Jensen P12n?

DefaultM

Bought a new amp last night and the guy kindly included the original speaker as a spare which was a Jensen P12n.
Does anyone know how to identify if it is the alnico or ceramic one?
It was stock in a limited edition tweed Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

crunchman

P12N is Alnico.  C12N is ceramic.

DefaultM

Nice, that seems to cost about £150 new? He replaced it with a vintage 30. I know nothing about speakers, which would be considered the best one for your typical fender clean? I'm not interested in the gain channels really.

ICBM

If he took it out of a Hotrod Deluxe which you now own and put in a V30, put it back and sell the V30.

If you want vintage-type Fender cleans it will *massively* improve the amp. Almost anything is better than a V30 in a Hotrod, in fact.

(And I like V30s, with the right amp.)

To be accurate it will also improve the overdrive channel if you want it to sound like an overdriven Fender and not like it's trying to be a Mesa and failing.

austint01

@DefaultM I have the same amp with the same speaker. I found it did clean and mild overdrive really well. If you wanted a rock crunch it got a little bit fuzzy/fizzy.

I've got a Creamback in now which is better for an all round speaker. I still think the cleans on the Jensen were better though

crunchman

I tried a Limited Edition HRD years ago with the P12N.  It sounded really good.

DefaultM

How easy are they to swap? Do I need to solder?

crunchman

The speaker connects with tags that push on.  From memory you have to take the amp chassis out on a Hot Rod Deluxe to change the speaker.  You may need to disconnect the leads to the reverb tank.  It's not a hard job.  There is some foil shielding that you need to be careful not to damage when you take the chassis out.

There is a video on Youtube. I haven't actually watched it as I'm at work at the moment so I don't know how good it is.

DefaultM

Think I'm going to do this tomorrow. When people say the Jensen sounds fuzzy on overdrive do they just mean the built in channels, or any pedals I use as well?

I think the drive channels are shit either way, so not bothered that the vintage 30 might be making those sound better, but I'll be disappointed if my thorpyfx pedals suddenly sound fizzy.

ICBM

You may have to turn the treble down a fair bit - it's a brighter speaker than the V30 for sure.

The fizziness with some pedals and Fender amps is mainly due to a particular cap the BF/SF amps have, which the HRDs don't.

the_pman28

Horse for courses and all that but I personally think the V30 sounds pretty awesome in the hot rods. The other guitarist in my band uses this combo to good effect...

I also think contrary to most that drive channel is passable if you keep the gain down. I think the p12n whilst undoubtedly making the amp more Fender-y will also make pairing with overdrives more of a challenge...less mids more high end. 

DefaultM

The problem I'm having is it seems a bit bassy or muddy. I'm also getting an awful rattle when I turn it up past 2, so I'm hoping if I put in the new speaker and really tighten it down that will help.

ICBM

DefaultM said:

The problem I'm having is it seems a bit bassy or muddy. I'm also getting an awful rattle when I turn it up past 2, so I'm hoping if I put in the new speaker and really tighten it down that will help.

Don't "really" tighten it down - you'll kink the speaker frame, which can actually cause buzzing from the cone edge, rather than stopping it. You need it firm, but not over-tight. It's unlikely that the rattle is anything to do with the speaker anyway unless the bolts are actually loose.

Rattling on the Hotrods can be caused by the wiring to the output transformer and choke where it passes through the hole in the chassis, I would check that first. Rattles in combos can be quite a pain to track down though...

DefaultM

I've installed it. Went quite well, though that foil pissed me off.

The sound is very different now, certainly a lot more Fender. Not as muddy as before.

DefaultM

Quite pleased with myself for that though.