This sad little amp followed me home.

[Axtman]

The pictures don't do it justice. It's filthy!





It is going to get a SERIOUS deep cleaning, all new electrolytics, new tubes, new reverb tank/bag, new back panels, deoxit controls, switches and jack, new knobs.....have I missed anything?

[Justin Thomas]

It's beautiful!

Justin

[Axtman]

It's an amp that only a mother could love.

It's an ugly duckling that will (with my help) grow into a beautiful swan.

[soundmasterg]

What is the speaker in that thing? It looks like it might be a Jensen Vibranto?

Greg

[52 Bill]

What is the speaker in that thing? It looks like it might be a Jensen Vibranto?

Greg

Fender label JBL 15 inch.

[drewl]

Yeah, I've seen those speakers in Twins before.

Awesome amp!

[Randall]

Check to see if the fiber board is conductive.

[Axtman]

What is the speaker in that thing? It looks like it might be a Jensen Vibranto?

Greg

It's a JBL D130F.

[Axtman]

On further research on the JBL speaker I found that it is actually a low wattage 25 to 30 watts. It is a stock speaker that came with the amp. Why would Fender put such a low wattage speaker in a 135 watt amp?

[The Dude]

I'm not sure where you read that, but it's actually a 150W continuous sine wave and 300W continuous program according to specs. It's basically the same as the JBL E130 only built by JBL for Fender. Both D&E speakers use the same recone kit. Here's the spec sheet for the E series, which would be nearly identical to the D.

http://www.jblpro.com/pub/components/eseries.pdf

Edit (for clarity): I do not mean to say that the two speakers are exactly identical, but certainly close enough for comparison.

[Axtman]

These are the articles that I read. I understand that the "F" at the end of the model means "Fender".

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...964/page42.jpg

http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...30-2/page1.jpg

[The Dude]

I suggest it's a difference in how the power rating was determined at that time. The old rating might be something like "full bandwidth pink noise" or something of the sort. All I can tell you is that I've been reconing these things for 30 years and they will take substantially more than 25W typical music program.

Edit: I'll add- Even if you only put 25W to one of these, it will tear your head off.

[Axtman]

I think this amp will make a great pedal steel guitar amp. It's 135 watts ultra linear transformer clean. I cleaned up all the filth and installed a few capacitors, cleaning the jacks and controls. I will be sure to post pictures of the "After".

[Tom Phillips]

The D130F was one of the most efficient speakers of its day. If yours has the original cone and the edge wound voice coil then it will produce much more sound pressure level per drive Watt than other speakers of its day. In addition, the weight is relatively low because the magnet material is Alnico V. The magnet structure does a great job of focusing the magnetic force into the voice coil gap. So much so that a metal object, such as a screwdriver shaft are not even attracted to the back of the speaker.

[nevetslab]

Very nice find!! That amp's definitely worthy of restoration as time & funds permit. In going thru it, I'd recommend pulling the speaker off the baffle board, and inspecting the cone & surround suspension for any cracks. Not that uncommon due to it's age, if you find any. My first JBL speaker was an Original James B Lansing D130, having cork surround and the squared corner round magnet pot. I eventually had to take it to JBL to be reconed, and they talked me out of that 'museum piece' for a different D13F. Back in the days when JBL was on Casitas Ave in Glendale, CA

What model amp is that? I couldn't make that out on the faceplate.

Fender also had Orange frame Gauss speakers back in those days. I still have one of those 15" Orange-frame woofers