c.1950 RCA Victor 1x12" Speaker Cabinet


This cool, greeny-yellow, tweedy-covered projector speaker cabinet boasts a 12" speaker of the sort found in this metal-cased Victor cab, that being the same 8 ohm type used on Gibson 12" amps made at the same time. Yes, it sounds great!


While the rest of the gear on this cab is original, the fun vintage grill cloth is courtesy of my wifey's scrap bin. This cab didn't have grill cloth to begin with but I like to keep the dust out of my speakers after I've cleaned them! The Victor grill is metal.


It's also got a protective plate to pop on when moving about with it.


Lovely old leather handle! ...but! This whole cab was sprayed with some of that 60s "faux stone" spray paint stuff. Yuck! I scraped it all off for the most part (what a chore!) and it went amazingly back to the original wrappings. Unfortunately, the hardware is a bit more frustrating to clean.

That circular spot would've had some sort of label on it originally.


There's a bit of water damage on the back and bottom. The back pops entirely off.


I've replaced a little post on the inside (for some of the original gear that this had for use as a speaker cabinet for a projector) with a jack and quality cable hookup to the speaker. This makes it easy to hook up to an amp head.


After removing all of the useless projector-related gear with rotten cables, the cab lightened somewhat, and I cleaned it all up, tightened everything remaining, and installed the grill cloth and cleaned the speaker up. It's a paper cone with no ridges.

Tonally? Excellent. Really full and rich. I love the sound of these guys!


Hey, not the cleanest install, but it works just fine.


Here's the bottom.


...and this is the sort of paint that had been sprayed over the entire thing.

Comments

Unknown said…
How could you hook up a jack put keep the original items inside ?... and you know how all the items working inside? and what kind of project would hook up to this?
Unknown said…
And if you answered can you email me at n.tenhave1@Gmail.com
Unknown said…
I've got a couple of Victor cabinets here in the UK, and they are fitted with Vitavox speakers. Big, heavy beggars that kick out the BEST sound when paired with my vintage 6v6 based amp. Amazing stuff.
Jake Wildwood said…
Alphonse: aside from cosmetic work all I did was remove the jumpers and extra stuff that was only for use as a project speaker. I then soldered leads from the +/- on the speaker to the jack on the back. This, in effect, makes it a simple guitar speaker cab that you match up with any amp head with an output of 8 ohms.
Jake Wildwood said…
That should read: with a speaker jack rated 8 ohms.
Ken said…
Jake: Great photo description of your nice Victor projector speaker.
I have one but it consists of only the speaker with the "Victor" grill and what looks like an attached transformer (possibly to reduce hum from the projector power supply?). I was surprised when I was able to activate the voice coil with a battery ... at first glance this permanent magnet speaker looks like an electro-dynamic speaker.
After seeing your photos I now know what the two wingnut-like items on the front are for.
Have you looked for or found a source of new tweed material to recover the cabinet with?