I've had 1 417H and now have 2 417Cs...they typically run 300 or so USD; some may charge more but eventually one or 2 pop up for 300. Strange that cab has 3+1 Altec; not sure how that would sound. But they are great speakers. The H needs volume to do its thing, the Cs less and Bs even less; the lower wattage C-Bs seem a bit brighter with more mids to my ears.
1st.. thanks. And 2nd...$500 is pretty steep for one! If you look, or at least try and be patient I would think $300-350 would be a fair price. Man, I have an 817B that I think needs a recone. It worked fine and I put it in a 1x12 cab and it was givng me a little distortion on the cleans. Cant find any rips or tears and it did work when I took it out. LOL. Great Plains Audio recones them with the same machines and parts that they used for the originals. Its something like $350 but shit, I'd give ya the speaker for nothing if you were close! Only thing with most of them is that obviously they are all used, and depending on how much it was used it could possibly need a recharge. They have a certain characteristic in the top end but, like others have said, the mids can either drop or spike from speaker to speaker. Definitely not enough {for me anyways} to start buying and selling just to find the "ONE", but it is worth noting.
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i had a pair in a stereo 2x12 i used live with my triaxis/395 rack rig in the 90s. more recently i babysat a mark III green stripe combo loaded with one (in the clip). zachman’s first mark IIB combo he bought in 81-82, with the fetron preamp, came with a 1x12 extension cab. both the combo and 1x12 were loaded with the 417-8Hs and sounded amazing.
generally with boogie marks, i like to set the auto eq so on the clean channel, eq is bypassed and all the speaker highs come through. on lead tone the eq is engaged, knocking down the top end. playing around with the GEQ and drives will transform the tone from randy to holdsworth to santana! and yes that is *the* carlos speaker for boogies, which is why i gave mine away to a friend who was a santana fanatic!
i pulled the altec out of my friend’s green stripe combo and replaced with a WGS blackhawk HP which was better balanced imo. but the 417-8H is cool
you definitely have the killer live RR vibe happening bro bro! you make it work nicely.
Yea, sounds like this guy is thinking some Randy nut is gonna pay up cause its RANDY..!! LOL The thing is they are so sharp on top that if you're playing high gain modern metal tones they can be hard to dial in and make it work on their own. I had great results mixing them with the older Mesa V30's (top cab 92 Mesa Recto cab and bottom was a 4x12 Altec in a front loaded Ampeg V4 cab). The 2 cabs together really sounded great together as they seemed to compliment each other nicely. I sorta wish I had mic'ed both of those to see what they sounded like going to print, but that did sound so so good in the room.
you definitely have the killer live RR vibe happening bro bro! you make it work nicely.
that altec aluminum sizzle is unmistakable once you’ve experienced it. in santana’s case it might have been the key black magic ingredient that brought the metal edge to his 60’s woman tone
overall it tends to be a little too splashy up top for my high gain tastes, and can be a razor sharp dagger in the tone eyeball if not careful. but it is an auto “more me” in a live mix!
Nope, they are all Alnico mags. The differences lie in the wattage rating....the H are 80, 100...not exactly sure..the Cs 60, Bs 30/40...but all have very similar tones. If the C was Ceramic, the tonal difference should be very different and they are actually very similar.
i had a vintage V4 half stack too and the cab had stock 25 watt CTS speakers in it. i agree that cab sounded insane! it was so resonant in the low mids and it really smoothed out harshness, but not too boomy. i had the most crazy rig ever guys. dynacomp, dod od250,
metal zone, into fender harvard reverb II ss 1x10 combo, out to a quadraverb gt, into the V4!!!
Thats interesting to know Gilbert used one also. If you saw mine you'd swear it got picked out of the garbage on the side of the road! Someone gave it to my buddy and he was going to chuck it. I saw it was front loaded and didnt have any experience with them, so I grabbed it. The front grill is is very warped, the tolex has peeled in random spots ,dents everywhere and no wheels. I dont even remember why I put Altecs in it, but it probably had something to do with I most likely had a few that werent in a cab lying around and was curious what a FL cab would do with the top end on them. Was yours also a million pounds empty?i had a vintage V4 half stack too and the cab had stock 25 watt CTS speakers in it. i agree that cab sounded insane! it was so resonant in the low mids and it really smoothed out harshness, but not too boomy. i had the most crazy rig ever guys. dynacomp, dod od250,
i wish i still had the studio and live recordings of that thing. my rhythm crunch tone sounded like nuno’s little jack horny mixed with ronnie letekro caught between the tigers. only a long time later did i find out nuno had and used that same cab.
paul gilbert also used to have a V4 in the racer x years and some of his tones on second heat are some of his chunkiest and remind me of the V4 sound.
my old college roommate bought the cab from me in 1990 and still has it!
Some places I’ve read online say H’s are ceramic. Not sure, but with the E120’s being the only ceramic JBL’s (as one example) they don’t differ imo from the other JBL’s as much as how it translates with Alnico vs Ceramic celestions being so different, so might be possible. They all sound like Altec’s with that distinctive flavor, but still have very clear differences to me when AB’ed (mostly in relative 3D-ness and liveliness in tone getting progressively better from H to C to B). All 4 of my C’s were also consistently the most crisp and trebly of them
I stand corrected on the C!! It is an Alnico magnet for sure.The 421A is ceramic. The H is definitely Alnico. That I am sure of! Sorry for the confusion on the C.Yes, Altecs 417-8H. Randy used them dating back to Quiet Riot. They are Alnico V magnets. At one time I had 2 full stacks loaded with them. Over the years I sold sold 12 and kept just 4 which I still use today. Mesa had an option with that speaker on the Mark 1 combo. They are EXTREMELY bright as their frequency response is 60hz to 8000hz. Add n MXR Distortion plus which was also a little bright and thats Randys sound. The 417B had a different basket design and less power handling. The 417C used the same frame as the H except the H could handle a bit more power. They aint light either. 13lbs 11 ounces. They are rated for 100w but can absolutely handle 150-170w. Hope that helps!
Edit: The C version is a ceramic magnet btw, but Randy definitely used the H which I confirmed with Kelli, Randys brother back in the 90s.
There was an old beat v4 cab for sale for 300$ near me with eminence no name speakers in it. Should have grabbed it and stuck bigger speakers in it by the sounds of it. People love those cabs with good speakers. It was gone by the time i wanted to pick it up.i had a vintage V4 half stack too and the cab had stock 25 watt CTS speakers in it. i agree that cab sounded insane! it was so resonant in the low mids and it really smoothed out harshness, but not too boomy. i had the most crazy rig ever guys. dynacomp, dod od250,
i wish i still had the studio and live recordings of that thing. my rhythm crunch tone sounded like nuno’s little jack horny mixed with ronnie letekro caught between the tigers. only a long time later did i find out nuno had and used that same cab.
paul gilbert also used to have a V4 in the racer x years and some of his tones on second heat are some of his chunkiest and remind me of the V4 sound.
my old college roommate bought the cab from me in 1990 and still has it!
i don’t recall that cab being any heavier than others i owned but the head was like carrying around a 100 lb barbell to a gig!
