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Okay here is a speaker I don't see much mention of on here. THis was Santana's fav (the altec 417-8c) for many years. About ten years ago I tried to track one down, I got a reconed 417-8c from a local guitar repair guy but the re-coning was not done right and the voice coil rubbed so he swapped it for an alnico 417-8h. Now this guy is very opinionated and he thought the 417 was a crappy speaker and could not understand why I wanted one. I tried it briefly in one of my earlier boogies (either a MKI or MKIII) and didn't give it much of a try. Can't remember my exact thoughts on it but they were probably tainted by the techs opinion. It has sat in my closet for probably close to 10 years unused. Well I was looking at some of my gear that I don't use the other day and thinking of what I should sell. I played my boogie MKII c+ (which has not been played in a while) and was really not impressed with the way it was sounding. Now I have changed the speaker in it quite a bit the last few years:the boogie black shadow (celestion), EVM 12, and recently a Weber ceramic blue. So I go into the closet and dig out the 417. THis thing is rated at 100 watts and has a 12.5 lb alnico V magnet structure. Big ugly white thing with a black painted magnet. I put it in turned it on and didn't really like it, nice highs but low end balance wasn't right. Well what to do? Maybe turn the tone knobs on the amp? What a brilliant idea. After a little tweaking this thing was singing. THe MKII has never sounded better. THe cleans really have a sweet chime to them and the overdrive channel has some nice natural compression, not harsh at all. At my age you think I would know enough the tweak the tone controls before pulling the speaker out again.
So now I am excited and thought I would do a little research, turns out these were offered as an option on the early boogies (1976, an extra $89). They were also the speaker of choice on early Dumbles. Seems they got outpriced by the EV's. Wholesale prices in the late 70's were about $100 for the atlec and only $75 for the EV so amp manufacturers started swithching to the EV. ALtec was then sold and is no longer.
Rumour has it there is a company about to, or very recently re-issueing them. They were going to do the 417-8c in both an alnico and ceramic version. This speaker is rated at 75 watts. Almost afraid to know what the alnico version would be selling for. I e-mailed the company for more info.
So now I am excited and thought I would do a little research, turns out these were offered as an option on the early boogies (1976, an extra $89). They were also the speaker of choice on early Dumbles. Seems they got outpriced by the EV's. Wholesale prices in the late 70's were about $100 for the atlec and only $75 for the EV so amp manufacturers started swithching to the EV. ALtec was then sold and is no longer.
Rumour has it there is a company about to, or very recently re-issueing them. They were going to do the 417-8c in both an alnico and ceramic version. This speaker is rated at 75 watts. Almost afraid to know what the alnico version would be selling for. I e-mailed the company for more info.
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