I pulled a 1957 vintage Jensen from an organ

[PremiumPlus]

A Jensen P12R, mfg/date code 220735. The organ is old, and dating the pots in the amplifier leads me to believe that it's a 1957 manufacturing date. I bought the organ at a yard sale because it was chock full of tubes, all nice RCA, Tung Sol and Dumont 12AX7s (24 of them!). The amplifier uses a pair of 6V6GTs with a couple of 12AU7 a 6CU5 and something else on the chassis. I plan to use it for a low power head of some sort, probably along the lines of a tweed deluxe or something. Lots of options
Anyway, I just pulled the speaker and put it in a semi open back 1X12 enclosure that I built a few years ago, and I gigged it Friday night at the local blues jam. What a great sound! Those old alnico Jensens rule. This speaker just has soul. You should hear it with my Orange Tiny Terror. I bet it would be a great speaker for my '67 DR too!

 

[slider313]

If you use it with a Deluxe Reverb you will blow it. Those are only 12 watt speakers and with the size of the magnet you won't get much clean headroom at all.

 

[wingwalker]

Yep...watch those old cone P12R's...12 watts MAX and I've even popped them with less than that!

 

[PremiumPlus]

Thanks for the tip. I would have thought that the DR would be a perfect fit because the organ amp and the guitar amp both use 6V6 output tubes and I figured that the power would be about the same. But a distorting guitar amp puts out more wattage than a clean organ tone, so I guess that makes sense.
I must have really lucked out because for fun I hooked up my blackline Bassman head and played pretty darn loud to see how it sounded before I went through with the pull. It sounded great! I'll be more careful now...

 

[soldano16]

Your subject made me flash to this very funny beer commercial from 25 years ago.

Magician - "Watch me pull a hat out of this rabbit"

girl beside him - "Ooooooooohhhh"

Magician - "That's what the rabbit says"

 

[Trout]

Occasionally those old organs yield lots of cool Tubes & Speakers.

I grabbed a couple P10Q 40W Jensen 10" speakers out of an old Kinsman* organ that sounded fantastic for a while, but the cones were very brittle and one actually crumbled after about 6 months.
* Kinsman= CMI Chicago Musical Instrument Co

 

[mentoneman]

Occasionally those old organs yield lots of cool Tubes & Speakers.

I grabbed a couple P10Q 40W Jensen 10" speakers out of an old Kinsman* organ that sounded fantastic for a while, but the cones were very brittle and one actually crumbled after about 6 months.
* Kinsman= CMI Chicago Musical Instrument Co

I got a pair of GE 6L6s from a old stereo

 

[hogy]

Enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't. I have blown every vintage Alnico Jensen I've ever owned, literally dozens of them. The main problem is that the voice coil is glued to the cone with hide glue, which deteriorates with age.

 

[Top Geezer]

congrats - sounds like a cool find.

I have an old P12Q in my 5e3 clone, but it's been reconed (sounds great to my ears) - will a reconed P12Q have the same mojo as an original once broken in?

 

[PremiumPlus]

I dunno about that. I do know that this original that I have runs circles around the reissue P12Rs that I have. I bought a pair of them about 5-6 years ago and I've tried them in everything from open back 2x12s to closed back 1x12 or open back...mine suck. They sound okay until you begin to push them, and they sound awful. This old original is smooth, and has a sweetness to it that is too cool. I hope your recone sounds half as good!
All that being said, I hope that my old one stands up to playing better than everyone so far is suggesting. I'm almost afraid to play it now, but it stood up to a strong Bassman head for 15 or 20 minutes of LOUD playing and it didn't miss a beat. So I'm hopeful that it'll live for a while longer...