I replaced the speaker unit in my Vox Pathfinder10

A friend of mine who used to host jam sessions with me at a live music club in Tokyo about 10 years ago asked me the other day to host one at his restaurant. He said, “I won’t be able to turn the volume up too high, but I would like to have a jam session, so do you think you could host it?!” At that moment, I was thinking about what I was going to do about which amp to bring when I suddenly remembered that I had a Vox Pathfinder10 that I hadn’t used at all and had forgotten about.

Vox / Pathfinder10 Combo Guitar Amplifier

I think a lot of other people have this model as their first amp. When I took this amp out and played it again, I thought it had a really nice clean sound. I thought this was perfect for playing at home. I think I bought mine at least 15 years ago when I was playing around with pedal modifications... I don’t even remember where I bought it, but I was tinkering around with the circuitry and adding modifications.

This amp is just for home use, so I feel like the speakers start to become distorted when I turn up the volume. It’s a 6.5" speaker, so I thought it couldn’t be helped, but I remembered that I had seen a modification where an 8-inch speaker unit was jammed into a PF10 on an overseas website a long time ago. I was curious to see how to do it myself, so I did. (Mind you, I did this at home, so it was a pretty rough DIY project.)

WARNING!!! The speaker replacement described in this article is a modification. Please understand in advance that you are responsible for doing any of your own modifications and you will not be covered under the manufacturer’s warranty.

Here is the speaker unit I will be using!!!

Celestion / Eight15 16Ω Speaker Unit for Guitar Amplifier

Here is the Eight15 from Celestion. I was hesitating between the Celestion Eight15 and the Jensen C8R, but I felt that the C8R sounded rather scooped, so I thought maybe that the Eight15 would be more suitable for the PF10. Honestly, I think both would have probably worked out just fine. By the way, tall speaker units like the Jensen P8R will not fit.

Now let’s get to work.

Remove the four screws on the back panel.

The knobs are already removed in the picture, but really there is no need to remove them. I just removed them so I could clean them.

I removed the amp chassis.

The speaker cables are connected with Faston connectors, so pull those out to disconnect the cables. Do not pull out the cable by mistake.

Pull as straight as possible, as twisting the base of the connectors may cause them to break.

Now remove the lower panel.

Remove the speaker unit by unscrewing the four screws with a screwdriver.

This hole in the speaker must also be widened in order for the speaker to showcase its full potential, but this is a very difficult task, so I’m going to skip that!

When the speaker unit is placed inside like this, both the top and bottom will hit the frame, so you’re gonna have to shave it down a little. Let’s start from the bottom.

I used a cutter knife to cut the frame. When I actually tried it, Medium-Density Fiberboard (MDF) wood is really thick and hard, so I had a really hard time trying to cut it. The blade broke many times. If you’re not used to doing this type of work, please be very careful when working with this type of wood because you can get very hurt. I recommend using gloves while doing this.

I managed to shave it down enough to the point where the bottom of the speaker unit could properly fit within the frame after checking it several times.

At this point, mark the area to be shaved with a pen on top.

Drill holes along this line.

Since this one’s mine, I can say that it looks pretty sloppy... (sweat drop)

I used long-nosed pliers to break the frame apart.
From here, I steadily shaved it off again with a cutter.

Keep shaving until the speaker fits into place. I also used a handheld router and other tools to cut it.

Once the speaker is in place, drill the screw holes before installing the screws. The holes are important because the screws will break if they are turned too hard without drilling first even though they are wood screws.

Check for the plus and minus signs of the speaker unit and install the Faston connectors to complete the installation!

It just barely clears the space for the chassis, and it looks OK! Job complete!

Or so I thought. When I turn up the volume and play the low notes, I get a crackling noise. What was it? I found that the chassis and the speaker were hitting each other. The baffle board might end up moving.

I went to a home improvement center and bought a thin, soft rubber sheet.

I cut this and put it on the chassis where the speaker touches it.

There is no more buzzing with the volume turned up, so now I can say it’s complete!

When I actually played it, the sound became thicker and louder as it also produced more bass tones than before. I was able to use it in a session with lower volume as I mentioned in the first paragraph, and I also was able to use it in a jazz session.
However, the sound is thinner than an amp with a 10" or 12" speaker, so it was not as good for those who want a thicker jazz tone.

Incidentally, Clubman 60 was recently released by Vox.

Vox / Clubman 60

This amp is 8" but is 2-way and has plenty of bass. It’s lighter in weight and has more output, so I recommend it for those who want a clean sound with a wider range. If you are not sure if you can do this kind of DIY modification yourself, just buy a new amp! (Hah!)

As I have stated many times, feel free to do modifications solely at your own risk! If you are not confident about doing this kind of work, I do not recommend doing it yourself.

In the image above, there is a mysterious switch and knob, but don’t pay attention to that because I am playing with a different modification from this one.