1972 Fender Twin Replacement Speakers???

[muchxs]

Go with Eminence Lil' Texas neos.

They weigh nothing. Your back will thank you.

The gobble up stupid amounts of power and never blow. You can blow D120s with a Twin.

They sound close enough like D120s. Did I mention they weigh nothing?!

You can get 'em for around $100 each shipped to your door.

[mabley123]

i live in kentucky. im 2 1/2 hours from eminence kentucky.

i dont know where in central va. you are so i used a lynchburg zip code to see if any close to there for eminence.





Stage Sound, Pro Audio, Lighti
51.1 miles

2240 Shenandoah Ave. N.W.
Roanoke, VA 24017-6923

Website | Directions
(800) 778-9839






Hometown Music
72.3 miles

2990 S Main St.
Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Website | Directions
(540) 434-4159






Whitesel Music
74.9 miles

102 South Main St.
Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Directions
(540) 434-1376






Alpha Music, Inc.
81.8 miles

221 Fair Street
Fairlea, WV 24902

Directions
(304) 645-2605






Music World -1V
91.6 miles

1042 Temple Ave
Colonial Heights, VA

go here also www.eminence.com/dealer-locator/

for weber just go to tedweber.com. the californias are 105 usd. and have whatever else that you may like with prices are there.

electro voice makes some good speakers too.



the first thing i think that is important is how you are going to use your amplifier?

if you are hardly ever going to turn it up over half way and not play for 5 hours a day and you are not a hard player then the original utah jensen oxfords more vintage type celestion 30's and the like speakers will sound great and last a while.

but if you are going to crank your amp on 10 use all kinds of different effects and play for very long periods of time you better have some speakers that will last....or you will be changing them.

leo fender gave dick dale 50 amplifiers and speakers to test in the early 60's before he offered jbl"s as an upgrade. same vintage speakers talked about on this forum.

as stated above he burned up 50 amplifiers and speakers. same as in the vintage amps and reissues used here now.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went to the James B. Lansing speaker company where they explained that they wanted a fifteen inch speaker built to their specifications. It would soon be known as the 15'' JBL -D130F speaker, it made the complete package for Dale to play through being named the Single Showman Amp. When Dale plugged his Stratocaster guitar into the Showman amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player of a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN ! That is when Dale became the 'Father of Heavy Metal' quote "Guitar Player Magazine". Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era! However they now needed home theater speakers that would handle the power and not burn up from the volume that would come from Dale's guitar.



Dale still wanted to go further, as the crowds increased, Dale's volume increased, but he still wanted a bigger punch with thickness in the sound so that it would pulsate into the audience and leave them breathless. Dale designed a speaker cabinet and had Fender put 2 -15''-JBL-D130f's into it which created a new and more powerful output transformer. It was called the Dick Dale Transformer. This 100 watt output transformer peaked 180 watts was known as the Dual-Showman Piggy Back Amp. This is why Dick Dale is called the Father of all the power Players in the world!

from then on jbl was offered as original upgrade for 30 years give or take a few.

hendrix was blowing the original celestions with a 100 watt marshall and he had 8 of them per stack. on paper they should have been able to take it but they couldnt. so he upgraded and upgraded again each time with celestions and he still blew them with 100 watts and then setteled on the jbl d120f at the time. as did betts and d. allman
.
and also for me as an original upgrade for fender amps the jbl would be vintage correct,

although as far as vintage correct in a 72 twin it would be a k120 which is also a great speaker and has more power capacity. both are alnico.....jbl e120 is ceramic and has twice the power capacity.

i bought a carvin solid state amp back in 72. i turned it on 10 and started playing and the first thing that happened was that it blew 1 of the 15 inch cts right off the bat. as soon as i hit a chord the speaker was blown. an amp to me should be equipt with speakers that can take everything said amp can throw at it. if not it is usless for me.. so i bought 2 altec 418-8h speakers and never looked back. i still have the carvin cabinet and the 2 x 15 altecs.

[realjimjim]

I think I may have left out an important factor here . . . the Twin never leaves the house . . . my wife and I use it to play by ourselves . . . but I do really crank it up whenever the mood strikes me.

So, no, it is never used like Dick Dale would. But since I live out on a big farm it certainly does/will be cranked to the max . . . but not continually.

[bigben55]

I love the speakers in my 1970. They are Ruby Loudspeakers. I never heard of them either so I researched them and found that they were Eminence made in 1998 and almost identical to the their current Legend 1258's. I play fairly loud(3-4 on the knob) and they sound really good, clean and hit with an OCD.

[macaroonie]

Originally Posted by realjimjim

I think I may have left out an important factor here . . . the Twin never leaves the house . . . my wife and I use it to play by ourselves . . . but I do really crank it up whenever the mood strikes me.

So, no, it is never used like Dick Dale would. But since I live out on a big farm it certainly does/will be cranked to the max . . . but not continually.

Oh now you tell us you live on a farm. 2 x 15" JBL's in a Showman cab for you sir !!

Kidding aside a single 15 can be grafted into a twin ( or a hot rod ) if you make a new baffle board. Then you will be golden. Look for one D130F not necessarily with an orange frame coz you pay more for them.

Here is a cross section of a D140. Same frame 15" as a D130 but with a heavier ribbed bass cone. Note the quality of construction. Practically nobody does it to that standard any more.



Interestingly Fender Twin custom 15" I think it is comes with a 15" licensed copy of a D130F that is made by Eminence . I hope they have adhered to the original standards and designs.



You should be able to find a D130 for about $200 and up. There are some things to look out for like aftermaket cones and so on but if you can find a nice one you will have a grin from ear to ear.

[macaroonie]

Just a footnote , one of my buddies plays a epi dot through a Hot Rod Deluxe. It sounded nasty and cold and dark through the stock speaker. He did not like it at all. We scared up a D120F and swapped it in. WOW and WOW. Now he loves his amp , it is big and responsive and clean and dirty when he wants it. Whats the value of the Emi that was in there ? All off $40 and what a turd cheapo driver. Fender should be more discerning as to what they stuff in there for a price point.

[fezz parka]

Originally Posted by realjimjim

What replacement speakers do you guys suggest?

Swamp Thangs.

[Al Watsky]

What ever you do stay away from EV's !
Played a 70's SFTR night before last at a show in the mid west. Very annoying.
I like stock Jensens C12N, or the reissues are fine with me .
Celestions sound good.
I'm not the biggest JBL fan but for some things they can be fun. I'm not fond of the distortion with the aluminum dust cap and hard cone. By far like hearing some speaker compression which is what you get with a lower wattage speaker.
Plenty of Emi's and Jensens that would work well. The Neo Jensens are a top recommendation from a top tech in the NYC area. He likes the Jensen reissues as well. Cheap and they sound good.
I would stay away from JBL or EV or their clones. Unless your playing stadiums with out a PA you don't need them. Unless you plan on using your twin for steel guitar ?
I prefer a stock twin with standard non upgraded Jensen, Oxford or CTS speakers. Of those 3 the Jensens win for me.
BTW I never run a twin above 6.

[nic'o'caster]

I'm not a fan of the Jensen C12N reissue but for unknown reasons they sound good in my blackfaced '74 Twin :) Instant typical Fender sound : deep, bright and 3D.

For rock blues I would suggest something a bit darker with thicker mids like a pair of Emi C-rex.

[Fret Wilkes]

Originally Posted by macaroonie

Interestingly Fender Twin custom 15" I think it is comes with a 15" licensed copy of a D130F that is made by Eminence . I hope they have adhered to the original standards and designs.

Do you know if that is their Commonwealth? I've been debating trying the Commonwealths but haven't gotten around to it or read much about them just yet.

For JBLish speakers I've tried the Weber ceramic Californias and the NeoMag-12. I like them both veruy much, but we must search on mustn't we?

EDIT: The most glorious sound I've ever heard with my Tele (52RI) was playing out of a real Blackface Twin Reverb with JBLs. I'm assuming they were the D120s as I didn't get to look in there, but they've been in from the beginning so the owner told me.

[max_twang]

Originally Posted by realjimjim

I think I may have left out an important factor here . . . the Twin never leaves the house . . . my wife and I use it to play by ourselves . . . but I do really crank it up whenever the mood strikes me.

So, no, it is never used like Dick Dale would. But since I live out on a big farm it certainly does/will be cranked to the max . . . but not continually.

I'd recommend giving Weber a call. They are extremely helpful and will steer you in the right direction. I'd stay away from speakers whose initial design was for applications other than guitar amps.

From what you describe, I doubt you'll need the "heaviest duty" speakers that have been discussed in this thread. Obviously, you'll want speakers that will handle the amp's output, but IMO this is not an application that calls for something like EVs or JBLs (or copies of thise speakers) -- unless you just happen to like the sound of those speakers.

[Two Steps]

Originally Posted by max_twang

I'd recommend giving Weber a call. They are extremely helpful and will steer you in the right direction. I'd stay away from speakers whose initial design was for applications other than guitar amps.

From what you describe, I doubt you'll need the "heaviest duty" speakers that have been discussed in this thread. Obviously, you'll want speakers that will handle the amp's output, but IMO this is not an application that calls for something like EVs or JBLs (or copies of thise speakers) -- unless you just happen to like the sound of those speakers.

Just a heads up...I have called and bought from weber a couple of times the last couple of months. They are running very slow due to the amount of business they have (which is good for them, especially on this economy!). In fact, if you do call, there is a message that says DONT CALL because we are too busy. So send em' an email and be prepared to wait for a response. And also be prepared for that response to be short and to the point...

Sent from my DROIDX using TDPRI

[mabley123]

SRV used electrovoice and jbl in his fender and dumble amps and cabinets. replacing the stock speakers and also putting them in homemade cabinets.


1985: two blackface Fender Super Reverbs (4x10 EV's*), a 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer (4x12 with four 100-watt EV's, and 6550 tubes), another Dumble 150-watt 4x12. The 4x12 cabinets were non-angled homemade cabs. Sometimes a 200-watt Marshall Plexi- Major was substitued for the second Dumble head. Stevie had two sequentially numbered* Fender Vibroverbs ca. 1963-64, (1x15) one often used to power a Fender Vibratone (not a Leslie). The Vibroverbs and Supers had 3/4" plywood baffle boards to accomodate the weight of the speakers. The EVM's larger magnets required repositioning some of the transformers in the chassis. In the later years, the Vibroverbs had Super Reverb-style transformers. The first channel from the phase inverter tube were disconnected, and the tremolo disabled (by disconnecting the wires from the intensity control - don't try this at home unless you want to turn yourself into a light bulb). Around 1989 Stevie also took a couple of 4x10 Fender reissue Bassmans on the road, but the speakers were replaced with jbl e110's.
*The two Vibroverbs are often referred to as "sequentially numbered" 5 and 6, but equipment lists from the early 1980's prepared by the band reveal that the serial numbers were in fact 36 digits apart. The 5 and 6 are references to the production run number found on the tube chart on the amp.

John V. recalls working the stage in the late '80s and noticing an "old-style Fender footswitch ... and the top 4x12 cabinet had its top two 12's wired so that they could be shut off and their place in the speaker-wiring replaced with a line over to the JBL in the Vibratone Leslie cabinet, which was mic'd thru the PA. Switch choices: full 8x12 stacky, or six of the eight 12's in the stack plus the Vibratone. This slammed a lot of power into the single speaker in the Leslie and there was a box of replacement drivers on stage for it."

[bpaulsen]

+1 on the Eminence Commonwealth 12. I have two in an oversized 2x12, and they sound great.

[Twang Banger]

Just to add my 2 cents ... I just replaced the Eminence (Jensen C12n copies) with a pair of Weber Michigan 12s with aluminium domes ... the Fender-ish sound is preserved but with a warmer smoother tonality. Mine is the 40th anniversary blonde reissue model Twin.

With the new Webers, I like it!

[CoolBlueGlow]

I use many JBL products in my Fenders. I have about ten of them. I think they sound great in a Twin Reverb, especially for country styles.

Rock styles, believe it or not, the Celestion G12-70 sounds pretty good, IMO.

p.s. Dick Dale did not "advise" Leo Fender to use the JBL D120. That's an internet propagated myth.

A well known former JBL employee who is still living and was primarily responsible for the actual development of the D130F for Fender, (The D130"F" was the first Fender branded JBL product - not the D120) has refuted the Dick Dale story as mythical.

I believe the JBL employee

Cheers,

CBG

[slider313]

Originally Posted by CoolBlueGlow

p.s. Dick Dale did not "advise" Leo Fender to use the JBL D120. That's an internet propagated myth.

A well known former JBL employee who is still living and was primarily responsible for the actual development of the D130F for Fender, (The D130"F" was the first Fender branded JBL product - not the D120) has refuted the Dick Dale story as mythical.

I believe the JBL employee

Cheers,

CBG

This is true. The Dick Dale thing is bulls*it. The first Fender amp to offer the D130F was the 1959 brown Vibrasonic.

[Rusty]

Old thread...just noticed...deleted my posts...i'm pretty sure OP has probably bought speakers by now ;)

[Rusty]

Deleted

[realjimjim]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Old thread...just noticed...deleted my posts...i'm pretty sure OP has probably bought speakers by now ;)

Yes, got a used set but have not installed them yet, been sitting here since
December!

I'll post more later about them.

Thanks!