmas already. I hope everyone gets exactly what he or she wants this year. I'm going to sleep all day, after this past month of working round the clock... whew!!! OK, on to the news. The UBR (described below) is right at the edge of being finished. It measures cathode current, plate voltage, all grid voltages, and computes total tube power dissipation. I'm shooting for $150 for the BR2 UBR and $175 for the BR4 UBR. Other projects: The Loadline is a 50 watt dummy load with a line out. It has volume and tone controls for the line out. It is a small box, the same size as our MicroMASS. The Substation is a power supply that is used for bench development of tube amps. Needless to say, it has lethal voltages, so it requires great caution when using it. It has variable B+, and has plenty of filament current, adjustable bias, and other features. It is the same size and type of enclosure that our other Amptechtools devices use. The V-Rite is our valve matching device. It will allow you to match octal and 9 pin power tubes. It not only measures standard emission qualities, but will also display transconductance (Gm). I'm working on several new amp kits, as well as pedals and other devices in kit form. One is what a call the Safe Start. It is the light bulb current limit device for use in powering up an amp for the first time. It has a 5A circuit breaker, an internal bulb with a jewel lens, a bypass switch, and the power socket. The device is in the same enclosure as our MicroMASS, so it is a very convenient device to have on the workbench that will take very little space. Next up is the V-Dump. This is a small right angle aluminum bracket that mounts to one of the power transformer studs. On it is mounted a 50 watt stud zener diode. The customer will spec the zener voltage. The idea is to be able to lose B+ voltage safe and conveniently without having to punch a hole in the chassis. Let's see.. what else... hmmm... Oh yeah.. we are going to be carrying Heyboer and Mercury Magnetics transformers after the first of the year. Look for the listings on our transformers page. (September 16th, 2006) Another "here we go again". Last year I was working on a device called the Ultimate Bias Rite. It not only measured plate volts and cathode current, it also calculated and displayed power dissipation. After much thought and considering all of the email and calls I received concering the operation of a bias meter, I decided the UBR would just be too confusing for people to operate and understand. So, I quietly let the project die. Since that time, I have received numurous inquiries and requests for that device. So, here we go again. I am working on it again and plan to offer it within the next two months. I already have the enclosures, labels, and most of the parts. I just have to do some minor tweaking on the circuit. (August 31st, 2006) OK, you win. I get asked at least once a week about offering our MASS motor as a product so customers can make their own attenuator, dummy load, speaker simulator, etc. So, we will be offering those again very soon. I'm working out the details for a model that is easy to work with, easy to mount on a chassis or a cabinet, and can be priced right. Stay tuned. I'm also working on a line of cabinet simulators and Line Out eq boxes, as well as some devices I call Curve Kits. Those are connected between the amp and the speaker to help control the frequency response of the speaker. They will be used to lessen the boominess, or soften the high end hardness, or scoop (or boost) the mids. (August 16th, 2006) Developing more and more kits as time goes on. We have around 15 new kits we will introduce over the next 4 to 6 months. We seem to always have problems with vendors. If it's not cabinets, it's metal, or chroming, or.. you name it. Whew.. pass the exedrin, please. So, that's usually the hold up. We are still planning on offering amp cabinet kits, where the parts are all cut, fit, and rounded over. Then, the cabinet is shipped knocked down and the customer assembles, glues, screws, and covers the cabinet. We are also adding many new parts, including new transformers, switches, jacks, and other parts. Our laser cut faceplates are going really well and we have recently developed a method to color the back of an acrylic panel (gold, for instance), and then laser cut the lettering and images into the acrylic. The letters and images may be filled in with a different color or left as is. It is a very economical and very flexible method of printing. Much cheaper and much more flexible than screen printing. Some of our new amp kits coming out are a 200 watt tube bass amp, a tube effects pedal,several 100 watt tube amps with overdrive and other features. As with all of our amp kits, they will be available (except maybe the bass model) in combo and head versions. YIKES !! (June 3rd, 2006) I can't believe I haven't updated this page since October. Sorry about that, time flies when you're having fun. Our cabinet shop is in full production now and we are finally starting cabinet orders within a week of the day the order is placed. Hardwoods are still time consuming, but others are getting out the door in about 2 weeks. We thank everyone for your patience while we got the cab shop up and running. We bought several machines to speed the process and are now considering a CNC router table. This will allow us to increase the speed even further, but also make fast, accurate, and repeatable parts so we can offer cabinet kits. Buyer beware, though....... don't buy one unless you are absolutely certain you can apply the covering properly. OK, on to other products. We got Amptechtools.com up and running and are adding new products weekly. I am working on somewhere around 15 to 20 new amp kits that will debut in the next 6 months. For those who recognize vintage chassis models, we are doing the 6G6, 6G12, the AA1164, and a few others. We have our 6V30 (our model number) almost finished, then on to the 6V15 and 6V50 head. Speaking of kits, much of our frustration in shipping kits (besides going through a fiasco with a cabinet builder last year) has been getting our metal work as promised. We finally had enough and are working with some machinists to run our own metal fab shop. If I pull this off, we will offer a wide range of chasses, panels, and other metal parts such as pedal enclosures. I'm determined to make them economical with a low quantity requirement and minimum setup charges. New Products In The Works (October 22nd, 2005) We have added ourselves to the Cabinet Request For Quote Form and included all of the cabinets that we make for our kits. I am also working on and thinking about other new kits to offer over the next several months. Seeing the kits sales do so well made me realize there are a lot of people who want to build an amp, but the lack of information available, the price, or something else kept them from attempting it. We hope that our prices, combined with our forums and timely replies to emails will encourage everyone to build an amp, whether it is ours or someone elses. I also thought it might be nice to have a single place to get materials, tools, test equipment and other needs for building amps. So, I amp building the Amp Tech Tools website to make affordable tools and information available. The current banner on the website tells it all, but we will have a lot of test equipment specifically for amp building that just hasn't been readily available, such as amp cradles, Resistor and Capacitor substitution boxes, simple tube testers, and many standard tools like scopes, meters, dummy loads, soldering equipment, clip leads, etc. Look for its debut in the next couple of months. Amp Kits, Cabinets, and other comments (October 2nd, 2005) Well, we survived the tubegarden amp cabinet fiasco, got up, dusted ourselves off, pinched pennies until we could recover the money we lost to that company, and are now back with our kits. Our cabinet shop is doing really well and we have received many compliments on the workmanship of our cabinets. We are going to offer a full line of coverings including snakeskin, tooled leathers, and some lizard styles. We'll also have a wide range of grillcloths. In some instances we will be sourcing those materials from the manufacturers in England. In other instances, we will spring for the pattern and toolmaking to have them made for us in large quantities from sources all over the world. That will enable us to keep our prices low and we will pass the savings to you. As for new kits, we have added quite a few to our line of 'M' series, and now I have begun working on our 'V' series. We will have a 6V15, a 6V30, and a 6V50 head. I am also working on an 25 watt SE harp amp, an 80 watt steel amp using a pair of 807's, and a D130 clone to go in it. That speaker will only be available with that amp kit for awhile. I am also once again working with Randall Aiken on a kit of his design, as well as more kits from Bruce Collins of Mission Amps. I am also comtemplating offering effects kits. I have designed several SS and tube pedals over the years just for fun and may make those available as well as clones of vintage effects. We have noticed a few skeptics on the internet posting about our kit prices, with the comments directly related to the components used. The biggest part of the answer to that criticism is simple - unlike many small builders and kit suppliers, we don't buy 3 transformers at a time. We buy 250 to 500. We buy 100,000 pots, switches, resistors, and similar components each time we order. I sent original OEM components from vintage amplifiers to our vendors around the world and had them studied, analyzed, and duplicated. We had to pay for tooling (ouch!) to have some of the parts made because they were different than a particular company made as standard product. We are sourcing parts from America, Europe, and Asia. In some cases, such as a Cap Can capacitor, we thought the prices were outrageous, so we build our own. And finally, if there are any questions or rumors about having our speakers made in China now or in the future ---- no way. We will always build our speakers here, in our shop, by hand, one at a time. Stop by anytime when you are in this area for a tour of our build rooms. Amp Kits and Cabinets (September 12th, 2005) After taking it on the chin and a big financial loss on a cabinet maker that went belly up, we are back to being able to provide cabinets with our amp kits. In the coming months, we will add a wide variety of new kits, cabinets, custom cabinets, and maybe knocked down cabinet kits. We have partnered with a local custom furniture manufacturer who specializes in restorations, custom furniture, and recreations of vintage furniture. We are going to invest in a CNC router table that will make our cabinetmaking much faster, more repeatable, and more cost effective. Stay tuned as we add our new amp kits and cabinets. To All AOL Members (July 10th, 2005) AOL has adopted an aggressive anti spam plan that blocks emails from domains and email servers that their software identifies as spam. This usually means when a large stream of email comes through their system from the same email address, it is tagged as spam. For a certain time after that, traffic that appears to come from that domain or email server is blocked from reaching AOL members. Due to viruses and the widespread use of faked return addresses in spam, our domain name is an easy target. The bottom line is that AOL often blocks our email replies and returns them to us undelivered, accusing us of spamming, or suggesting that they are receiving many complaints from their customers about us spamming them. Of course, neither is true, but that's the way AOL works. So, starting today, we are filtering all AOL email addresses and will not be able to reply to them. To contact us, please use a Hotmail, Yahoo, Netscape, or a similar account. Actually, anything but AOL will be fine. We certainly apologize for this inconvenience, as anyone who has dealt with us knows that we answer all emails in a timely manner 24-7. We appreciate your consideration in this matter. Amp Kit Cabinet Issues Things were going great with our amp kits and we appreciate those who have purchased them. Last week, while I was on vacation, I received an email from our cabinetmaker saying he was not going to supply them after that day (June 12th). Surprise surprise. Needless to say, it kind of ruined our vaction and I spent the next day or two working on an alternate plan. For those who ordered a kit and are waiting on a cabinet for a kit you ordered and were told the cabinet was not ordered, please contact us immediately. We have the email order receipts and other proof that all cabinets for kits were ordered. You will probably not get the cabinet from that supplier, so if you'll contact us, we'll arrange for a refund on that portion of your kit, or will give you the plans that are in place for a new cabinet builder. We certainly apologize to everyone for this problem. We had no idea it was coming, but as the delivery delays stretched to 6 and 8 weeks, we began to be concerned about that particular cabinetmaker. We will make it right, no matter what it takes. And, just a suggestion, if you have any product on order with Tubegarden.com and have paid through Paypal but have not received it, despite being told it is the next one to go out, I would urge you to file a Paypal dispute at your earliest convenience. We lost over $5,000 to Tubegarden.com and had to order cabinets again from another company to fill our kit orders. Carbon Composition Resistors We continually receive requests for carbon comp resistors for those who want the look and also feel there is something about carbon comps that enhance the vintage tone of an amp. We currently stock some of the more common values of 1/2 watt values and will have 1 watt values within the next month. I am also negotiating for the tooling to manufacture 2 watt values. Our 1/2 watts are standard lead length, body size, and are 10% tolerance. They are guaranteed to be warm and noisy, just like the originals. Carbon Comp Resistors New Kits and Chasses Both 40 watt and 80 watt VibroClone chasses and kits will be available very soon. We are also finishing up the details on tweed versions of those. Yep, a tweed 40 or 80 watt amp with reverb and vibrato. All four will be available with 4x10, 2x12, or 1x15. For more info, please visit our kits page. Weber Kits Reconing Effective May 1st, we are suspending our reconing service indefinitely. Our parts, amp kits, and speaker products are demanding so much of our time we are unable to meet our recone customers demands for turnaround. We wish to thank everyone who has used our reconing service in the past and apologize for not being able to continue. It is our hope that at some point in the future we will be in a position to resume reconing. We will, of course, continue to recone our own products. In the meantime, we recommend Neal's Speaker Service, Orange County Speaker Repair, or Ron Veil for all your reconing needs. For reconing, revoicing, or other work on all Weber products, please use our RMA form. Non Weber products will be returned to the sender. More on the Weber kits We are in the process of sourcing models of all of our power transformers with 120, 220, and 240 primary voltages, 50/60HZ. By request, we have also made some changes on some of them. For example, we have added an extra HV tap at 300-0-300 on the W022772 (5F1) Power transformer. Changes to other models may occur as we receive feedback from customers. We are still working on the 6M18, 6M45, 6M100, and 6V30 kits. All parts, including cabinets are sourced. I am still working on the schematics and layouts. We hope to have them ready by the end of the year. Attenuators Many changes coming for our line of attenuators. The MASS is being repackaged and can be fitted with optional wings for rackmounting. The new MASS will include a range switch with tone compensation, 0, 3db, and 6db per octave treble boost, MASS bypass, 2, 4, 8, and 16 ohms, and the line out tone stack with bypass. All controls are on the front panel. The MiniMASS and Low Power load dumps are being repackaged and will look like a small version of our current slant front MASS unit and will be available in up to 50 watts power rating. A new attenuator called the Power Tap (shown below) will debut before the end of this year. It uses MASS technology, which includes a 50 watt MASS motor and controls. It has line out, built in treble boost, a range switch with tone compensation, a bypass switch, and is enclosed in a top load tweed cabinet that is about 1/4 the size of a tweed Champ amp. The Power Tap is impedance swamped, so it will safely work with 4, 8, and 16 ohm amplifiers. Another new attenuator to debut in November is the MASS 150. It is rather unique in that it has high level tone controls. You can adjust the Lows-Mids with one control and the Upper Mids-Highs with another control, both controls being continuously adjustable. Using MASS technology, the MASS 150 allows virtually total control of the tone at all levels of attenuation. The MASS 150 is rated at 150 watts and has a line out, MASS Bypass, extra output jack, and will work on 4, 8, and 16 ohm amps. The MASS 150 is packaged in the familiar slant front enclosure that has housed our standard MASS for the past three years. We are also going to offer a 200 watt L-Pad attenuator with tone compensation, bypass, adjustable line out, and range switch. We will continue to offer our High Power Load Dump which has 10 steps of fixed attenuation and one variable setting. It has 2, 4, 8, and 16 ohms, tone compensation, and adjustable balanced and unbalanced line out. It is rated at 100 watts. 
Custom Fiber Boards Custom eyeleted fiberboards made from original tweed style black fiber board. We can work from a sketch or an autocad file (preferred). These are laser cut and are very clean as well as accurate. Turnaround time is days with an autocad file, or a week to a week and a half with a sketch. 
Weber Kits We are beginning our line of kit products. We will have amplifiers, Bias Rite heads, Reverbs, ReVibes, and many more products you can build yourself. Weber Kits are not Heathkits in that most do not include a comprehensive assembly manual. Our kits are meant for those who have extensive experience in soldering, electronics kit building, and electronics troubleshoting. Weber Kits Resistors We are now carrying a line of 1/2, 1, and 2 watt metal film resistors, a 1 ohm, 1% cathode current monitor resistor, 5, 10, and 25 watt power resistors, and a 500 ohm rheostat for those wanting to experiment with adjustable B+ and adjustable cathode bias. Resistors Sockets and More. Ceramic octal and 9 pin sockets, and a spring type tube retainer will be available Feb. 17th. The chicken head knobs in 6 different colors will be available by the end of February. The Fender Deluxe PT and OT, and the Champ PT and OT will be available the second week in March. New Products Scheduled. 6 colors of chicken head knobs with brass inserts, two colors of round knobs with brass inserts, tube clamps and retainers, chassis mounted phone and phono jacks, ceramic octal tube socket, ceramic 9 pin tube socket with metal shield, 3 and 4" chassis straps, and 3-1/8" chassis bolt with nut. These should all be available by mid January, 2004. Ooops.. Transformers delayed. Our W022798 was originally due to be available in mid November, but production delays have caused a slip in delivery date until the first week in January First Transformer Due 2nd Week Of November. Our W022798 power transformer will be available around the 10th of November. It is based on the Fender 022798 and will also replace the 125P5D and the 125P7D. We will be taking orders after the 10th. Weber Magnetic Products New Products In The Works A lot of our customers and friends have requested a device that will allow them to match their amp to different impedances so they can try out different speakers or cabinets that are the wrong impedance for the amp. So, I have designed the Impedance Matcher. It will be available in 25, 50, and 100 watts, and will match 2,4,8, and 16 ohms on both sides, in and out. The transformers used in the Impedance matcher will be available seperately for those who want to incorporate them in their amps or cabinets. Another product people have asked me to build is a single unit that would include a dummy load, a line out and scope sample port, and a signal generator to drive the amp input. I have developed the Amp Exerciser which incorporates all of those features with balanced and unbalanced line out. It's basically a 100 watt dummy load at 2, 4, 8, and 16 ohms with a sine wave signal generator that is adjustable from 20 to 20Khz, and an output of 0 to 1V. Next is a 500 watt ground isolator we call the SAFE-BUSS. This is a 1:1 transformer with 4 outlets that allow the user to common the ground on several pieces of equipment to help prevent ground noise and hum. Additionally, the SAFE-BUSS is switchable between 110 and 125 volt output with 125 Volt input. New Products Amp Parts Over the next year, we will be adding many new products to our Amp Parts catalog for restoration, build, and maintenance of amplifiers. The first three are available now -- metal phone plugs and jacks, and a chassis mounted fuse holder. We have five different colors of chicken head knobs (with brass inserts), 2 colors of round knobs (with brass inserts), chassis straps and screws, and several other products on order. Amp Parts Capacitors Our capacitors are starting to roll in. We have the ceramics and the low voltage electrolytics now and will have the silver micas, the polyprops, and the polyesters the week of Sept. 21st. The high voltage electrolytics should be here by the end of September. Capacitors More MASS I keep getting requests for a 2 channel (stereo) MASS, so I have put one on the drawing board. It will be the same size as the current full size MASS with lighter weight motors and will have DI, but will not have the DI Tone Stack. The power levels will be 50 and 100 watts. It will include MASS Bypass and we are working on impedance options. Switches Now available, a full line of panel mount metal pushbutton and toggle switches, including mini and full size DPDT, a DPDT momentary and ON-ON pushbutton, and a 3PDT ON-ON pushbutton. Switches Transformers We are working on a full line of Tweed, BF, and British transformers -- PT's, OT's, and Chokes. We have tooled up for exact replicas of original endbells and other features on all of the transformers and chokes we intend to offer. Our first transformer will be our version of the 022798 power transformer. For added flexibility, we have increased the filament winding to 6-1/2 amps and installed a center tap. We have also provided two voltages on the high voltage winding, 330V and 360V. This will allow for the use of tube or solid state rectifiers, and allow experimenting with different B+ voltages, output tube types, classes of operation, etc. The W022798 will be available by the end of August and will retail for $64. Capacitors I have solicited and am receiving quotes on a full line of Silver Mica, Ceramic, Polyprop, Electrolytic, and Polyester capacitors. We expect to have them in stock and ready to ship by October. Signature Series Speakers Available Now -- 8 and 10" AlNiCo Signature Series Speakers. These use our new lower profile hotdog ® basket and matching magnet cover. The magnet cover is available seperately as a replacement part for vintage RCC, RCA, American Rola, and other vintage speakers that use the three tab magnet cover. Signature Series Speakers Pots Now available -- Dual 1Meg audio, 1 Meg audio with switch, 10 Meg reverse audio, 10K linear screwdriver slot bias pot, 200 ohm, 2 watt, screwdriver slot hum balance pot. Pots New 15" speakers I have the cones spec'd for 15" Blue Dogs and Silver Bells, for both AlNiCo and ceramic versions. I hope to have them tested and ready to put into production by mid September. Chassis Products We are offering the 6Sx chassis again. It will be available the week of July 21st. In the coming months, we will also have 6M18 and 6M100 chasses, as well as the 6M45 with new thinner, screened faceplates. We have discontinued the 5F11, 5X6, and the 5E8 due to low interest in those products. We are working on several new general purpose chassis for amps in the 15 to 100 watt range, as well as a 6Ax type 100 watt chassis that is 23-1/2" wide. Fourhead Amp Switcher I keep getting requests for this unit, so I have released the design for the circuit board and have begun ordering the necessary components. I hope to have this available by late September, '03. High Power Load Dump The high power load dump (200 watts) is finally coming together. It should be available by the end of July. It has 2-4-8-16 impedance, balanced and unbalanced DI output, and both stepped and variable attenuation. It will be $185 plus shipping. Cables for Attenuators Several attenuator and general purpose cables are now available, from simple phone plug to phone plug cables, to complex harnesses for the '59 Bassman, Peavey Amps, etc. 15" British voiced speakers I get a lot of requests for a british voiced 15", both AlNiCo and ceramic. So, I have ordered some sample cones to try to achieve and identifiable british tone with a 15". If successful, we will have both AlNiCo and ceramic models, as well as blue dogs and silver bells. Pots And More Pots More pots on the way. Available in June, '03 -- 500K audio, 100K linear, 1 Meg linear, 25K linear, 250K linear, 3 Meg reverse audio, 350K audio tapped at 70K. Available mid July, '03 -- 1 Meg with switch, 10 Meg reverse audio, dual 1 Meg audio, 10K linear screwdriver slot bias pot, 200 ohm 2 watt hum balance pot. New Online Ordering Our new online store with shopping cart is up and running. It remembers who you are and what you have ordered in case you want to leave the session and resume later. It also gives you a running total which comes in handy when you are purchasing several different types of products. Although it is not on a secure server, your credit card info is scrambled prior to being submitted. New Speaker Models We will be introducing two new models in December. Modeled after the G12H30 and vintage G12-65, the 1230 is a 30 watt, 50oz magnet speaker that is gritty, aggressive, punchy, and crunches up nicely in overdrive. The 1265 is warmer, clear, and has a bold, broad tone. It has a 65 watt rating and a 30oz magnet with the familiar large screen dustcap. Load Dump Attenuators I've been working on a new line of resistive attenuators to complement our MASS attenuators. They are called "Load Dumps". One model is a 25 watt unit that is inserted inline with the speaker, such as in a Champ or Deluxe. The other is a 150 watt unit in the same size enclosure as our MASS. It features switchable 2, 4, 8, and 16 impedances, variable balanced DI output, 150 watt rating, and both fixed and variable attenuation. We are planning a late December introduction. 6x9 Speakers I continue to get requests for a decent 6x9 speaker. I have found a cone, and am currently waiting for a quote. The cone is fairly thin and has a double fold surround for good low end. We already have the basket and will be offering the 6x9 in 4, 8, and 16 ohms at 15 watts. Vintage Series To Get New Numbering Scheme Because our model line up continues to grow and we offer a growing number of options and modifications to our speakers, we have decided to get away from the vintage model numbering system. We have decided to use a system that describes the size, the type of magnet, and then the size of the voice coil. The suffix on the end of the model number will indicate the type of cone if other than the standard cone for that particular model. We believe our new numbering scheme will allow us the flexibility to develop a broader line of speaker products. Because we are a specialty manufacturer, we will eventually have an order form that will allow the customer to build to a specific tone recipe, including selection of cone type, magnet size, voice coil power and length, and basket color. If you are interested in a speaker from a particular era or one that was used in a particular amplifier, please feel free to refer to those numbers, our old numbers, or simply a description of the tone you are looking for. We'll mix and match components to get the tone you desire. Pots R Us We have around 60,000 pots in stock now. The values available are 25K, 100K, 250K, and 1M. These are 30% taper audio, 3/8" bushing, short shaft, acid etched solderable cover. They are supplied with a steel nut and washer (zink, not blackened). We have the 350K tapped at 70K, the 5K linear, and 10M reverse audio pots on order. I am going to order some other models, such as 500K and 100K. I haven't received enough input yet on which ones to buy first. Chassis Products We are finally shipping 6Ax and 6Sx chasses. The 6V30 should be ready in about 2 weeks. It is at the screener and the screen is ready for printing. We also have a 5C5 (tweed Pro) at the chromer. It should be ready for screening in about 3 weeks. We have adapters for the octal preamps to covert them to 9 pin for those who want to build the 5E5. Several companies and individuals have written me wanting to sell parts kits for our chasses. In the coming months, we will be adding links on the chassis page to the various vendors of these kits. We ran out of the 6M18 chassis soon after we received them. That was a third party chassis we did not design or purchase. We are in the process of designing and quoting a replacement unit with the plexi panels, fiber board set, and brass plate. We should have that model available by March '02 Bringing back the old cones. In my continuing quest to study vintage speakers and speaker parts, I decided to spring for the tooling to make the vintage curved seamed cones in the 10, 12, and 15" sizes. They have inverted ribs and are the same weight and mass as the originals that I have been able to scrounge for comparison. However, the original methods of seamed cone production was very labor intensive and involved a method of production that left the cone soft and, as I call it, 'pithy' by today's standards. Today's seamed cones are stiffer, pressed harder, and are more rigid. So, I had to come up with a concoction to soak them in that would loosen the fibers and soften them. Our cones are very close to the softer curved seam cones found in the CTS 10's used in the BFSR's, and the 12's used in vintage P12N's. We are the only company offering the curved seam cone. Here is a picture of our curved seam cone: 
Click on the picture to see it full size. The voltage clamp option is now available on all C-Caps. The 'C' option allows the customer to specify the maximum sag that will occur. So, for instance, a C-cap would act like a 5Y3 at idle and up to a certain current level, then the drop would stay at that level regardless of the current. It allows the user to select the compression level that best suits the amp and playing style. I'm also still working on the adjustable C-cap model and the 9 pin models. Update .. 02-01-02 We have the plug board and pins on order for the 9 and 7 pin C-Caps. We are currently looking at an early March introduction of the 6X4, 6AV4, EZ80, 81, 90, and 91. AlNiCo Signature Series. The 8's and 10's (AlNiCo models) are now available. We have been receiving nice comments and feedback on both the ceramics and the AlNiCo's. Reconing. You may have noticed we are now reconing speakers again. As is pointed out on our reconing form and on the recone page of our website, we treat the reconing job as if we are building the speaker for the first time. That is, we demagnetize the speaker, clean out the gap, do the recone, remagnetize, and then fully test it. For no additional charge, we also repair shifted poles, reglue loose magnets, and even replace chipped or broken magnets. I can't stress enough the importance of remagging an AlNiCo speaker that may have been blown by the use of excessive power. The difference in tone is dramatic. If you must take you speaker to a local reconer, make darn sure he or she understands the low mass (lightweight) characteristics of vintage guitar amp speakers, the relatively short voice coils, and the fact that, if it is an AlNiCo magnet, it must be remagged in most cases. I have received so many vintage speakers that were reconed with HIFI speaker type parts and, although they looked OK, sounded awful. Also beware of vintage speaker dealers hyping vintage looking speakers and charging big dollars for them. Most of them don't have the equipment to properly test them and certainly don't have the magger to remag a vintage AlNiCo speaker magnet. I get at least one speaker a month that was bought from one of the so called vintage speaker dealers that turns out to be worthless. On some I have actually installed new magnet circuits and other parts just to give the customer something useful for guitar work. Buyer beware! If you are considering the purchase of a vintage speaker but are skeptical of the seller or think it is too good to be true, please feel free to call (765.452.1249) or email me anytime. Also, if you agree to purchase a speaker from an Ebay auction, keep in mind that the seller may not pack it properly and then refuse to pay for repairs when it gets trashed during shipment. Pedal Pump Products. I'm still conducting surveys on pedal boards and power supplies. When I began this project, I was told by several people that my survey results would so varied that the results might not tell me what I need to know to offer universal products. This is because pedals and pedal boards are a very personal thing and everyone's needs are different. They were right. So, I'm trying to digest the survey results and make a decision which way to go on this. Stay tuned. Ideas? If you have an idea or know of something that is missing in this market and think it should be produced, please feel free to contact us. We'd be happy to discuss it. |
