need new speakers for my fender amp

[aaron the red baron]

Hello,

I have an old 73 twin reverb in a bandmaster head. I'm looking for a new cabinet to go with it. What speakers work well with the old fender sound? should I go 2X12 or 4X12?

Looking for some suggestions....

thanks,
Aaron

[Tom Hicks]

However,IMHO the best guitar speaker made is the Electro Voice 12L.
Tom

[lazyboy]

In almost evrything I've read about the topic, people like to replace their fenders with EV's. I agree with Tom. Though once a Certified Fender repair shop replaced the speaker in my old Stage lead with an Eminence. I went through the fucking roof!

Now if somebody can find me a 12" 100W-4 ohm celestion like the one with the fried voice coil under my bed, I'll kiss your ass.

[Cooperman]

You can't really go wrong with Celestion... you know you are getting a quality speaker if you buy a Celestion... check out their site http://www.celestion.com - last time I checked they had samples of each of their speakers and how each sounds different... pretty cool really!!!

[Hard2Hear]

If youre looking for the bandmaster sound you must use Fender 10" speakers. Celestions are great, they're in my Marshall cab and I wouldnt have anything else. BUT I had an original Bandmaster setup from the late 60's and it has THREE 10" speakers. The 12" Celestions will produce an entirely different sound, a good sound, mind you, but an entirely different sound from the 10's.

[Daddy-O]

MOJO TONE!!!!!!! I would go fo the 2 12's configuration for a little more bottom end and 10's for a little more in the highs-like a Super Reverb-and use Mojo Tone replacement speakers with ALNICO coil/magnets. They are great speakers for old tube amps. I own two '54 Fender Deluxe amps. One has the original speaker, the other has a mojo tone. I can't tell a difference between the two. I can't sing the praises of Mojo Tone enough. They make and sell quality products for reasonable prices. Thier replacement speakers break up at just the right piont and they don't give you that crisp mechanical industrial sound that most new speakers have. They sound very simalar to the original Jensen P12 Blue Bells from the 1950's & 1960's. Also several vintage shops sell original or reconed fender special designs made by Jensen in the silver face era. I think that tube amps have an organic quality to thier tone, and should have "mushy" speakers. Keep in mind that a speaker that is good for P.A. is not good for guitar. For lack of a better term, guitar speakers need to be a little on the "cheap" side so that you can get the right type of tone and destortion. It sounds like you've got a great amp head, but it will sound like crap with the wrong speakers.
Another great speaker to use if you can find one is a 15" JBL D130F that Fender used in the brown face Vibrasonic. I'm fortunate enough to own a vibrasonic from '59 and the D130F speaker in it is great. It has great bottom end, clear highs and everthing is great in between and it can hadle the output from your band master head. You could always the 15" D130F in one cab and 2-12's in another. Wouldn't that be cool?!

[foo]

... or you could get a copy of Vintage Guitar magazine and find some original 1973 Fender speakers in an original 1973 Fender Cabinet.

Mojo Tone are great speakers - depends on what the goal is.

I've always liked the EV 12L - I have one in my Boogie, but it's a really 'tight' sound that not everyone likes.

I also have two original 1966 10's that I run my Vibrolux through, and it sounds great - but a lot different to the EV.

An open-back 4x10" cabinet is going to give you a great sound, too. Boogie Black Shadow's have a really nice tone, just break up nicely when you drive them hard.

What type of sound are you going for?

[aaron the red baron]

I'm looking for a classic blues sound. I'd like the clean sound to break up at lower volumes. It looks like low wattage speakers are the way to go. or?

[Stan Williams]

I would have to go for the celestion vintage 30 's. They can handle about 60 watts rms, have good fat blues tone, and they are LOUD ! The cone is very loose and it responds to pick attack very quickly. I love mine.
Thats it !

[foo]

Ain't no doubt about it - it's going to be difficult to get a Twin to break up at low volume.

The reason is that it's the tubes that provide the distortion, not the speakers.

The only solution to this is a distortion pedal - and that's a very personal thing. For a 'classic' blues sound (and I'm thinking Chicago in the Fifties here) I would go for a 'Real Tube' stomp box. The blue one, whatever it's called. Not a lot of gain, just a nice soft overdrive for a little extra sustain.

The real solution is to sell the amp you have now and get an original Blackface Deluxe Reverb with a Boogie Black Shadow speaker in it.

Good luck,

foo

[Daddy-O]

For distortion, the Mojo Tone speakers I mentioned before will break up nicely at a lower volume than Celestions or the EV's. The band master is a good amp head, but maybe you should trade it in on a lower output amp if you are looking for that vintage distorted blues tone. I would recomend a Fender Deluxe( big bucks though ) or a Princeton Reverb. Silverface Princetons from the late 60's and early 70's have great tone, break up and distort at low volumes, and they are still loud enough to be heard. They are wonderful little amps for micing live for gigs or recording and are a hell of alot easier the carry around than a head and cabs. The going price for silverface Princeton Reverbs is around $275-$425 depending on the year made,condition and the amount of original parts that are left in it. If I had one in stock. I would take your Bandmaster head and $150 for an all original silverface Princeton Reverb in very good condition. Most dealers should offer close to the same deal. Have you ever played through an old Gibson amp like a GA-40 Les Paul or a Falcon. I thnk you will be surprised with their tone and lower prices as compared to Fender stuff.

[Edited by Daddy-O on 10-27-2000 at 11:00]

[foo]

Yes, I agree.

If you can find an early silverface Fender amp with no master volume (which is about 1967 until ... ?) it's going to be a lot cheaper than the virtually identical blackface model.

Princeton is a good way to go, but you would have to mike it for a regular gig volume.
Of course, your 'lower volume' may require no micing.

As for the various new 'old' Gibson guitars - I have very little experience with the new or re-issued guitars. I have heard that Gibson are making really good guitars, but as always, the guitar that says to you 'Take me home, I'm yours' could have come of the assembly line one away from one which you think absolutely sucks, so you just have to keep playing them until you find 'the one'.

P-90s are excellent pickups, 'if that's the sound you want' They are great for classic electric blues - but how the newer ones sound compared to the early sixties ones, I've no idea.

You might want to shop around and find some original '60s ones if you're really serious.

Godd luck,

foo

[Daddy-O]

MY RIG: 1963 Gibson ES125-TCD w/P-90's trough a 1954 Fender Deluxe. Super tone for blues, rock-a-billy and sometimes a little country twang. I Love my P-90's!!!!

[foo]

Hey, Daddy-O

The only problem with your rig is that the volume control doesn't go to eleven.



foo

[Daddy-O]

Foo, thanks for the chuckle. No it doesn't go to eleven but it's cool, way cool.

[Tweedville]

Hey Foo......
Tweed amps happen to go to "12".