0:14
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:16
Zack today we are going to talk about
0:20
the evm12l this is the 20 lb
0:28
monstrosity w
0:31
um that uh electrovoice introduced in
0:36
1983 see I'm struggling to lift it up um
0:41
yeah we're going to talk about the
0:43
difference between the EV which is a
0:46
cast frame speaker we're going to talk
0:47
about the difference between that and
0:49
you know of course the Pressed frame you
0:51
know steel pressed frame speaker like
0:53
we're used to going to talk about that
0:56
going to talk about the differences in s
1:00
we're going to do a little bit of a
1:01
comparison we're going to talk about the
1:04
advantages of each and kind of what
1:06
they're
1:07
doing um talk about kind of response
1:11
time and kind of how the EV acts like a
1:14
piston and uh yeah and what an amazing
1:18
engine it has and also some of the
1:21
things that you there's a lot of hurdles
1:24
like let's say you want to use an EV
1:26
speaker it's not like you can just slap
1:28
one into your Deluxe Reverb or what have
1:32
you so we're going to talk about that
1:33
too the logistics if like let's say you
1:36
wanted to use an EV speaker in your rig
1:39
so yeah and we're just going to have fun
1:42
all right so while I'm thinking about it
1:45
I just appreciate my patreon followers
1:48
they are fantastic if you're interested
1:50
in joining them there's a link in the
1:53
description also um I do a lot of
1:57
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2:00
can follow me there I'll put a link to
2:02
that in the description
2:04
also uh yeah and then I just appreciate
2:07
people that put money in the tip jar and
2:09
the buy merch and stuff like that I
2:11
really appreciate everyone supporting
2:12
the show I'm
2:14
grateful all right let's dive in so of
2:18
course this episode in some way is a
2:19
response video to the JBL video I did a
2:23
year or so
2:25
ago and in a nutshell you know the JBL
2:30
was kind of the first kind of higher
2:33
wattage uh you know cast frame you know
2:37
speaker and then of course you kind of
2:40
get other speakers coming along like the
2:42
Altech Lancing which of course kind of
2:44
comes from James B Lancing and other
2:46
things and you get Electro Voice was
2:50
really primarily making microphones of
2:54
course they were making other other
2:55
products too but they really didn't get
2:58
into the speaker world as far as musical
3:02
instruments uh until into the' 70s and
3:06
that's when we start seeing EV speakers
3:08
in guitar amps and the first ones were
3:11
the U you know the
3:13
SRO which was this you know Alo
3:17
magnet uh with the you know big coffee
3:21
can cover on the uh on the magnet and
3:24
that was a uh a popular speaker but not
3:27
not nearly as popular as let's say the
3:30
the JBL or even the
3:32
Altech
3:33
so EV releases a ceramic magnet evm 12l
3:40
in
3:41
1983 and it's a big deal and it's a big
3:45
deal because it is a more neutral
3:49
sounding speaker than the JBL or the
3:51
Altec so the
3:54
JBL had really the d120 only had about a
3:58
40 watt rating and the k120 had probably
4:02
a 60 watt rating and they also had this
4:05
aluminum dust cover in the middle here
4:08
let's uh point the dust cover this this
4:11
is of course on a uh you know this is on
4:13
a imminent alesandro speaker but this
4:15
part on a JBL is much bigger and it's
4:18
and it's you know and it's
4:21
metal and so what that does is it
4:25
extends the frequency range of the
4:28
speaker it kind of w widens it and so
4:31
with
4:32
that you get the stereotypical chirp you
4:37
get this sound that is part of the lure
4:40
and the lore and the love of the JBL
4:43
speaker was this aluminum dust cover
4:47
that give gave you extended highend and
4:50
gave you a chirp on the notes well a lot
4:54
of people loved him a lot of people
4:55
hated him and so when EV
5:00
came out with the evm12l and again I'm
5:02
going to lift this
5:04
monstrosity and you had this gigantic uh
5:08
dust cover that was not
5:11
metal well it created a
5:15
smoother more neutral sound and it
5:19
wasn't really hyping the highend and so
5:23
EV had created this speaker that was a
5:26
little more flat in its response than
5:29
let's say the
5:32
JBL so uh it becomes very popular and
5:38
many uh Pro guitar players start using
5:41
the EV speaker so you have everyone from
5:45
Eric Clapton who would use them with
5:48
sanos in the later 80s but would even
5:51
use them with red knob Twins and and
5:55
Marshalls and you know Clapton and
5:57
others would take Marshall 412
6:00
and they would pull out the celestian
6:02
speakers and they put EVS in there and
6:05
that was a very very common thing Mark
6:07
offler had been using EVS for a while he
6:11
had been using EVS with
6:14
um uh perhaps with the music man amps
6:18
but absolutely but with the Boogie amps
6:20
he was using and then also when noler
6:23
went over to using the S Soldano amps in
6:26
the late 80s he uh he was using EV
6:30
speakers with them Steve Ron uh who had
6:34
been using different types of jbls be it
6:36
the you know D1 120s K1 120s even the E1
6:40
120s and 130s and such he switched over
6:43
pretty much completely to EV speakers in
6:46
all of his Fender type and dumble
6:50
amplifiers and of course dumble uh
6:53
dumble you know used a variety of
6:55
speakers early on including Alex and but
6:59
when they EV series came out he uh he
7:02
began using the the 12l a lot and also
7:05
he would use the
7:06
12s which is a variation that has a
7:09
little shallower basket and because of
7:11
that it tends to have a little bit more
7:13
mid-range and uh and that's the EV that
7:17
uh at times Larry Carlton would use and
7:21
Pete Anderson who of course is a
7:23
favorite guitar player of of
7:26
mine and uh you he was using alte and
7:29
eeve speakers in his Deluxe Reverb
7:32
amplifier so he would this was like
7:34
early on in the Dwight Yokum years Pete
7:37
would uh he had two Deluxe Reverb amps
7:40
and he would he had one of them had a an
7:43
Altech in it and the other one had an
7:45
evm
7:46
12s and that's and that 12s is uh I
7:51
think mainly you know what you hear on a
7:54
lot of those first couple records so and
7:57
definitely the live stuff that's
7:58
available
8:00
so EV
8:03
really kind of took over um they kind of
8:06
displaced JBL as the uh the big
8:11
especially guitar high-end guitar
8:13
speaker now EVS were not put in you know
8:18
a lot of your run-of-the-mill amplifiers
8:20
it was usually a uh an upgrade or it was
8:23
with more of your boutique amp which
8:25
even like mesaboogie would have very
8:27
much been considered a boutique
8:28
amplifier in the 70s and 80s really and
8:32
uh and they of course they had an
8:35
upgrade you could get an EV and they
8:36
even had a an inhouse uh EV with the
8:40
black shadow uh name on it but it was
8:43
just an evm12l
8:45
uh let's talk a little bit about the
8:49
cast frame to uh you know stamped frame
8:54
so here
8:56
is one of my favorite um stamped frame
9:00
speakers and I don't like this in
9:02
everything but I especially like this in
9:04
my I I gig a lot with a headstrong
9:07
little King which is basically a
9:08
Princeton with a 12-in speaker it's not
9:10
hot rotted in any other way and this is
9:13
mainly what I use on my
9:15
show and I gig with it and it came with
9:18
this speaker in it and I really like it
9:19
a lot however I bought another one which
9:22
is this one right here and I tried
9:25
putting it in my Deluxe and I didn't
9:26
like it as much because I kind of like a
9:28
speaker with more mids like a vintage 30
9:30
or even like a A g1265 or et65 from
9:35
warehouse but um yeah I really like this
9:40
uh speaker in a Princeton because a
9:42
Princeton has more mids to it than a
9:44
deluxe does cuz a a Princeton doesn't
9:46
have as much bandwidth it uh it just
9:49
can't you know because it's smaller
9:51
Transformers and everything so it ends
9:52
up being a little more midrangey
9:54
sounding than a deluxe and so this
9:56
speaker works really well in it okay
9:59
enough about that let's talk about stamp
10:01
frame so this is steel that's stamped
10:04
into this shape and then they attach the
10:08
magnet and uh you know of course they
10:11
have a uh paper cone and you know it's
10:13
got some kind of material that's put as
10:16
a strengthener here on the on the
10:18
surround here and then this one has a
10:22
felt uh dust cover and uh and that
10:26
that's nice because it kind of uh
10:27
Smooths out the highs and so this is a a
10:31
good speaker so this weighs 72 lb and it
10:35
handles 40 watts and uh yeah good little
10:39
uh good little
10:41
speaker so now let's get the monstrosity
10:46
and I think I'm going to have to put my
10:47
uh my old Strat down so I don't end up
10:52
crashing into
10:54
it so here we go
11:00
yeah evm 12l this is 20 lbs
11:05
okay so this is a cast frame diecast you
11:11
know speaker frame and so it's weighs a
11:15
ton it weighs 20 lb it's 122 lb heavier
11:20
than the other speaker that's a lot more
11:22
to carry around as you can see it also
11:26
has a much bigger uh dust cover in the
11:30
middle it uh is made of heavier you know
11:34
paper the the cone material has this
11:36
really strong surround on it and then of
11:39
course you have a gigantic magnet that's
11:42
covered with a heat sink so you you may
11:45
be thinking why does that EV look
11:47
different than the ones that I've seen
11:49
well that's because it has this one has
11:51
a heat sink on it and so here you can
11:54
see I've removed one that's because I've
11:57
got the other EV of this pair is
12:00
actually you know plugged in right now
12:02
and I had to take this off just so it'
12:04
fit in the
12:05
amplifier and so this is to dissipate
12:09
heat and it's made of aluminum and it
12:12
has these uh you know has these uh
12:16
whatchamacallits on here uh you know
12:19
that help uh dissipate the heat
12:22
someone's going to have fun uh yeah just
12:24
cuz I've I've gone blank uh but yeah so
12:28
but if you take this off the amp loses
12:30
about I mean not the amp the speaker
12:32
loses about 2 lb so but uh yeah and
12:36
again you take this off it looks like a
12:38
regular
12:40
EV all right uh so what's different you
12:45
know so we've talked about the
12:46
construction obviously you know these
12:48
are much more expensive to make uh they
12:51
have much bigger magnet on them a
12:53
ceramic magnet and uh so what's the
12:56
difference in tone well I'm going to do
12:59
a little bit of playing example but
13:00
let's just talk about what's happening
13:06
well with the
13:08
EV it's like having this gigantic engine
13:12
that just is able to do whatever you
13:15
want in a split second and so its
13:18
reaction time is very different so when
13:21
you're using an EV speaker it's pumping
13:24
out the note it pumps it out it does it
13:26
exactly it has a quick response time
13:29
also it will come to rest you know with
13:33
how you play it doesn't you know kind of
13:36
keep wiggling around or or just kind of
13:40
uh you know continuing to to resonate
13:42
for reason uh the stamped frame
13:46
speaker uh doesn't have the same kind of
13:50
response time really and it doesn't come
13:53
to rest in the same way and that's
13:57
because it just doesn't have the engine
13:59
behind it it doesn't have the gigantic
14:01
magnet and the suspension and everything
14:02
else so there's just a a way in
14:06
which the stamp frame speaker will kind
14:10
of have some other artifacts going on
14:13
which a lot of people
14:15
like and you'll you know some people
14:18
will say with the EV it sounds more
14:21
sterile and it's not that it sounds
14:23
sterile it's just that it's not really
14:25
adding a lot to the situation it's doing
14:27
exactly what it's told to do it's kind
14:29
of vanilla
14:32
neutral uh but extremely accurate and
14:35
extremely powerful and it just spits out
14:38
exactly what's put into it now does that
14:41
mean it sounds bad no it sounds great it
14:44
has a great sound to it and uh you you
14:46
just kind of have to get used to it but
14:48
that's the
14:49
sound you know if you heard you know
14:52
Steve Ron would have recorded with the
14:54
same you know gear that he used out on
14:56
the road which especially by the uh you
15:00
know by like inep or such would
15:02
absolutely have been all EV stuff um I'm
15:06
sure he used some other amplifiers too
15:08
but the core stuff the dumble and the
15:11
super reverbs and the Viber verbs and
15:12
all those things would have all been EV
15:15
equipped uh you know again Clapton
15:18
knofler you know so much of the boogie
15:20
stuff and the dumble stuff is all e
15:23
speakers
15:25
um yeah it just it kind of spit gets out
15:30
exactly what it's given and a lot of
15:32
guys like EV speakers because they
15:35
really let the sound of the amplifier
15:37
come through they're not adding
15:38
coloration so guy like Pete
15:42
Anderson would love an EV because the
15:46
only Distortion is going to come from
15:48
the tubes it's not going to come from
15:50
the
15:51
speaker uh it really lets the amplifier
15:55
and the Transformers and everything kind
15:57
of come through the sound there's not
15:59
this other layer of coloration coming
16:02
through or again
16:04
Distortion uh going back to the response
16:08
time of the
16:09
speaker a lot of guys that are fast
16:12
precise players like the EV and the
16:17
JBL and so a guy like Albert Lee back in
16:21
the day uh he would always you know
16:24
prefer to use an amplifier that had EVS
16:28
or JB
16:29
L's and that was because of the speed
16:32
with which he played and the response
16:35
time that he wanted now is this saying
16:37
if you're a fast player you have to use
16:39
EVS no not at all it's a it's a personal
16:43
preference thing I mean if you think
16:45
about Brent Mason Brent Mason played
16:47
tons of incredibly fast guitar parts
16:50
that were run through you know most
16:53
likely celestian vintage 30s you know he
16:55
used a couple cabinets and had his
16:57
Deluxe Reverb had a vintage 30 in it and
17:00
he had a twin and he had some a basement
17:02
cab that all had vintage 30s in them and
17:05
that was kind of his you know a lot of
17:09
the sound that you heard with Brent when
17:11
he was using Fender amp so on a lot of
17:13
those Allen Jackson things you know
17:16
you're hearing vintage 30s and he's
17:17
playing plenty fast what you get with
17:21
the stamped frame speaker is you get
17:24
more smear so it's kind of like you hit
17:26
the note and it kind of smears it around
17:29
a little bit while the EV is just super
17:32
accurate it's just hitting the dot and
17:33
coming back while with the the stamped
17:36
frame speaker and then depending on what
17:38
kind of stamped frame speaker whether
17:39
it's a a Jensen or an Oxford or a
17:42
celestian or whatever you know it gets
17:44
its own smear
17:47
like a celestian blue has a certain
17:49
smear to the note and people love it and
17:52
people love celestian Blues um but yeah
17:54
all you know kind of lower wattage
17:56
stamped frame speakers just tend to have
17:58
have kind of a smear to the note and uh
18:02
and that's a thing but so is having an
18:05
EV or a JBL and I think the EV had even
18:08
an advantage over the JBL because it uh
18:12
it you know it didn't smear and it
18:13
didn't have the coloration of the
18:15
aluminum dome and I think the EV worked
18:17
better with a lot of uh you know
18:20
Distortion and effects and that's why
18:22
the studio cats of course they were
18:24
running direct a lot but otherwise a lot
18:26
of times the studio guys in the'80s in
18:28
'90s in uh especially in LA in the'80s
18:31
you know they were using Electro Voice
18:33
speakers they had them in their Rivera
18:36
modded amplifiers and they had them in
18:39
the you know in wedges and and you know
18:41
cabs that that how they you know when
18:43
they had their racks with the par amps
18:44
in them most of the time the speaker
18:47
cabs that they used with them were uh
18:49
like these 112 Pacific cabs that had EVS
18:52
in
18:53
them all right well I think we've done
18:56
enough talking about this so I'm going
18:59
to do a uh a comparison where I'm going
19:02
to play some things on the uh on with
19:07
the EV and then I'm going to compare it
19:09
to the
19:10
allesandro and so again I'm using I'm
19:13
using my my Strat and uh the only effect
19:17
that I have on is I have a little bit of
19:19
compression coming from a mirage
19:21
compressor and uh the amp is my Little
19:24
King which is 12 watts and it this is
19:26
the speaker in it and then I have a
19:29
similar sized Speaker Cabinet cuz I
19:32
wanted to get as close as possible uh so
19:35
I have a similar sized speaker cabinet
19:37
that I have the evm 12l in and so I'm
19:40
going to play some examples on each and
19:43
then uh and then we'll we'll wrap it up
19:46
one thing I will uh I want to give
19:48
credit to uh that pedal show they did a
19:51
great EV episode and the strongest thing
19:54
about it is that they basically did all
19:57
you know mostly audio examples I mean
19:59
they talk about it too and those guys
20:00
are brilliant they're great but uh they
20:04
play a bunch of different amplifiers so
20:06
you get to hear you know a Princeton and
20:09
like a Marshall and a matchless and a
20:13
Vox and you get to hear them all and
20:15
it's it's interesting in that they kind
20:17
of they they like the EV best with the
20:20
Vox and the and the the fender but they
20:23
don't really like the EV as much with
20:25
the uh Marshall or the matchless
20:29
all right so we're going to do a couple
20:31
examples
20:36
[Music]
20:58
a
21:07
[Music]
21:49
[Music]
21:55
all right so now you've listened and
21:57
you've decided that you love the EV
22:00
sound and you just got to have one in
22:03
your amp well here are the logistical
22:06
things to think
22:08
about one is that the bolts that are in
22:12
your amp uh in your amplifier they are
22:16
probably not long enough a lot of
22:18
amplifiers have really short bolts
22:20
coming out now some of them have you
22:22
know inset where of course you actually
22:25
use bolts that you screw from the back
22:27
while other ones have bolts that are
22:29
sticking out that are usually pointed
22:31
but most of the time either one are not
22:33
going to be long enough you're lucky in
22:35
that if you have the uh just the
22:37
receptacle in the amp you can just buy
22:40
longer bolts and you can put them in
22:43
there however the other thing to think
22:46
about is that you're putting a 20 lb
22:50
speaker where probably a 5 to 10 lb Max
22:53
speaker was and you could easily bust
22:57
your baffle board board especially if
22:59
you're going down the road and you know
23:02
your amp has a 20 lb speaker in it
23:04
instead of a 5 to 10 lb speaker in it
23:07
and you hit a bump or something like
23:09
that or an amp gets knocked over well
23:10
the first thing that's going to happen
23:11
is that baffle board is going to go
23:13
kapoot so what a lot of guys do that are
23:16
way into EVS especially if you're into
23:19
old Fender amps is they get a new baffle
23:22
board made of thicker stronger wood you
23:25
know with aged gr cloth or whatever you
23:28
want to do and they have you know longer
23:30
bolts on it too and sometimes they even
23:33
have to move where the speaker cut out
23:36
is so that it doesn't hit a Transformer
23:39
or something else on the amp so this is
23:42
not a real simple operation at times to
23:46
uh to kind of squeeze an EV especially
23:49
into a a 112 combo amp it's problematic
23:54
so you have you know the weight problem
23:56
you have the fact that it could crack
23:58
crack your baffle you have the the bolt
24:01
problem you have number of bolts you
24:03
know so uh th those are kind of the uh
24:06
the considerations for that uh the
24:08
easiest thing is probably to get a
24:10
separate Speaker Cabinet but of course
24:11
that's a whole another thing to Lug and
24:14
such it might be good to separate the
24:15
weight out so that's another thing to uh
24:18
weigh over and uh if the EV sound is uh
24:23
just the end all be all yeah the uh the
24:27
EV just has a more neutral response it's
24:31
kind of like a
24:33
um it's almost like the perfect speaker
24:36
for like a modeling amplifier because
24:38
you could switch up things and it would
24:40
uh it always just kind of give you a uh
24:44
a fast honest response thing so all
24:49
right guys but thank you so much for
24:50
watching today I really appreciate it
24:52
and we'll see you next time bye-bye