Jensen C12K Ceramic Vintage 8Ohm

I have used many amps over many years and one of my all time favourites is the Fender Deluxe Reverb usually with bass and treble set at mid position - 12 o'clock. (I'm not one to turn everything up to "number 11"). The only downside is the lack of a middle control, but the sound is so good I don't really miss it.

The stock speaker in current re-issues is the Jensen C12K.
This is to me the best choice for wide frequency coverage from low bass to silky smooth highs - without painful and cutting punchy high mids! The frequency response curves show that even the C12N 50 Watt has slightly more punch above 3kHz.
I've been trying different speakers in a Fender Blues Junior - Cannabis Rex (supplied with the amp), P12R, P12Q, - none of which had sufficient low bass response. - The Deluxe only gives up to 22 Watts into a 100W speaker - so I thought I'd give the C12K a try in the Blues Junior - almost perfect, just have to boost the bass up - BUT there is loads more compared to the previous speakers. Now it can sound closer to the Deluxe while not driven hard. Plenty of Telecaster country twang (if twang's your thing).
It's the massive heavy ceramic magnet that gives all that bass boost - even when not driven anywhere near 100 Watts!

I ordered a second C12K to replace the stock speaker in a 1x12 cab that I've never liked the sound of - a really nice tough cab with a famous name and an equally famous speaker inside - sadly it always had far too much "Cutting" power at around 3-4KHz and really bites! - so it just sat unconnected as a stand for other speakers or amps - until today when my order arrived!

The time had come to look at new speakers for my Fender Twin Reverb (this is a 135 watt Silverface Twin made in the 1970s). Originally there were a pair of Eminence Fender Special Design speakers, (one of which had been ripped and repaired). I saw a lot of information online suggesting that a Fender Twin Reverb combined with Jensen C12s is the true American sound, with conflicting views over whether which version (C12k or C12n) were the better tonal choice. The C12K with it's 100w rating seemed to make more sense for my amp anyway (had the amp been a 100w Twin Reverb I may have put more thought into the C12N).

I am very happy with how these speakers compare to the original Eminence speakers. These speakers really beef up the low end of the Fender Twin, while pushing the mids (and the low mids in particular) much more aggressively. The highs are a bit more subtle, however you still get the signature Fender 'sparkle' without too many issues. I do enjoy some heavily distorted riffing on the E string using the neck pickup of my strat then switching to some lead runs using the bridge pickup, and these speakers really respond to this change, providing 'the sound' that I had hoped for.

I have an 80's Fender concert which had a dull sounding Eminence speaker fitted in it. I recently tried the amp with a lower power Jensen extension speaker and it sounded awesome so I bought this. Straight out of the box it was a bit stiff/tight but after an hour or so it was starting to sound much closer to what I'm looking for and I'm sure that with a few more hours use it will get better and better. On the clean channel it is fairly crisp but full sounding while on the overdrive channel it stays crisp but not harsh and stays fairly tight on the bass end. It still sounds like a Fender which is exactly what I wanted. I tried a V30 in the amp too which sounded good for overdrive but not so good clean. The Jensen on the other hand seems to be good at both.