Alnico in Fender style amps

[Gin Mill Cowboy]

I've read all the previous threads across different pages, but I am hoping for some up-to-date guidance.
I've convinced myself that I want an Alnico speaker (12" 8ohm) for at least one of my amps. Both my amps are Fender blackface style: a Vintage Sound 15 (Princeton clone, 12" speaker) and a Deluxe reverb (built by Roy Blankenship). I am focused on the Vintage Sound - it came with a WGS G12 C and I swapped in a Weber 12F150 Ceramic, which was an improvement. Now I think I want to try an Alnico.

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

I've narrowed it down to:

• Jupiter LA-12"50
• Tone Tubby Alnico Red
• Weber 12A150 (haven't researched the difference in A,B)

Any tips or comments to help me on my quest? If I like the results of an Alnico, i'll probably throw one in the Deluxe too. Thanks!

 

[DrPepper]

I can not answer your question. The last fender inspired amp I built was an Allen Accomplice. I put a 12" Celestion gold in it and it sounded wonderful...

 

[alnico357]

My DRRI came with an Alnico Blue. I play the amp clean and use Barber pedals for dirt. The Alnico is an efficient speaker, around 102 dB.

 

[Jared Purdy]

I've read all the previous threads across different pages, but I am hoping for some up-to-date guidance.
I've convinced myself that I want an Alnico speaker (12" 8ohm) for at least one of my amps. Both my amps are Fender blackface style: a Vintage Sound 15 (Princeton clone, 12" speaker) and a Deluxe reverb (built by Roy Blankenship). I am focused on the Vintage Sound - it came with a WGS G12 C and I swapped in a Weber 12F150 Ceramic, which was an improvement. Now I think I want to try an Alnico.

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

I've narrowed it down to:

• Jupiter LA-12"50
• Tone Tubby Alnico Red
• Weber 12A150 (haven't researched the difference in A,B)

Any tips or comments to help me on my quest? If I like the results of an Alnico, i'll probably throw one in the Deluxe too. Thanks!

Both of my Fender amps have alnico speakers in them, they came that way from Fender. One is a 57' Custom Deluxe with a 12" Eminence Special Design (presumably contracted by Fender to design one that would be a suitable replacement for an original Jensen) and a Custom 64' Hand Wired Princeton Reverb, which has the Jensen P10R reissue in it. I've never read any negative reviews about the Eminence speaker, but the reviews on the Jensen reissue are all over the map, from pure crap to glorious. I think it sounds fantastic. I am none the less tempted to try this one, but I'm going to wait until the border reopens so I can drive to my sister in-laws house in Niagara Falls NY to pick it up so I don't get slapped with brokerage fees, and I'll pay less shipping. This looks very promising:speakers_a12q_alnico.cfm

 

[archetype]

I've read all the previous threads across different pages, but I am hoping for some up-to-date guidance.
I've convinced myself that I want an Alnico speaker (12" 8ohm) for at least one of my amps. Both my amps are Fender blackface style: a Vintage Sound 15 (Princeton clone, 12" speaker) and a Deluxe reverb (built by Roy Blankenship). I am focused on the Vintage Sound - it came with a WGS G12 C and I swapped in a Weber 12F150 Ceramic, which was an improvement. Now I think I want to try an Alnico.

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

I've narrowed it down to:

• Jupiter LA-12"50
• Tone Tubby Alnico Red
• Weber 12A150 (haven't researched the difference in A,B)

Any tips or comments to help me on my quest? If I like the results of an Alnico, i'll probably throw one in the Deluxe too. Thanks!

Don't guess about the Weber. E-mail CJ Sutton cj@tedwebed.com Tell him what amp you have, guitars you use, and what tone you're seeking.

 

[Telekarster]

FWIW - I recently replaced my stock Eminence 15" speaker in my Excelsior amp with an original 1959 P15R and love it. There was nothing wrong with the original speaker and, imo, it's a very nice speaker. I was chasing that vintage tone though, like you, and swapped it out. I recently bought a Celestion Gold G12 Alnico (John Mayer uses these too from what I understand) that I'm building a custom cab for, but haven't used it yet so can't say but the reviews on it are pretty much 5 star, so I suspect I will love it Don't know if anything I said helps, but hope it does somehow.

 

[schmee]

I've read all the previous threads across different pages, but I am hoping for some up-to-date guidance.
I've convinced myself that I want an Alnico speaker (12" 8ohm) for at least one of my amps. Both my amps are Fender blackface style: a Vintage Sound 15 (Princeton clone, 12" speaker) and a Deluxe reverb (built by Roy Blankenship). I am focused on the Vintage Sound - it came with a WGS G12 C and I swapped in a Weber 12F150 Ceramic, which was an improvement. Now I think I want to try an Alnico.

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

I've narrowed it down to:

• Jupiter LA-12"50
• Tone Tubby Alnico Red
• Weber 12A150 (haven't researched the difference in A,B)

Any tips or comments to help me on my quest? If I like the results of an Alnico, i'll probably throw one in the Deluxe too. Thanks!

It seems like the Weber A150 is a warmish speaker IIRC. I know the 10" version was. So that may be good or bad depending on what you want. The 12A125 is more of a traditional Fender sounding speaker I think.
Alnico are a different sound and personally I'm not fond of them in many BF style amps.

 

[tfarny]

I'm subscribing because I'm always interested in learning more about speaker construction. I think in my head "alnico is better, more vintage" is baked in because that is the prevailing wisdom with pickups (and it's not really always true, I know). And the fact that they are more expensive also leads one to believe they must be "better."
However I also really, really don't like it when a speaker can't handle a guitar's low notes and flubs out or distorts too quickly, and those are also "vintage traits" to some extent.

 

[caspersvapors]

I've read all the previous threads across different pages, but I am hoping for some up-to-date guidance.
I've convinced myself that I want an Alnico speaker (12" 8ohm) for at least one of my amps. Both my amps are Fender blackface style: a Vintage Sound 15 (Princeton clone, 12" speaker) and a Deluxe reverb (built by Roy Blankenship). I am focused on the Vintage Sound - it came with a WGS G12 C and I swapped in a Weber 12F150 Ceramic, which was an improvement. Now I think I want to try an Alnico.

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

I've narrowed it down to:

• Jupiter LA-12"50
• Tone Tubby Alnico Red
• Weber 12A150 (haven't researched the difference in A,B)

Any tips or comments to help me on my quest? If I like the results of an Alnico, i'll probably throw one in the Deluxe too. Thanks!

The Tone Tubby there is really nothing like the other 2 so thats an interesting choice. The Jupiter and Weber are more or less Jensen inspired. The Tone Tubby is darker and a bit woofy in the bass to my ears. Its thick sounding with overdrive (think Santana) and doesnt really have that Fender twang.

Im personally more in the Jupiter/WGS/Fat Jimmy camp and if I were going to try a Tone Tubby it would without a doubt be the Purple Haze as its brighter and more detailed

 

[mad dog]

I have a '68 SFDR, rehoused in a 1x15 pine cab by Peter Mather. Tried a couple ceramic 15" speakers, also the fine 12" speaker that had come with that amp when I got it, an Alltone 1250 ceramic. All good.

I then got a 12A150A (I think it's the "A" model ... the one Weber designed for the lo power tweed twin RI). And this alnico is better than good. Wonderful sound. It gives up a little volume compared to more efficient ceramics. Adds back in a certain something I find hard to describe. The power is still there, but with a softer edge. Beautiful little bit of distortion as volume goes up. I haven't played loud enough to know if headroom will be an issue. Also, I never use high gain, even medium gain, so no idea how flexible this speaker is for that.

For clean, pretty clean, I've not heard better from this amp.

 

[VonBonfire]

I like vintage tones and never play high gain stuff; maybe some germanium fuzz every once in while. Still hoping for Fender cleans with some sweet edge of break up tones.

You just about described what a JBL D/K120 is for. There are alnico magnet speakers and there are JBL's which are monster alnico magnet speakers. The quality is why a JBL loaded Twin was a $300 upgrade in the 70's if I"m not mistaken. I have used them in Twin, among other amps, and I have heard them used in a Deluxe. I've never heard them sound bad in a black or silver face Fender.

Neo magnet speakers have shown promise in replicating the JBL fidelity, efficiency, and sonic accuracy and detail but I have not tried any in my rig as I can recone a JBL for the price of most of them. I know some have said Weber California has a similar sound. Also haven't tried as I was fortunate to find some JBL's at sane prices, which hardly seem to exist any longer.

 

[Axis29]

I have a former teacher, and good bud, who has a Deluxe Reverb with the Tone Tubby Red. He loves it. It sounds really good, as a listener. He's all into the Robben Ford thing... I gotta say, that DR has that kinda warm, fat creamy tone. I'm afraid that is the only experience I have with any of the speakers you have listed.

I have a few Fender amps with Alnico speakers in them, and have had a few others in the past.

The current amp lineup includes a '63 Vibroverb Reissue (probably closest to the BF/SF thing) that sported a Jensen P10R and C10R in it for about ten years. Great m!x! Got the benefit of both ceramic and alnico speaker sand was a good efficiency mix. It currently has a pair of Weber P10Q's. They were reconed and listed as 10A125 recones (I think, they mighta been 10A100's). The Webers are bit punchier, more efficient and still far from broken in (The amp is doing something weird and i haven't had time to troubleshoot it, so they haven't seen a lot of hours of thrashing).

Before they were blown, they reside din a 1969 Vibrolux Reverb and sounded glorious! The Tone Report did an article on the VR years ago and said these were THE speaker for that amp. I think they were probably pretty close to the makr back then. but, so many new speakers have hit the market since.

I have a Cox Ultimate 5e3 that came with a Celestion Alnico Gold. At volume this was a glorious, glorious pairing! So massive sounding, warm, crunchy, lovely, just lovely. But, at low volumes, it got muddy and congested sounding. I swapped the Gold out for an Eminence 1228 (sadly a now discontinued speaker). I love, love, love this speaker! It is just right for this circuit! Any volume sounds great, clean, dirty, any of it. I love the speaker. But, I loved the Gold at volume, so....

I have a '59 Bassman Reissue that came with four Jensen P10R's. Good speaker. I have eventually gotten them broken in, and at some point decided I was getting a little bit of a treble thing I didn't like. I swapped in two Eminence 1028's (alp's I think, not the alk's). Love this set up. No rush to try anything else (although, I am always curious). I played this amp at band practice the other day and fell in love with it all over again.


Alnico speakers run the gamut. Everything from crunchy to smooth. Lumping them all together doesn't do you or them any justice. The different cones, different size magnets, former material, doping... It's all just too many variables some days! LOL

 

[Dacious]

I'd try an Emi Alessandro GA59 tophat in it. I believe in matching speaker RMS watts to amplifier RMS watts. The ceramic version is so good I can't believe the alnico isn't excellent, even though I haven't heard it.

 

[uriah1]

Alnico vs ceramic is issue. There is room for both. I have had both but it is really a personal preference.

 

[David C]

I like the Webers just because you get lots of flexibility in how you want it built. You can pick the cone type, amount of dope, and voice coil diameter. Then it is built it for you.

The problem is exactly what it is you want? I suggest the same advice that Archetype gave you, which is to email cj@tedweber.com. He will be able to steer you into exactly what you are after.

 

[Gin Mill Cowboy]

Thank you all. After reading through the thread, I'm leaning toward Weber - I'll reach out to CJ. Thanks!

 

[tonejam]

The Tone Tubby there is really nothing like the other 2 so thats an interesting choice. The Jupiter and Weber are more or less Jensen inspired. The Tone Tubby is darker and a bit woofy in the bass to my ears. Its thick sounding with overdrive (think Santana) and doesnt really have that Fender twang.

Im personally more in the Jupiter/WGS/Fat Jimmy camp and if I were going to try a Tone Tubby it would without a doubt be the Purple Haze as its brighter and more detailed

What's stated here about the Tone Tubby, I can vouch for. If your looking for Fender sound, pass it by.

 

[sjwieczorkow]

I have not read the entire thread yet. Nevertheless, I feel it my duty to share my thoughts about the Alnico Celestion Blue. It sounds like shrill garbage. I don't care how long you break it in for. It is a barrage of nails and icepick. You could play a detuned bassoon through one of those speakers and it would sound like a hailstorm.

The Celestion Alnico Cream on the other hand. Go forth and prosper!


OK. I read the rest.

I agree with the Weber Ceramic recommendations. I have a 12F150-B. I don't know if they still make it, but I prefer Ceramics in my Fenders. They keep it nice, clean and chimy. Also, the low end doesn't flub out as much if you push it. That being said, I have the Alinco Cream in my Princeton at the moment. It has a high efficiency, so it will hang with the band.

 

[sjwieczorkow]

Alnico vs ceramic is issue. There is room for both. I have had both but it is really a personal preference.

The entire thread can be summed up with this logical statement.

 

[Gin Mill Cowboy]

The 12F150 ceramic sounds good in the amp, but I’ve been wanting to try an Alnico.