Mesa 1516 cab renovation

[nash]

I’ve just been given an old school Mesa 1516 cab. By all accounts the drivers are bust. I’ll be retolexing it all as well. 
 

anyway. Has anyone fitted one with neodymium drivers for the whole lot? 2 x 6, 1 x 10 and 1 x 15. 

[Steve Browning]

Might be worth listing the drivers when you take them out. The 15 is (I believe) an EV 15L or M. I only ever had the 2x15 cabs.

Interesting idea and I would have thought one of the speaker gurus might be able to help, if they have the information they need.

[stevie]

This is a more advanced project than fitting a different driver in an existing box. You're going to have to integrate three different drivers and get them working together seamlessly. Your best bet, as Steve has alluded, is to find out what the existing drivers are, get the spec sheets, and try to locate the nearest modern, neo equivalent. Keep the existing EV crossover (which also might be in need of repair, by the way) and cross your fingers.

Unless you're lucky enough to pick some up secondhand, you're looking at a minimum of £400 for new drivers.  If it works, you'll not only have a much lighter cab, but it will also handle more power. If it doesn't work, you'll just have to resell your drivers and swallow the loss.

Interesting project though.

 

[stevie]

There's quite a bit of info on this cab on Talkbass. From what I can gather, none of the smaller drivers is sealed; they share the same airspace as the 15. That's not great for the six-inch drivers in particular and might be why so many people on that forum are trying to repair them. To make matters worse, the crossover only works on the horn.