Swapping 10" speakers for 12"?

I've got a 12" Alnico Weber Blue Dog on order for my Vibrolux, 4 ohm 50w light dope.

I do love the way my Vibrolux sounds, but sometimes I crave something different. When I had my Twin I used to sometimes plug it into the Twin's speakers, a ceramic Blue Dog and California, which sounded great (sold the amp with the speakers in it though).

Anyway I've had 3 sets of 10" speakers in this amp, the original set and 2 different Weber sets. Could just be the particular sets I've had but it seems 10's just don't have the high end sparkle or the low end that 12's have. They seem to be very middy, almost on the muddy side at times. So I'm building a cab for a single 12" and I'll try that for a while.

Anyone else feel this way about 10's? Anyone else out there replaced their 10's with a 12 or pair of 12's? Why, and were you happier?

Just curious. :smile:

Nobody? Come on, I thought swapping the 10" in a Princeton for a 12" was a pretty common thing to do.

Guess not...?

I like a mismatched set in my 2x10 Fender reverb-style combo. A "Q" cone for brightness and detail, an "N" cone for thump and warmth. Specifically, in my case, Weber 10A125 30W and Weber 10A150 25W.

The Q and N...those refer to wattage right? Or is that a tone/color thing?

I never did try the mismatched set idea. I still have the original speakers, I suppose I could try one of those with one of the Webers. I think the ones I have in there now are 10F150, 30w. I had a set of 10F125-O's in there but when I started playing pedal steel again the break up threshold was a little too low...they did sound sweet at low volume though, just again not as bright as the 12's in my Twin.

After doing a lot of recording with this amp and all it's different speaker config's I think I've just got it in my head that 10's have a certain sound, and a 12 might be a nice change for a while.

"Q" and "N" refer to the ribbing patterns found on the late 50's and early 60's Jensens with those letters. Q cones are pretty bright, and N cones are warm with a rounded high end. Weber puts Q cones on their 125 speakers without suffixes, and N cones on their 150 series speakers without suffixes.

R cones are straight cones without ribbing. They're middy and break up easily. They're found standard on 100 series speakers.

To add to the alphabet soup, Weber refers to "Q" cones on non-125 speakers as "T" for treble, and "O" for R cones on non-100 series speakers.

When in doubt, look at the pictures. You'll be able to identify the patterns pretty quickly. N cones have 8(?) ribs close together near the center of the radius, and Q cones are more evenly spaced.

Armed with this knowledge, you can get an idea of a speaker's sound before you plug it in.

Thanks for the lesson Kap'n. I picked up a couple of C10N's from a 60's Gibson bass amp, that I wondered about combining with the "Q" series for a fuller sound. Sounds like it will work!

I'd bet it'd sound great!

Part of the reason for this whole naming mess is that after SICA, the folks who own the Jensen trademark, discovered that selling vintage styled speakers was a viable business, due to folks like Mojo and their MP10R speaker, and Weber, who used the earlier nomenclature.

After the SICA folks joined the party, Ted changed the names to the nomenclature he has now. The whole confusion comes in when you refer to the cones as "N" and "Q" so that people can relate them to an old speaker they might know, and then you have to throw other stuff at them.

Nice, thanks for the info Kap'n. Always wondered about that.

Yep IIRC the 125-O's did in fact have a straight cone, and broke up pretty early. The 150's I have now are ribbed and stay pretty clean I think. Can't remember what type of cone the Blue Dog uses but I guess that's a whole 'nother can of worms anyway!

I see you went with 30w for the 10A125, and 25w for the 10A150. Was there a reason for that or were those just the closest wattages available?

More food for thought re Jensen's vintage designations......

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...ensenCodes.jpg

HTH

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boobtube21

I see you went with 30w for the 10A125, and 25w for the 10A150. Was there a reason for that or were those just the closest wattages available?

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The 10A150 is actually labeled P10N. It's one of Ted's first speakers - a replica of a speaker that never existed. Jensen never made a P10N. At that time he didn't make a 50W version.

I went with the 30W 10A125 because it's a little smoother.

Actually, I've owned a few blue P10N Jensens... : )

You mean they were just colored blue right?? Never heard of a Jensen "Blue" model.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boobtube21

You mean they were just colored blue right??

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Yes.

Actually, they're sort of teal-colored -- usually without a label of any kind (you need to be able to decipher the EIA codes to identify them).

Gotcha PM.

Well the weber showed up today, once I get the cab finished I'll take it for a test drive and post some pics.

Been thinking about starting up a soundclick account too, if I get around to that I'll post some sound clips too.

Weber 10A100 and Alnico Sig10 in my 5F4, just rocks with the Tele or P90 LP.

TT

Well, after weekends of toiling and screwing up measurements, I finally finished the 1x12 cab for this thing tonight. Got it all put together and hooked up, and the verdict is...it sounds pretty decent.

It actually sounds pretty much exactly how I thought it would. The lower volume cleans definitely have a little Vox-y thing going on, crank it up and I'm not sure how to describe it, other than it just rocks a little harder than with the 10's. It is a little clearer and more present sounding, a little brighter. Some of that may also have to do with the solid pine cab I built vs the stock MDF Fender cab (or plywood, can't remember what it is)

The speaker does need to loosen up a little of course, which I will try to help along over the coming week on my lunch breaks and maybe for an hour or so at the local rehearsal joint next Sat. The stiffness really shows with a Strat plugged in.

I'll post some pics a little later...it's still not perfect, but good lord I am tired of messing with this thing. I've never messed up so many measurements on one single project. I think there must be something wrong with my measuring tape, I'm sending it out for repairs...:arhhh: