Re: Who is correct? Bassman speakers

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Lsboogie44@xxxxxxx
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2003 5:08 PM
Subject: Re: Who is correct? Bassman speakers


Bob,
I'm not so sure this answers the question in my mind.  If your real '59
Bassman has Jensen P10R speakers and that is what the Victoria has and
Fender puts the Celestion Vintage 30 in the custom shop '59 Bassman, why is
that people are saying the Jensen P10R reissues are some of the worst
speakers on the market and why is it that Fender is putting the Celestion
Vintage 30 in the custom '59?  Again, the real question is not duplication
of equipment, but tone.  Who has the closest duplication of tone that you
can get from a speaker: Fender or Victoria?  Why didn't Fender go back to
the original speaker (P10R) themselves?  They kept to the other
specifications of the amp.
Best regards,
Boogie

Hi Boogie,
Real Bassmans don't have reissue speakers. The Celestions are aimed at one
market: Rock guitarists. Fender is using the Jensen reissues on any newly
built RI at the meoment. When the Bassman RI first came out, the Jensen RI
e]were not being made at the time, so they used Eminence made alnico magnet
speakers. In terms of circuitry (NOT speakerfs), the Victoria is clearly
superior to the Fender RI, being truly closest to the original circuitry,
where Fender cut a ton of corners. The one thing I have been told by some
vintage amp specialists is with any new alnico magnet speaker, it may be
wise to actually have some guitar player who plays way too loud to use it
for a few days to get the speakers broken in. How true this is, well, your
guess is as good as mine on this one. The problem with many reissues no
matter what it may be in the case of speakers, are they goling to be using
the original spec speaker paper, the correct voice coils, are the coils
going to be wound the same way, are the coils going to be the same
materials, and then there's the glue and the glueing techique. You can get
P10R rebuilding kits, as well as reconed P10R's, but those problems I
mentioned just a moment ago are even more heightened with the way some
speaker rebuilders do things. Then there's another thing with the P10R's,
Jensen had positive and negative opposite of what has been today's standard
of where they are on today's speakers, and would the rebuilder do it just
like the original equipment? Often times they won't or have no clue about
this very fact.

My amp hasn't had the real Jensen P10R's in them for about 11 years, because
when they did blow, the rebuild kits were difficult to locate, and finding
people who know how to do it to the original specs, or even used the correct
paper, so I didn't chance it, and I had a set of long discontinued 25 watt
Celestions (not of any of the more famous versions), as this was the closest
in approximation to the classic P10R sound at the time. These other
Celestions being touted are of higher wattage and have more of a sound more
famous in Britsh amps like Marshall and HiWatt, and would drastically alter
the sound of the amp.

Now I haven't actually had the chance to try out the new Jensen reissues so
it would't be fair to comment. So like the way Fender Bassman RI stock still
doesnt sound like the real deal, from some it's kinda the same deal with
these Jensen RI's. If you're not so sure about these Jensen RI's, I'd use
either the Eminence alnicos, or the MojoTone MP10R's.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA