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Hey guys!
My first post on this forum, I'm thinking about replacing the stock speaker that's on my Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue to something else. The stock speaker has very floppy bottom end and the high end sounds waaaay too piercing for my liking!
I'm currently studying jazz guitar at university, so I'm primarily playing a lot of clean stuff, ie bebop solo guitar. However, alongside my course, I also enjoy playing George Benson style R&B music, and I also like the sound Ted Greene produced.
So I was wondering if there is any speaker out there that may be a good replacement for the stock speaker? I'm looking for very clean sound that doesn't break up at a high volume, tight bass and good treble but not piercing.
Thanks in advance!
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02-13-2015 06:42 PM
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The Eminence Cannabis Rex will help tame your high end a bit and sounds great for jazz. The Eminence Lil Texas can cut down weight some and gets a tight bottom. Both are loud/sensitive speakers with good headroom.
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Another great speaker is the Jensen C12K. That is what I put in my BD and it sounds great for jazz. It is the same speaker Fender puts in their George Bensen model, Fender Twin, and Deluxe Reverb. It's rated at 100w so it won't breakup too soon in your 40w amp.
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Cannabis Rex is a great choice! Unless you're putting it in a really dark amp, it's sort of a "can't-miss" speaker. Works well for everything you can throw at it. I also think a WGS G12C/S would work well for a softer top end with great, tight bass.
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For me, it was Eminence Wizard, taming the treble was easy by turning treble all the way down, but it was modded heavily by BillM before I traded it for a George Benson HRD.
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Cannabis Rex in my HRD.
also, put a 5751 tube in the first position, and a 12at7 in the third.
Will cut the gain a bit, and give you more usable clean.
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The C Rex will solve the treble issue (although making too blant imo) but will increase even more the bass... been there done that. It's a perfect speaker with overdrives because most overdrives cut a lot of bass but clean has too much bass. In my opinion (and my Guild archtop is bass heavy).
In my experience the piercing quality of that amp (and most amps) does not come from treble but from mids (800hz). An eq pedal is the fastest and cheapest way to solve your problem.
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Thank you guys for the advice! It seems that C Rex is very popular! I actually don't mind having too much bass end, since most of my pickups are bright sounding! What do you guys think of Weber speakers?
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Yeah I find that issue a lot and often have to turn down the most to like 1-2... Do you still have the C Rex?
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Warehouse Guitar Speakers makes some great speakers as well at very affordable prices! I really like the ET90 (100 watt 12")
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I have an unused weber 12f150 speaker which are popular replacement speakers for fender. Would consider selling.
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Jensen Alnico.
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The BDLX is a bit of a difficult amp: very bass heavy and when played fairly loud it sounds harsh and empty in some kind of way. It's not the speaker: I had a C12K in mine and although that sounded better, I still had to put the bass control on zero and the amp would still have too much bass.
So I ended up modding it.... Here's what I did, I changed the preamp, Phase Inverter and NFB-circuit to Blackface AB763 specs:
- Twin Stack mod: re-routing the mid pot (it was actually wired as Marshall does)
- changed out the 1M bass pot for a 250k
- changed the bass cap from .022 to .047uF
- changed the mid pot from 25k to 10k
- changed ceramic caps in the pre-amp to silver mica
- changed slope resistor in the PI to 22k
- changed the NFB-resistor to 820R
- removed the presence pot out of the circuit by lifting the cap to ground directly after it and putting a 100R to ground instead of the 47k to ground
- placed a 12at7 in the PI (V3)
- placed a 25uf cap over the kathode of the 2nd half of V1
(It might seem like a big operation, but it was actually 20 minutes of soldering and apart from the speaker maybe $2 dollar in parts...)
Depending on the venue and type of gig I switch between a 12ax7 and a 12ay7 in V1. The latter delivers a lot less gain and tames the amp down perfectly for quiet jazz gigs. (I carry the other tube with me in a little box in the back of the amp, so I can always switch when needed
This is how it sounds now with a Jensen NEO 12-100 speaker:
Last edited by Little Jay; 02-15-2015 at 05:50 AM.
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Kris, that speaker will most likely increase the OPs problems.
Originally Posted by kris
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Jay I had seen your mods before and all of them seem a good idea but one intrigues me - the 10k mid pot. This is to me what I dislike the most about blackface amps, a 10k mid pot is useless - you rotate it and you just increase gain but no eq changes. If you put a 25k or 50k pot you can have the stock blackface scooped sound at 0 but then add mids when you rotate it... no? Why did you performed that mod? Thanks! Originally Posted by Little Jay
The BDLX is a bit of a difficult amp: very bass heavy and when played fairly loud it sounds harsh and empty in some kind of way. It's not the speaker: I had a C12K in mine and although that sounded better, I still had to put the bass control on zero and the amp would still have too much bass.
So I ended up modding it.... Here's what I did, I changed the preamp, Phase Inverter and NFB-circuit to Blackface AB763 specs:
- Twin Stack mod: re-routing the mid pot (it was actually wired as Marshall does)
- changed out the 1M bass pot for a 250k
- changed the bass cap from .022 to .047uF
- changed the mid pot from 25k to 10k
- changed ceramic caps in the pre-amp to silver mica
- changed slope resistor in the PI to 22k
- changed the NFB-resistor to 820R
- removed the presence pot out of the circuit by lifting the cap to ground directly after it and putting a 100R to ground instead of the 47k to ground
- placed a 12at7 in the PI (V3)
- placed a 25uf cap over the kathode of the 2nd half of V1
(It might seem like a big operation, but it was actually 20 minutes of soldering and apart from the speaker maybe $2 dollar in parts...)
Depending on the venue and type of gig I switch between a 12ax7 and a 12ay7 in V1. The latter delivers a lot less gain and tames the amp down perfectly for quiet jazz gigs. (I carry the other tube with me in a little box in the back of the amp, so I can always switch when needed
This is how it sounds now with a Jensen NEO 12-100 speaker:
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I use one Jensen Alnico with my tube combp and no problems...:-) Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
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I know that Kris but all amps are different... from my experience with the HRD and Jensen Alnico it will make the treble harsher and will not solve the bass. But I agree it's a great speaker on the right amp!
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Jorge, Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
The BDLX is still different from a real BF of course, it has an extra gain stage before the tonestack and that gives a different gain and mids structure. I tried with the stock 25k pot first, but felt the need to dial out more mids. With the 10k pot I like it better, although the amp still has more mids than my Twin for example.
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Thanks Jay, I had the feeling I was entering unknown territory for me
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Don't worry, for me it's also mostly trial&error! (Hopefully based on an educated guess here and there :-) )
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Neo speakers seem to have less bass response in open back cabs, so one of these like a Jensen Tornado might be the answer!
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I agree with that, I use a Jensen Neo 12-100 in my BDLX now and it helps. But it's actually the circuit's design that the culprit for too much bass in these amps. Originally Posted by jads57
I really suspect this amp was actually designed with the bedroom player in mind, cause in low volume situations it can deliver a lot of 'oomph' and impress, but as things get louder it gets out of control.
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could you post a picture and indicate where on the board these parts are?
Originally Posted by Little Jay
The BDLX is a bit of a difficult amp: very bass heavy and when played fairly loud it sounds harsh and empty in some kind of way. It's not the speaker: I had a C12K in mine and although that sounded better, I still had to put the bass control on zero and the amp would still have too much bass.
So I ended up modding it.... Here's what I did, I changed the preamp, Phase Inverter and NFB-circuit to Blackface AB763 specs:
- Twin Stack mod: re-routing the mid pot (it was actually wired as Marshall does)
- changed out the 1M bass pot for a 250k
- changed the bass cap from .022 to .047uF
- changed the mid pot from 25k to 10k
- changed ceramic caps in the pre-amp to silver mica
- changed slope resistor in the PI to 22k
- changed the NFB-resistor to 820R
- removed the presence pot out of the circuit by lifting the cap to ground directly after it and putting a 100R to ground instead of the 47k to ground
- placed a 12at7 in the PI (V3)
- placed a 25uf cap over the kathode of the 2nd half of V1
(It might seem like a big operation, but it was actually 20 minutes of soldering and apart from the speaker maybe $2 dollar in parts...)
Depending on the venue and type of gig I switch between a 12ax7 and a 12ay7 in V1. The latter delivers a lot less gain and tames the amp down perfectly for quiet jazz gigs. (I carry the other tube with me in a little box in the back of the amp, so I can always switch when needed
This is how it sounds now with a Jensen NEO 12-100 speaker:
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Love it! Originally Posted by Little Jay
The BDLX is a bit of a difficult amp: very bass heavy and when played fairly loud it sounds harsh and empty in some kind of way. It's not the speaker: I had a C12K in mine and although that sounded better, I still had to put the bass control on zero and the amp would still have too much bass.
So I ended up modding it.... Here's what I did, I changed the preamp, Phase Inverter and NFB-circuit to Blackface AB763 specs:
- Twin Stack mod: re-routing the mid pot (it was actually wired as Marshall does)
- changed out the 1M bass pot for a 250k
- changed the bass cap from .022 to .047uF
- changed the mid pot from 25k to 10k
- changed ceramic caps in the pre-amp to silver mica
- changed slope resistor in the PI to 22k
- changed the NFB-resistor to 820R
- removed the presence pot out of the circuit by lifting the cap to ground directly after it and putting a 100R to ground instead of the 47k to ground
- placed a 12at7 in the PI (V3)
- placed a 25uf cap over the kathode of the 2nd half of V1
(It might seem like a big operation, but it was actually 20 minutes of soldering and apart from the speaker maybe $2 dollar in parts...)
Depending on the venue and type of gig I switch between a 12ax7 and a 12ay7 in V1. The latter delivers a lot less gain and tames the amp down perfectly for quiet jazz gigs. (I carry the other tube with me in a little box in the back of the amp, so I can always switch when needed
This is how it sounds now with a Jensen NEO 12-100 speaker:
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Sure! Will take a pic tonight when I'm back home. Originally Posted by jzucker
In reference to the schematic (http://support.fender.com/schematics..._schematic.pdf) - there's a lay-out in the same file as wel - it concerns these parts:
- changed the mid pot from 25k to 10k This is pot R14
- Twin Stack mod: re-routing the mid pot (it was actually wired as Marshall does) Again R14; just jumper the middle and left terminal (as seen from the back)
- changed out the 1M bass pot for a 250k This is pot R13
- changed the bass cap from .022 to .047uF This cap C7 (maybe I should have called it the mid cap
- changed ceramic caps in the pre-amp to silver mica I did that with C3 and C5, might change C2 and C4 as well
- changed slope resistor in the PI to 22k This is R46
- changed the NFB-resistor to 820R This is R93
- removed the presence pot out of the circuit by lifting the cap to ground directly after it (that's C22, just unsolder it) and putting a 100R to ground instead of the 47k to ground (that's R43 and it was 4.7k not 47k, sorry, it's replaced by a 100 ohm)
- placed a 12at7 in the PI (V3)
- placed a 25uf cap over the kathode of the 2nd half of V1 (so a 25uf cap in parallel with R10, I just soldered it across the resistor. Mind the polarity!)
Forgot to mention earlier, but I also did this:
- replaced R50 by a jumper (just a piece of bare wire)
- changed R51 for a 82K
- replaced C23 for a .001uF
You probably know already, but if you work in the amp don't forget to drain the filter-caps! They discharge themselves if you leave standby ON when switching the amp OFF, takes just a couple of minutes.
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