Ultimate Rhoads

I just came across these vintage Altec lansing 417 8-H speakers on Ebay,the seller has a few artist listed as using these same type speakers but no mention of Randy in the listing,Aren't these the same type that randy had in his Marshall cabs? with the center of the cone being made of aluminum rather than paper? Sometime down the road i would love to get these same type of speakers,a friend who is an amp guru tells me that vintage Altecs like these are killer sounding,would anyone know if Altec Lansing has a simular speaker they make or another simular typse of speaker that is close to specs to randy's speakers's. Thanks for any help,Rock on,Kevin

here's the ebay listing of the speakers:

http://cgi.ebay.com/altec-vintage-417-8 ... 5004r22347

and here is the specs of the 417 8 H speaker from Altec:

http://www.altecpro.com/pdfs/vintage/Sp ... peaker.pdf

krandall wrote:Aren't these the same type that randy had in his Marshall cabs?

Yep

krandall wrote:would anyone know if Altec Lansing has a simular speaker they make or another simular typse of speaker that is close to specs to randy's speakers's.

Not sure if they have that, but this is maybe helpful:

Iconic Manufacturing Co. is selling brand new speakers (the 917-8A's) that are acoustically and aesthetically identical (they sound and look the same) to the old Altec 417-8H that Randy used. Using the original tooling and former Altec employees to build them, they are the same except they are made with Ferrite magnets.
Aside from finding the Altecs used or re-coned, this is the closest you'll get.

All aboard!

Oh man,that's so awesome about 917 8a's-,that's so great,will have to tell my friend the amp guru about those,he loves the old Altecs like Randy's,thank you so very much telling me about these speakers, will definitely have to check em out- i knew that i was feeling great vibes when i joined this great Randy forum today:) Thanks,Kevin

The Flying Dutchman wrote:

krandall wrote:Aren't these the same type that randy had in his Marshall cabs?

Yep

krandall wrote:would anyone know if Altec Lansing has a simular speaker they make or another simular typse of speaker that is close to specs to randy's speakers's.

Not sure if they have that, but this is maybe helpful:

Iconic Manufacturing Co. is selling brand new speakers (the 917-8A's) that are acoustically and aesthetically identical (they sound and look the same) to the old Altec 417-8H that Randy used. Using the original tooling and former Altec employees to build them, they are the same except they are made with Ferrite magnets.
Aside from finding the Altecs used or re-coned, this is the closest you'll get.

All aboard!

Hope it works out!

If not, ElectoVoice is making the original EVM12L speaker again, I don't think they were around when Randy was alive, but good chance he would move on to these later on as well. But that is speculating of course.....

Great Plains Audio (www.greatplainsaudio.com) is manufacturing the 417 using the original 417 toolings, specs, and (I think) suppliers of materials. Same employees who ran the Altec production facilities and lines when Altec was still Altec. I know that they recently did a lot of 417 work for a RR tribute show that is coming up. I don't think you can get more authentic than that. find the website, call them and speak with Bill. He will set you up - it is a good idea to have your amplifier information handy when you speak with him.

Hope this helps.

BD

I was reading last night in the 40th anniversary Guitar World book about someone else who liked these speakers alot, I'll have to go back and see who it was as I can't remember right now.