Step by step : Guide to replacing a Peavey Black Widow cone.

So, Blown a black widow?

What were you doing? These things are near enough impossable to break, although granted age is always a factor in them blowing, but most of the time people are overloading them which result in a premature death.

So, You've been through ebay, you've checked all the peavey website's and you've got the right size and power of black widow that you're after.... what to do next?

Well, here is my guide into what you need to do.

First thing first, take the front panel / grill off the speaker itself. Usually the screws are black and are found in each corner of the grill, or not far off.

Once that's done, we come onto the tricky bit and here is where your skill is needed and attention to detail!

Step one : is to take out the broken black widow itself. There's anything from 6 / 8 screws in these things holding them in tight, so you might be best with a powerd screw driver, just to save on time really. Unscrew these one by one, i normally start at the top of the black widow and work my way down going side to side. The reason i do this is because if you do the bottom ones first, the weight of the magnet will push too much on the top ones and will make it alot more difficult to remove them.

REMEMBER TO BE CAREFUL! You can at this point break vital wires which would mean your speaker is out of action for alot longer than it needs to be, also be prepaired for a very heavy magnet. This is something that caught me off guard the first time i replaced a black widow.

So, removed all the screws? Let's go onto....

Step two : remove the black widow from the hole by moving it towards you, now have a look over at the back of the cone, at the top or somewhere along that line there's two wires, dissconect these as soon as you can to avoid any wires getting broken. Usually you can remove them by simply pulling a little clip backwards or forwards.... really easy!

Now we come onto the more tricky bit and it's also where you'll need to pay most attention.

Step three : the removal of the magnet is not always a traumatic experiance, but if like me in the past you've either not got the right tools, or have never done it before, it can be a daunting task. There's typically 3 nuts / bolts to be removed with a wrench. I normally use an adjustable one, so then i don't have to worry about numbers of sizes etc.

Slowly remove these and lift the magnet off the old cone. If you're up to this stage well done, you're almost there. Just one more step before we can get your speaker back together and working. That's coverd in....

Step four : cleaning the magnet. You'd be amazed you know at how dirty these thing's can get. Alot of people just thing that because it's been in the back of a speaker that it's going to be nice and clean, but no, you can often find dust and as much as i hate to admit it.... cobwebs off spiders.

So how to clean it properly? Well, take something like a business card and some double sided sticky tape. Put the double sided sticky tape onto a corner of the business card and wrap it around. Now run the business card around the thin slit inside the magnet (Where it was attatched to the old cone). Go around slowly a few times to make sure you have all the dirt out. Now we're ready to go onto....

Step five : putting a black widow back together is more than likely the part you will find most easy. Here's how it's done. Grab the magnet and place it onto the back of your NEW black widow speaker cone. Make sure that you line up the holes correctly for the nuts / bolts to go into. Got them lined up? Ok, now you can begin to place the nuts / bolts into their new homes. Go around 1 by one and tighten them up bit by bit, don't tighten one fully and then go onto the next one, take your time!

Step six : once you have completed step five, it's time to plug your speaker back in.... so to speak. Remember the wires that we took out in step two? Well, now's the time to add them on, now, im sure officially, the colours and where they go will matter, but i can honestly say, i've either been really lucky or very good at this, but i've never really paid too much attention to what colour wire went on which side. As long as they're both connected, you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

Now once they are connected then you should place the black widow back into it's area inside the speaker and hold it there.

Step seven : adding the screws back in at this point to hold the cone in place, can be abit of a scary task, but once you know how, it's easy. So, add your first screw in at the bottom, give it a little tighten and then start to add in the rest working from the bottom up, going side to side, give them all a LITTLE tighten as you add them in.

Now once they're all in, you can go around tightening them up, make sure that you're not putting them in too tight, as you might damamge the cone, also if you're using an electric screwdriver, be VERY careful not to slip and go through your black widow.

Step eight : some of you might be suprised at this step, but once step seven is complete, this is the time i normally would test the speaker to make sure that everything is working. So plug it into your amp and give it a little blast of music to see if it is fixed. Also try and listen for any noises that you didn't hear before coming from the speaker, something might be wrong if you do hear noises. IF you do hear noises however, go back and repeat steps one and two and send the part back to be replaced.

Passed step eight? You're happy with it?

Step nine : line up the front / grill of the speaker, matching it to the holes where you took the screws out of. Now screw the screws back in and you're good to go.


Remember though, this guide is ONLY for the peavey Black Widow cone replacement, other Peavey item's may vary from this guide, you should ALWAYS follow any official instructions given with the product and consult an official Peavey partner if you have any problems.

NOTE : This is not an official Peavey guide.

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You know, these days i gotta be honest and say it.... I'm FED UP of these "Gay teen problems" or "Gay boy problems" that people so often use on social media these days.

People often will use these quotes when talking about how they can't get a boyfriend or a girlfriend of the same sex. In truth these problems are common in the straight community too, so please can someone explain to me how on earth your problems are related directly to your sexuality?

It would seem that people now want to use their sexuality to blame their life problems with. In reality, a persons sexuality is to do with who they have sex with and who they love in life.

Now it isn't just sexuality that people blame, it does also extend to race and... well... everything. It's gotten to stop!!!

If we go back to the orig point, a "Gay teen problem" would be other kids beating you up at school, Discovering your true sexuality and sexual urge's etc etc etc.

A "Gay boy problem" would be if you were getting hate off people because of your sexuality, not being able to do something because of your sexuality etc.

In short, grow up and stop using your sexuality as a reason that you can't do something that others may not be aware of because theyre not within your community.