59 Deluxe

Larry Largen

Larry Largen

Inspired
One of my guitar students has loaned this to me for a couple of weeks. I'm planning on tone matching, shooting IR's etc while I have it. It sounds great. Great clean, great overdrive. I know the speaker is not original but it sounds good. Any ideas what it is? Does a Jensen P12R Ultra res IR exist out there?deluxe front.jpg deluxe tag.jpg deluxe speaker.jpg
 
Not sure about jensen p12 but they have an altec speaker load that up and check that out...
Nice amp can you pop that back plate off and take shots of the guts ?
wanna see if the silver mica are still in it they look like red domino's should be
able to pop top back plate off and see whats what inside...

hmm mmm mmm you got a voltage meter ?????
Id love to have an hour with that amp......

had it been under water the label would not be in that good of shape and the speaker being replaced is not uncommon.

Dont take me alive was recorded with an amp like that and fuzzface I hear most think it was a Dumble but not so...
Dumble borrowed alot from that amp right there......

Can you take a gut shot and post it id like to see the insides and see whats original and whats not.
that top back plate should come off to reveal that...

I wont tell if you wont....
 
I'd probably ask your student, before taking any parts off of this old girl. No telling if you might strip a screw or worse, and replacement parts just don't look the same. Accidents happen, and why go down that road, when your student was kind enough to loan it for playing/tone matching. Just my 2 cents on it, and I've had both a '59 Deluxe and a '59 Bassman on my bench before.

Cheers.
Lee
 
Yes to clarify I meant just the back panel not to take it fully apart...
I used to repair these for a living wanted to see if the insides were 100%
best to clear with owner of course I thought before you shot the ir you might want to know
if it was original throughout ... These sound fantastic with altec speakers.
If its original then you know you are shooting an original if its not original then you are shooting something thats not. Just in case the owner might wish to know id be glad to authenticate it
I also have an altec speaker for that amp if he is interested ...

Just a thought....id be checking the transformers and original parts inside it
just to know... Triad made the transformers at the very same location Triad transformers
were made altec lansing made the speakers..

They bought the company in the 50s a bit of fender trivia for your client..
Leo fender was reluctant to use speakers and transformers from the same place
so they created TRIAD as an off name company put TRIAD stamps or stickers on them
and Leo never knew any better they also started installing some of the transformers directly
on the speaker itself which at that point Leo really had no choice since it was attached too the basket..
lol

I found that amusing secret handshake stuff Leo did not want to be dependent on one company
but in that case they just made Triad labels and put them on the same transformers they were already making to get leo to relax...
 
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We were building tweed knock offs at the time and I loathed the look of brand new tweed
but we aged them and sprayed them with a light coat of nitro.....
soon as the aging was done id feel better... His handle has been replaced...

I have some 4 10 cabs which are peavey and again loathed the look of new tweed so I aged them all
my buddy came over and about had a heart attack he said where did you get all those 59 bassmans ?
those are worth a fortune I said look closer I made them last week....

I used to cover these and do the oxblood grill cloth installation ..
The Japanese were going ape over them and most of all the orders were going overseas at the time...

I used to take the chassis to have them chromed and then drive 100 miles out of town to have those silkscreened
the owner was paranoid and did not want any one person to know where everything was done about like Leo..
The chassis were stamped out right around the corner...
I made boards installed ilets handles drilled the handle locations and chassis locations...

When I was hired to begin with there were 3 of us then they hired some other techs
one guy worked at TI he was moonlighting there for us his soldering work was flawless..
So I used to copy him and the owner would say oh you are trying to copy Sans arent you..
No Forrest White I said.. Always have been a smart ass cant help it..

Forrest White was who wired the original fenders... He was a long time friend of Leos and when Leo sold out
in 65 Forrest went with him to Musicman.

The contract stated Leo could not build any guitars for 10 years but it did not say anything about amps..
So musicman amps were formed right away G and L guitars were formed after that contract was up..
Soon as the Japanese check cleared Leo was buying up more property right around the corner in Fullerton
he still had all his connections and he took the original machines with him as well..

As you can tell I hate this stuff.....
 
My next door neighbor (Charlie Davis) was the fender factory bass player in Fullerton. We lived in the neighboring town of Brea. I was nine years old in 1965 and he gave me a 65 Strat and Deluxe Reverb. I was a young sports star of sorts so never got to fulfill my dream to play guitar until only recently. I still have the Deluxe Reverb though it needs some tender loving care. I gave the Strat away to a friend in high school in 72. One of if not the most bonehead decisions of my life. Doooooohhhhh! There is a lot of history in that 59 Deluxe. Way cool!
 
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Looks great !

Yes the 65 strat would be worth a bit of coin about now...
Lets see 1965 Aby Ybarra would have likely wound those pups in
that guitar I can tell you Fredo sprayed the finish he was there from 63 on
and was there when Michael Stevens was given the task of running the custom shop
to bring the quality back to American builds.

When Michael got there Fredo was still there spraying guitars...
they both went to the Dupont factory together to get the original
colors and codes and they asked can you help us..
They laughed and said help you of course we made all the original colors come on in..

Aby Ybarra wound Hendrix's pickups...
After I left the amp building and repair company I started building
fender knock offs by hand..

I learned how to do fret work at Michael Stevens shop in Austin by watching
Steve Crisp do all the fret work and repair on my 58 strat.
At the time they had just did Eric Johnsons 54 which was signed by Virginia
they said play this see what you think I said thats the best playing strat ive ever played
and handed them the 58 and said please do the same to mine...

During that time I got to hang out and watch a bit as long as I could shut up that is
and I watched how they did the frets and the finish work..
Begged them to hire me NO was the answer..
So I went off and did them myself... I lived right down the street from a man who did
Frame off restoration work on 50s chevy cars and he was the best in the south
I asked can you help me I need the charts for those colors and he opened his books to me
and let me get all the codes to start shooting my own custom colors..

Jerry Dixon automotive they had the finest 50s chevy's in the state....
Later I found my own Dupont book buying out a paint shop in Ft worth
they still had original dupont lacquer and lucite paint on the shelf.

The book is from the 50s through 70s and all the paint codes for gibson and fender
are in it.. I still own it..

Nearly got my butt sued off by fender so I just bowed out
instead of suing me they went after Scott Lentz ...

I bought out boogie body guitars when they sold out all the equipment to make the necks
the neck machine they built van halens early necks on and all the thickest maple necks flamed and birdseye maple and the rosewood necks they had which were solid rosewood..

I wanted to re invent the wheel but wound up getting ran over by it...

That which does not kill you....

hahahahahahaha
 
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Larry Largen said:
But yeah, did anyone have a clue the type of speaker that's in the 59 I have. Based on the pictures?
And is there a Jensen P12R around?

;)
Click to expand...

I could be of help but it would require you to look for codes on the speaker cone...
stamped on the cone somewhere in back... or on basket itself..

black ink stamp usually or white ink..
if you see none its likely a reconed speaker...
does not look like celestion to me...

https://reverb.com/item/3182-jensen-p12r-1954-alnico-speaker-8ohm
http://www.usspeaker.com/jensen P12R.htm <direct replacement>
https://wgs4.com/wgs-blackhawk-alnico-speaker-tweed-fender-deluxe-amp
http://ampwares.com/faq/jensen-replacement-speakers/
 
If you note on this 59, you can see the insides at bottom of the image near the right you can see this domino looking cap peeking out its at the bottom of image thats a silver mica cap and its original,
but looking can you tell which parts have been changed and which have not ?
 

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original triad transformer stamp....
 

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Here is a fane speaker from a carlsborro amp..

look kinda familiar ?

note the basket color and even make...
In this example these are bigger magnets
100 watt speaker cabs thus bigger magnet but
look at color of basket and even on sides of basket same markings..

my guess is its a fane which is a good speaker...
thats what I was able to find.

Just happened to look fane up and they look quite similar.
 
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