DIY: How to Replace Your Guitar Speaker in a 1x12 Combo Amp

Follow John Bohlinger as he shows you how to quickly upgrade your sound with a speaker-swap tutorial.

Intro: For today’s mod, we're got three core pieces of gear: A StewMac ’66 D-Reverb, which is inspired by the classic Fender Deluxe; a StewMac Pre-wired speaker harness; and a ToneSpeak Austin, which is a 12-inch, 50-watt, 8 ohm speaker, but you can do this kind of speaker replacement on any 1x12 or 2x12 combo. And remember, always match the ohm rating of your amp to your speaker. If you don't do this, you could blow a speaker or damage your circuit. No bueno.

Step 1: So, let's start with our D-Reverb amp. Put a towel down on the floor or your work bench or table, to protect the amp’s face, and put your combo face down on that towel. You'll next need to take your wire clippers and cut the wires at about one inch away from the mounting posts on the speaker that they're connected to. That inch will come in handy later if you want to de-solder the wire ends from the speaker, so you can re-use the speaker later, for another cabinet.

Step 2: With the wires separated from the speaker, unplug the wires from the 1/4-inch speaker output jack on the back of the amp, and then remove the wiring. You don 't need to have a set of loose, dangling wires in your way when you remove the speaker or install its replacement.

Step 3: Now, using your drill—set to a gentle speed—or using your screwdriver, you'll want to unscrew all the screws holding the speaker to its frame in the speaker cabinet. Be careful to place each screw in a small container as you remove them. And when you've removed them all and placed them in your container, put the lid on it. You don't want to drop a screw and have to hunt for it on your hands and knees, or misplace one, because you're going to need them to put the replacement speaker in.

Step 4: Gently lift out the original speaker.

Step 5: Inspect your replacement speaker—our Tone Speak Austin— one more time to be sure there are no obvious flaws, and then move it into place, aligning its screw holes over the screw holes in the frame.

Step 6: Open your container, and use the screws you saved to screw the new speaker gently and securely into place.

Step 7: Now it's time to wire the Tone Speak Austin speaker up. I like to use a fresh wire harness, because if you're replacing a speaker, there is a good chance the old wire harness has been in place for a while. There's nothing better than a fresh start. So, in this case, I'm using the StewMac harness, which comes pre-wired and ready to go—which saves a lot of steps. There's no wire cutting, no attaching a 1/4-inch jack or speaker post connectors to the wires. Just plug the harness’ 1/4 -inch jack into the speaker out on the back of the combo, and, since the StewMac harness is pre-wired with clips, just slide the clips over the speaker posts. You can solder those in place later, so they don't come loose, but right now you can pick up the amp, plug it into an outlet, and plug in a guitar to test the speaker. And it's gonna fire up and sound good, since the only connections you've made so far are plug and play.

Step 8: Once you know that everything works, just place the speaker back down on its face and start heating up your soldering iron. You'll want to make the joints of the speaker posts and speaker wire harness clips permanent. Otherwise, the wires will shake loose with travel or use. It's also a good idea to put a piece of aluminum foil under the area where you'll be soldering, to protect your new speaker from any drips of solder that might fall.

0:00 - John Bohlinger Intro
0:17 - Tools Needed for Project
1:06 - Step 1: Prep Workspace & Remove Back Panel
1:41 - Step 2: Remove Speaker Wiring
2:14 - Step 3: Remove Screws from Speaker Mount
2:40 - Step 4: Remove Speaker from Cabinet
2:50 - Step 5: Inspect New Speaker
3:10 - Step 6: Secure New Speaker Into Cabinet
3:29 - Step 7: Wiring in & Testing the New Speaker
4:40 - Step 8: Soldering in New Speaker
5:17 - Final Tone Test

© Copyright Gearhead Communications LLC, 2024

#diy #guitar #guitarist #guitarplayer #guitarmods #amp #speaker

[DisciplefMetal]

Love watching videos with john, he's so passionate about gear.

[GuitarJawn]

The last speaker I swapped was a 12" GA SC-64 into my Princeton. Can't say enough great things about that speaker

[kennethquintini]

Great work teaching us about speakers 🎸

[bartoszbilon]

You look great John! Great video btw 👍👌

[belowthesmile]

Have a Fender Super Champ XD. Swapped out the speaker for a Celestion Vintage 10. Wow. Once I re-tubed it with JJs from Eurotubes and set the bias correctly- amazing. What great sound.

[lespaulthomson]

Iv got 6 different speakers that i put quick connections on and swap'em around whenever i get board of that tone. Even when i go back to the same set of speaker's, its always a fresh new tone. 😉

[alecalfaras]

Switch out speakers over amps, tubes, pedals, pickups, and even guitars for a different sound….🤟😎🍻💯🔥

[richardsteffens]

I swapped out some stock chinese celestians from my 2x12 and put in a eminence swamp thang and a cannabis rex and oh boy what a massive difference do speakers make. This is maybe a cheaper alternative to upgrade the tone on a amp you don't love, and thankfully a bit cheaper than a whole ass new amp. \m/

[Robstafarian]

I have an Eminence Wheel House 150 (the recently-discontinued Andy Wood signature, basically a neodymium Hempdog 12 Pete Anderson signature) waiting for me to afford a Mojotone Lite 1x12 for a 20-pound, 102dB cab. I wish I could afford a second one in case I find another use for one.

[LouCondon-jv]

John, see if you can do a video of Skillet for one of your gear reviews.

[thorinbane]

Would love to have heard some crunch. Every body that uses these speakers is always noodling some country stuff. Cleans are easy, what does it sound like with some dirt.

[thorinbane]

Should have put a Jensen Jet Falcon 10 in there. That is an amazing speaker that won't break the bank(but I would pay more for it)

[aurora]

Right, match the ohm, but the ohm can be greater in the speaker right? If lesser, than u can blow the speaker. What about wattage tho?

[electricsunnshine]

destroyed the speaker in my vintage unichord stage 65, was cookin at a rehearsal and it got quiet out of nowhere. Eminence Wizard is on the way, this will be the instructions 💀

[terrypwaldron]

why would you have to cut and solder the wires? Just use the same jack.

[KevinDick-hf]

Nice . however a before sound and then an after comparison would have been appropriate . But alas you got this published, without a before and after you are selling something without backing up your product featuring creative license while selling imagination instead of realism . Kind of like buying a pair of shoes two sizes smaller than your usual size.

[shaunkellison]

I was 100% certain that a video explaining how to remove screws from a speaker and plug the connection back in was a troll video

[rareform]

This Cannel has gone from bad too Make Up Shit ?