SonicNorth AudioWorks

SonicNorth AudioWorks Restoration of vintage and modern musical instrument speakers.

Here's a fabulous rare (giant) Celestion! Brought in by a client in pieces (even the basket and magnet were disassembl...
05/12/2026

Here's a fabulous rare (giant) Celestion!

Brought in by a client in pieces (even the basket and magnet were disassembled), this is a Celestion C18 from the late 70s. These seemed to have all kinds of weird variants around this time and this one originally had an inverted butyl rubber surround that would have made it a true bass woofer with a pretty strong midrange roll-off. Although technically possible to restore to orginal, The client and I agreed that this had less utility than a more full range restoration. The outcome is an 18" "Greenback" (IYKYK). IMHO this should end up in a closed cab for dropped tuned guitar - a heavy chug-monster! A late 70s blackback G12H restored for the same client for scale. An epic speaker unto itself!!

I've been venturing into restoring various home and car audio speakers for clients lately and its been a lot of fun! So...
04/26/2026

I've been venturing into restoring various home and car audio speakers for clients lately and its been a lot of fun! Some of these have been full restorations, others are refoaming of degraded surrounds, which is a new skill I'm learning. So far so good!

An EVM rare bird. I had the pleasure of restoring a couple of siblings at the same time - an old-stock EVM 12L and a 1...
04/26/2026

An EVM rare bird. I had the pleasure of restoring a couple of siblings at the same time - an old-stock EVM 12L and a 12S! These are essentially the same speaker except the 12S has a shorter frame and cone, giving it a different character that is often sought after by guitar players. The 12L was suffering from some standard age-related failures. The 12S had been "professionally" reconed, and the job was so poorly done the speaker was unusable, with heaps of adhesives applied so heavily the cone was rippled. Apparently the company thought it was fine and shipped it back. Unconscionable and so disrespectful of the client and this rare speaker. They have been made right.

Just sent this 8" 1930s Oxford Field Coil speaker home in its original Supro amp! This one was tricky. The original sp...
04/17/2026

Just sent this 8" 1930s Oxford Field Coil speaker home in its original Supro amp! This one was tricky. The original spider were pieces of phenolic/bakelite that held the coil in place. The restoration here required the replacement of these broken parts with a conventional cup spider and then best available parts that fit. I think it turned out looking pretty original and best of all, it works!

I'm giving up....making generalizations about superior build quality, durability, etc when discussing vintage speakers! ...
04/13/2026

I'm giving up....

making generalizations about superior build quality, durability, etc when discussing vintage speakers! This is a perfectly lovely alnico Oxford 12L6N from 1963. And no, I did not use any solvents or sandblasting to get the frame this clean. Everything from the spider to the gaskets pretty much peeled right off. Makes for a nice tidy restoration but its no wonder the voice coil was rubbing. Will be good as 1963-new in a couple of days.

Don't ever think that cleaning the voice coil gap is a step that can be skipped (when doing a full speaker restoration) ...
11/30/2025

Don't ever think that cleaning the voice coil gap is a step that can be skipped (when doing a full speaker restoration) even on speakers that have been in one piece their entire lives. This is a 1930s Oxford Field Coil speaker - stay tuned for the full story on this one!

Ah, sweet restoration. Vintage Oxford 12K5-6 ready for service.
11/29/2025

Ah, sweet restoration. Vintage Oxford 12K5-6 ready for service.

Paper former hype.So some speaker companies are touting the vintage goodness of reissue speakers with paper formers (the...
11/28/2025

Paper former hype.

So some speaker companies are touting the vintage goodness of reissue speakers with paper formers (the cylinder that the voice coil wires are wound onto). Ted Weber says it clearly:

"Despite the fact that using a paper former is a great marketing tool for vintage style speakers, the fact is it has no effect on the sound itself."

Speaker voice coils are made of other materials for a reason now. Case in point, here is what can happen to paper former voice coils. I guess unreliable part failure is part of the vintage vibe of some of these reissues?

Hi Folks it's been a while. I had a couple of ToneSpeak Guitar Speakers 1250 speakers in to the shop this week. Before...
10/10/2025

Hi Folks it's been a while. I had a couple of ToneSpeak Guitar Speakers 1250 speakers in to the shop this week. Before any further discussion, I really like these speakers. Fantastic construction (except for one minor thing on this pair), and I did an A/B in my '74 Fender Twin with its '72 Oxfords. I loved how the speakers didn't fundamentally change the tone of the amp at all, but overall had a wider frequency response, especially the fat low end that was fantastic. No shocker with a 1.75" voice coil vs the Oxfords ~1.5, doped surrounds, sturdy cone, bigger magnet. I have a small sample size, but I can say with confidence that I would put these in the Twin if I ever replaced the Oxfords. Really nice balanced tone. Maybe I'll try a mix with one of these to beef up the overall response? 🤔

The reason why they were brought in was that they were being tested in different cabinets and when they were front mounted, they were making all kinds of noise. Turns out the speaker surround/gasket glue joint was spotty in a couple of places on both speakers. A surprising finding given the very high build quality of the speakers overall. Unknown if this was due to the glue joint being starved, contamination on the basket lip that prevented the glue from adhering or something else, but with some extra Moyen rs-3087 we should be back in business for front mounting. Of course, with proper snug rear-mounting, this would never have been an issue.

Otherwise, great stuff ToneSpeak Guitar Speakers! I'm going to dig into your product line and see what else you have to offer!

I was curious about the difference between the EVM 15L and 15B, since they truly look identical and have the same power ...
04/23/2025

I was curious about the difference between the EVM 15L and 15B, since they truly look identical and have the same power handling. According to some on the internet, B stands for Bass, and L stands for Long throw, but EV's own documentation indicate that the L is designed as a full range speaker ('brighter' if used for bass) while the B is specifically for bass, and apparently supposed to have somewhat better very low frequency response. The physical specs for all of the parts are identical except for the cone and final finish. The 15L has three ribs on the cone and specifies a latex doping of the cone surround, while the B has a smooth cone and no doping. So the difference is cone stiffness and surround flexibility - the 'machine' parts of the speakers are identical.

Another EV heavyweight! You may recall the nice 15L I did a while back - this is the other brother! This EVM 15B was a...
04/23/2025

Another EV heavyweight! You may recall the nice 15L I did a while back - this is the other brother! This EVM 15B was a pleasure to restore - even managed to save the original dustcap to keep things looking stock!

Address

London, ON

Telephone

+12269770226

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when SonicNorth AudioWorks posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share