Goodmans fan-frame Alcomax speakers

Used by JMI in 1962 and 1963.

A rare instance of an advert in the music press, early 1960s.

The fan-frame drivers in view are in fact a species of Goodmans "Alcomax" (not "Economax"), re-sold by Lafayette, Jensen, Bell and Howell, and various others in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the name presumably indicating a magnet composed principally of aluminium and cobalt rather than aluminium, nickel, and cobalt ("alnico").

An AC15 Twin cab without chassis and back boards. The Goodmans fan-frame speakers, 15 ohms apiece, are wired in parallel for a total of 8 ohms.

JMI used the 12" version of these speakers for a time - in 1962 and 1963 - for the AC15 Twin. Numbers of examples . Many a Bell and Howell projector speaker cabinet has since been raided for "restorations".

The 15" version

Used briefly by JMI in early T60 cabinets (2 x 15"), as in the instance below, probably pre-dating the 15" speakers that JMI went on to commission in blue - Tannoy, Celestion, and a little later Fane. Whether Paul McCartney's T60 cabinet (received by him in March 1963) had "Alcomax" drivers is unknown - but very possibly it did.

How did JMI come to use these Goodmans? Presumably following its adoption some months earlier of the 12" version for the AC15 Twin.

Early T60 speaker cabinet, probably Spring 1963, perspex logo missing its "X".

The chalked "G" - the initial of one of the cabinet finishers at JMI - survives in several other cabs, .

Detail from Lafayette advertising, late 1950s. The speakers used by JMI do not have the resonator at centre, nor the high frequency horn unit.

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