Goodmans Audiom 60 - 1957-1960

Alnico, 15 watts handling, 15ohm, and Bass resonance.

Perhaps used by JMI in the AC2/30 (1957-1958), certainly from time to time in TV front AC30/4s (serial number 4401 for instance), presumably when there were no Celestion G12s in store.

"Plain" Audiom 60s had blue labels; Bass resonance had red. JMI regularly used the blue label version, as did Selmer. Whether the red label bass drivers were used from time to time in bass versions of the AC30/4 is unknown at present.

Detail from a Goodmans flyer, late 1950s / early 1960s. Note that there were three versions of the Audiom 60, resonances at 35, 55 and 75hz. The speaker was popular and well known in the 1950s, having been available since 1953 at least.

"Wireless World" magazine, July 1953.

The price given in "Wireless World" magazine, April 1954. On the left, immediate purchase - £11 12 shillings and 4 pence. On hire-purchase - £4 deposit and twelve monthly payments of 15 shillings and 6 pence.

Goodmans pricelist 1961. The Audiom 60 was £9 12 shillings and 9 pence, not a small amount. That was the price to the public. Manufacturers such as JMI will have had a sizeable discount for bulk.

Above, an early blue label Audiom 60 and a later bass resonance model.

So-called "Goodmans Economax"

A single speaker AC/30 from 1960 survives with a fan-frame speaker in place. Drivers of this type are also occasionally found in AC15s, a notable example being the amp that John Lennon had in 1962. They were certainly made by Goodmans, but not marketed under the name "Economax". That was reserved for a couple of very different units - the "Economax 220" and "Economax 330".

The fan-frame drivers bought in JMI were in fact produced by Goodmans for the manufacturers of portable speaker enclosures for projectors and so on, numbers evidently being reserved in the UK for Bell and Howell. Others were exported to the USA (and rebranded "Lafayette" or "Jensen").

The drivers are particularly poor at reproducing bass frequencies, ie. they are not "full-range" (Audiom 60s were): the magnets are said to be ceramic rather than alnico. The composition remains to be verified definitively, however.

Above, Goodmans fan-frame speakers from Bell and Howell metal- and plastic-clad portable speaker enclosures.

Rola Celestion G12 - the B024 and B025

1959-1960, the AC30/4

A page from the fold-out Celestion brochure of 1956. The G12 was available in 8ohm and 15ohm versions and continued in production in its "early" form through to 1965.

Celestion pricelist, 1962. The G12 listed at £8 16 shillings and 6 pence, retail - cheaper than the Goodmans Audiom 60. See the detail from the Goodmans pricelist at the head of this page. The "GL12" was a "light" version of the G12.

The versions used by JMI early on were the B024 (8ohms) and B025 (15ohms). A little later, Marshall and Selmer used versions marked "T652" and "T731" (recorded in the Celestion log-book).

These speakers were generally fitted with the Rola Celestion labels that came from factory (rather than ones specially affixed for or by Vox). The single speaker AC/30 of 1959-1960 generally had the 8ohm B024. In AC30/4s, one finds pairs of 15ohm B025 wired in parallel, or pairs of 8ohm B024 wired in series.

Celestion T3757 - 1959-1961

Alnico, 15 watts handling, 8ohms, hammertone/oyster finish.

Rare in AC30s, more common in AC15s. This was the immediate precursor of the Celestion "blue" (the T530). The principal differences are that the "blue" has a bell fitted over the magnet, and naturally is blue in colour.

The two speakers below travelled together, from an early AC30 into a Vox UL460 cab, as replacements for the originals. They were sold separately on ebay in 2009, and bought by two buyers who post-auction unfortunately could not work out a deal to sell one speaker to the other.

Date code "08JE" = 8th September 1960.

Date code "26HE" = 26th August 1960.

Cone code "RIC 1 EI".

A group of CT3757s with "Vox" labels (one come adrift). Visible date codes are in September 1960:

"08JE" and "30JE", respectively 8th and 30th September, 1960. Thanks to Marc for the pictures.

Below a CT3757 from December 1962, fitted as a replacement in a two-tone AC15 from c. 1960. No "Vox" label is present though.

Date code is "16LG" = 16th December 1962. The cone code is RIC 1 DO.

Celestion T530, hammertone/oyster finish - 1960

A hammertone/oyster T530 from an AC15, date code "21FE" = 21st June 1960.

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