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Post subject: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 9:43 am
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I picked up an old Fender cabinet from a private individual and I'd like to identify it. The seller said he was the second owner & acquired this cab in the early 70's from a friend. It was sold to me as a bass guitar cab, but I opened the back panel to discover a pair of Jensen C12N speakers. The speakers are mounted to particle board adapter pieces that appear to be screwed into t-nut locations on the original baffle. It looks like the baffle was originally intended for 15" speakers. I looked on the ampwares (fender fieldguide) site, but couldn't find an exact size match for the cabinet. Here are the details...

Cab dimensions (not counting hardware): 39" H x 26" W x 11.5" D
There are 2 piggy-back screws on top, (vertical orientation).
There are 3 strap handles on the left side (looking at the front of the amp).
There are feet on the bottom & on the right side.
There is a stamp inside the cab that reads: F020167
The speaker frames both have these markings: 220651 023119 C12NA C8220 6
The speaker labels are gold & brown Jensen / Fender Musical Instrument Company


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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 9:55 am
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This was a transitional cabinet, built for less than a year, in late '66 and/or early '67. IIRC, only the Bassman used this particular enclosure. The C12N's may or may not be original to it -- most Bassman's of this era used the Oxford 12T8 (same as the Twin Reverb). The date stamp within the cab indicates a build date of early '67 while the speakers were made in the 51st week of '66. The modified baffle board was probably the result of someone's decision to fit 15's into it, then subsequently opted to reverse the mod by re-installing 12's using those adapters.

HTH

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:51 am
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Thanks for the info Retroverbial. Now I'm very curious. I'll unscrew the adapters & see what the baffle cut-outs look like. It seems like it would be impossible to cut a 15" hole & add t-nuts without trashing the grill cloth. The cloth is in good shape, and the baffle appears to be permanently glued to the cabinet with the grill cloth wrapped right around it, (ie: no separate removeable grill). I wonder if this was a prototype 2x15 cab, or if Fender was piecing together parts to clear things out before the sale to CBS. The adapters are neatly cut and look identical, as is they were made from a template. They are perfect squares with the corners cut off to make very symmetric looking octagons.


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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:55 am
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I'd like to see pics of that baffle board if possible.

Glue-in baffles did not officially appear on Fender amps until 1971.

What color is the grill cloth?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:37 pm
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The grill cloth is silver with a black stripe. I'm a newbie here, and don't see any way to attach an image to my reply. Do I have to put pics on some website?


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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:44 pm
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jammincat wrote:
Do I have to put pics on some website?


Yes. Photos must be uploaded to a remote hosting service such as Photobucket or Flickr.

I sent you a PM -- check your in-box, JC.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 1:52 pm
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Here are more details about the cabinet...
- There is no port on the baffle or anywhere else on the cabinet.
- The spacing for the piggy-back screw/bushings is 22 & 5/8 inches. (22.625")
- The grill cloth is wrapped right over the baffle.
- The front baffle is screwed on from inside the cabinet. (I had to move the yellow insulation to see the screws.)
- I removed the 12" particle board speaker adapters & there are indeed 15" cutouts in the baffle, each with 4 t-nuts. The cutouts look factory, because they have the black dye, like the rest of the baffle, even in the cutout area.


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Post subject: Re: Help identify vintage (60's?) Fender cabinet
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 3:21 pm
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Unusual too is the fact that when Fender released the true big-box 39" x 29" x 11.5" Bassman (and the companion Bandmaster) cabs in the spring of '67, the Bassman reverted back to a 2 x 12 configuration which would remain as standard until very late in '68 when FMI permanently ditched the 12's in favor of the 15's. The ported baffle was also a hallmark feature of the big-box Bassman.

Weird!

Arjay

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