The best 12" guitar speaker for jazz???

[marcwhy]

Any decisions yet, Doc?

[docdosco]

Marc,

Not yet. The 85 watt Fender Sidekick Switcher shipped yesterday and will be here next week. $95! Damn, what a steal. It should sound good already with the Fender Eminence 12" but I will still try a swap I think. I also have two 60 watt valve tube amps in need of repair, so I will put something else in one of those. The Weber Cali does look interesting for an alnico 12" at $114 (or a better price if I can find it). I am very peculiar about the sound (and peculiar in general actually), so I really do want no coloration added. I guess I'll see what I have when the Fender arrives.

The alnico Jupiter speaker looks interesting too, (thanks) but $249 scares me....

Doc Dosco
Peerless Guitars

[docdosco]

I got the amp. It is a weird vintage of Fender amp. It is called a Switcher because it has a built in foot pedal for switching channels on the fly. God knows why?! (clean to dirty I suspect) The speaker sucks, the reverb is a spring reverb that sounds like trash - on full you can barely hear the reverb is on...... but there still may be hope for the amp with a better speaker. Plenty of power. On my gig, the tone was harsh and painfully tinny on the high end and the speaker woofed a few times (did I mention it was a dog ...woof woof). I went back to the Fender Sidekick 25 with the JBL 110 on second set, and it was like night and day. There was that warm sweet jazz tone again. I am hoping that a really good speaker will clean and warm up the tone on this Switcher.

The amp is in pristine condition which is nice. I can't find date of manufacture though in a Google search of models, years and numbers.

SERIAL NO
SKS 101492
MODEL SIDEKICK SWITCHER

If anyone out the can decipher these numbers, and kindly point me towards the year it was made, I'd appreciate it. The SideKick Switcher doesn't seem to come up on the radar of the Fender serial number websites I've visited.

Thanks guys....

Doc Dosco
Peerless Guitars

[kawa]

Fender Japan 1989 Catalog

ƒtƒFƒ“ƒ_[ƒWƒƒƒpƒ“ ƒMƒ^[ƒJƒ^ƒƒO 1989

I'm using now one, I'ts a good amp

OEM by ELK in UTSUNOMIYA

[docdosco]

kawa,

Thanks for the info. The amp I have was made Taiwan. Don't know the year, but it's older than the 1991 model 25 watt I have. It is supposedly an 85 watt with that strange little name plate on the front. It is more compact than the Sidekick 65 watt as the 12" speaker takes up almost the whole grill. I think it is a mid 80's somewhere. I'll keep looking for more stuff on the amp.....

Doc Dosco

[docdosco]

Kawa,

Oops. I almost double posted. The Fender Sidekick I have was definitely made in Taiwan, late 80's I think, The Sidekick Switcher in the catalog looks like mine with a different name plate I guess but I have a point of reference now.

85 watts, 130 peak
12" speaker etc

Can anyone give a guess as to the ohms of the speaker? 8 perhaps. I hear putting a mismatch in a solid state can damage the electronics?

Thanks,

Doc Dosco

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I hear putting a mismatch in a solid state can damage the electronics?

A SS amp's spec should give the minimum output impedance, like 4Ohms. Mismatching by being above the minimum is fine, although SS amps generate less power as impedance goes up. For example, a SS amp may be 200W@8Ohms and 400W@4Ohms.

[docdosco]

So, would the Weber Cali 8 Ohm work in this amp, you think? I can't see anything on the present speaker ... just "Fender Musical Instruments Special Design Speaker."

It is printed 80 watts next to the fuse on the back of the amp, so it isn't 85 watts I guess. The Japanese model says 65 actually and 130 peak on the brochure, but it has a different logo on the front, and I can't find my exact amp specs on the Internet....

Doc Dosco

[kawa]

Mounted 8 ohm unit.

Regards.

[docdosco]

I am either going to try and find an 8 ohm JBF 120F in good condition, or perhaps spring for the weber Cali Alnico. Getting a vintage JBL online is a bit of a crap shoot though.....

Doc Dosco

[Greentone]

Hey, Kawa, I just had to chime in--at the risk of a hijack. I grew up in a US Navy family. We lived all over. My father was stationed primarily in the Pacific Fleet, so he was in Japan a lot, along with the fathers of a lot of my buddies. Anyway, lots of the guys I grew up with had Elk amps from Japan. Their dads would bring them back from cruises in the Pacific. That's the way I ended up with a mid-60s Teisco Professional amp. (The Professional was a 2 x 12, 2-EL34 amp that boasted 50-watts of Fender Pro Amp/Super Reverb Amp-stomping power. The Professional was a lot like a Marshall/Fender Pro-Reverb.)

Anyway, Elk and Teisco in the 60s were the top gear _in_ Japan. If you went to a club, according to my father, that's what you'd see the musicians playing into. All I know is that a big piggyback Elk, or a Twin Reverb-sized Teisco Professional (not to be confused with the Checkmate gear that was imported into the US) was great stuff.

Nice to see that Elk made it into recent times. Teisco (Tokyo Electric Instrument Supply Company) tanked around 1968.

[kawa]

Thats bring back memories Greentone, I 've been to TEISCO plant thats era.

Thank you.