Jensen P10R

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listen folks. it's all about application. a lot of people bag on reissue jensen speakers. i think at least half of the nay-sayers are either a.) corksniffers who don't think they cost enough, or b.) people who don't understand the strengths and weaknesses of their other gear and thus buy a speaker that is ill-matched for their application.

it is true, the p10r is a bright speaker. it is not ice-pick; it is brilliant. if you have a very brilliant amp with lots of high end emphasis, this speaker is a bad choice. hence the bad reviews. if you play a silverface fender, this speaker is not a good choice.

i put this speaker is a very dark-voiced fender brownface princeton. i started with a red fang 10 which was too loud and to mid/lows focused for the amp. i'm not saying it's a ***** speaker, i just used it for the wrong application. then i upgraded to a 12" celestion blue: the ultimate guitar amp speaker no matter what, right? wrong. again, wrong application. it sounded good when the amp was cranked, but muffled and dead at clean levels.

finally, exasperated in my quest for a speaker to wake this amp up, i decided to ignore ubiquitous bad-reviews and try the jensen reissue. i needed a bright speaker, and apparently that's what it was. a few hours break in and perfecto. the princeton's low/mid-heavy voice was complimented by the speakers slightly scooped, brilliant voice resulting in sonic happiness.

now my tone knob is useful, and a swampy amp finally has some fender shimmer and dimension. i roll the tone knob on the amp down as the volume goes up (no brainer for tube amps), and i end in wonderful, clear distortion. the speaker does get brighter when distortion is introduced, and that is what the tone knob is for.

sounds great with pedals. has a brilliant, vintage chime much more than the celestion blue did in this circuit. again, it's all about application.

don't know yet. it's already taken a sonic beating and sounds better every day as it opens up.

if your amp is bright, don't buy this speaker. if your amp has a deep, "brown" voice, you will love it (provided you want more shimmer and clarity).

it's not about having the most expensive gear, it's about knowing what works in a given application.

I don't question the previous poster, but I've had my speaker in a 15 watt Super Champ XD for over 6 months now. And on top of my own practice I have a couple dozen hours of playing near 10 on the clean channel - practicing and playing with the band.

no issues. no problems. i still love my amp.

10 inch, 25 Watt, AlNiCo speaker

I put them in an early 1970s Fender Super Reverb 4 x 10 combo amp, that I've had blackfaced: 40-50 Watts.

Pleasant. Warmer and possibly less well defined than the mid-1990s 25 Watt Celestions I took out.

Poor. I bought these brand new. I broke them in gently using an MP3 player through a P/A for the better part of a week, starting at low volumes and working my way up to playing volume on the guitar amp.

I never ran the amp above 5 on the volume control, which is where it produces the power amp overdrive I like. The speakers buzzed and rattled. My speaker tech says that ALL OF THE CONES show evidence of FRACTURING, around the voice coil and at the edge. The cracks around the coil you'd normally see in a speaker that has got REALLY HOT. These haven't. The cracks around the edges you'd normally get from over-extension due to too much bass. I'm mainly playing a Les Paul in normal concert pitch through this rig.

This is complete crap. This should not happen with brand new speakers used in the correct way in the correct amp.

Haven't tried to contact them.

I couldn't possibly recommend them. They sounded nice, but no brand new speaker, in a set of four rated at 100 W, should end up crapping itself with normal use in a 40-50 Watt amp.

This is a (new reissue, made in italy) replacement 10" speaker reviewed in HC's "amps" category for lack of a speaker review category, which makes this "features" category irrelevant/non-applicable to the item being reviewed :)

it's a speaker with an alnico magnet (yay!), paper cone and steel frame. LOL.

I use a cheap (but good) lespaul-type guitar - a solid mahogany body (and set neck), maple top with GFS Dream 180 humbuckers (also coil-splittable per my installation). It went into my new Fender Super Champ XD amp (excellent!).

I am a classic rock type of guy (sound-wise) but I also like electric blues and Brian Setzer-type sound (getting more into rockabilly lately).

The Fender SCXD had a very decent stock speaker, but everyone's modding them, so I had to also :)

This alnico speaker sounds very warm and has nice, deep low tight bass. It seems to have increased my amp's loudness by just a touch. For a 10" speaker it has such nice lows that I fear for the structural integrity of my house. And the cat is afraid of my amp.

People have suggested that maybe this classic fender speaker wouldn't be a good match for SCXD's non-fender models. I don't know. They sound great to me. yes, maybe the "british" settings don't exactly sound like a beatlesque vox or like Brian May or like a marshall, but I don't care. I like the tones I'm getting - very 3D and inspiring. The fender models are VERY beautiful - warm lows, sparkly highs, buttery mids. I don't know about other reviewers, but with this amp I don't even know how I would produce any harshness/brittleness even if I tried. If you got a lemon, return it. If it doesn't match your amp - try it with another amp (or return it), but don't bash it, it's a great speaker.

i don't know yet, but i don'g "gig" - i'm a hobbyist. should be fine, nice, sturdy construction.

M123 shipped a 16ohm by mistake, so I had to be patient with them while they replaced it with the 8ohm (required by my amp).

factory packing could be better - the speaker just sits in a box, wrapped in a plastic bag - no molds. maybe they figure it's sufficient. mine was ok.

I'd say it's probably a bit pricey (for me) but I scored a M123 discount and free S&H, so I'm ok.

I like alnico over ceramic. I like it in my guitar pickups and I seem to like it in speakers.

After reading the posted LIES about this speaker I had to speak up.
A few of these "reviews" are hatchet jobs evidently posted by people who obviously work for a competing speaker maker,or were posted by mis-guided, immature fans of that "speaker" maker, who shall remain nameless, because the Jensen P10R is one of the best speakers ever made. They are well made, sound awesome, SOUND EXACTLY LIKE ORIGINAL JENSEN P10R'S FROM THE 1950'S, and are reasonably priced. There's some monkey business going on here.Pretty disgusting behavior, if you ask me. I think Harmony Central should delete the posts that are obvious lies posted by hired or misguided shills working for "you-know-who".
The man who owns Victoria amps, a guy who knows more about sound than anybody who ever posted here thinks the Jensens are amazing and chose them over any other speaker to put into his wonderful amplifiers. He did that because they are an awesome speaker at a fair price....unlike some of these over-priced, over-hyped, dull, ugly boutique speakers you see on the market. Most of these boutique speaker makers would go out of business of they didn't have tone deaf moronic teeners touting them for God knows what reason. Most of those boutique speakers sound horrifying. Fender, Mesa Boogie, Victoria and many other legendary amplifier makers use Jensen in their amps. What does that tell you?

The Jensen P10R sounds EXACTLY like original 1950's Jensen P10R's and I know this for a fact because I have A/B'd them through two identical 1950's tweed Fender amps back and forth in front of friends, (musicians with good ears) and none of us could tell the difference between the reissues and the originals. I thoroughly tested them at low levels and at high levels...NO DIFFERENCE.
Tried with Strats, Teles, Pauls...NO DIFFERENCE. They have great, big, tight bass for a 10" speaker and nice, bright, high end without being shrill or thin, or dull. They are AWESOME in any tweed or blackface or silverface Fender. I also put them into my blackface Super Reverb and they sound wonderful. NOT SHRILL OR BRITTLE AT ALL.
NOT ICE PICK AT ALL.

I've been using Jensens for years....never blew one yet and I play pretty loud!!

Never needed customer support....no problems....unlike some of the overpriced, overrated, dull, hyped boutique speakers made that have failure rates approaching 30% right out of the box.

The Jensen P10R is probably the best speaker ever made for use in any Fender amp, Gibson amp, Victoria amp or any amp modeled on the western electric, Fender type of tube guitar amp. I wouldn't use them with a high-gain, English setup like Marshall....Celestions are voiced much better for that application. Did you happen to notice in the posts here, that the people who liked the Jensen P10R were ACTUALLY MUSICIANS, TEACHERS, AND PLAYERS? NOT MORONIC TEENER SLAYER FANS? That fact speaks volumes. It's a real shame that jerks with a hidden agenda have come here to slander an excellent product.
I highly recommend all the Jensens I've tried with the exception of the C10Q which sounded a little flat, harmonically, to my educated ears.

Mine came in a used Victoria Victorilux 3x10. I play roots, blues and classic rock. And the amp is just fantastic for that. But, I wish the speakers wernt so harsh and bright.

Just too harsh and unmusical. I cant believe they can sell this thing. I had a 12" version in another amp and it was equally poor. I give it a 3 because, believe it or not, I have heard a bit worse.

Who knows?

Who Knows?

i wouldnt buy this speaker ever. COme on Victoria there are far better speakers for less money and far better speakers for the same price.

It is what it is -- an Alnico speaker, 10" -- and thus has the supposed strengths (chimey; fairly soft breakup) and weaknesses (soft, weak bottom end) associated with this classic design. Allegedly, a "reissue" (faithful repro) of the old US-made Jensens (this one is Italian), but I'm in no position to make a detailed comparison.

Used in my modded Pro-Junior, a very nice version of a pretty mainstream amp (2xEL84s), the single Jensen sounded pretty nice and tight when new. These kinds of amps have a tendency to sound brittle and shrill, but the Jensen really helped round out the tone without dampening harmonics and transients. The bottom end was surprisingly robust, though a little sloppy. Made a huge tonal improvement over the POS ("piece of...") that came in the amp. I don't know what company made that speaker for Fender.

Crap-o-Rama. This is a little amp, and I use it only for practice and recording. Even though the P10R was rated for much higher wattage, it essentially crapped out under truly light loads. The problem seems to be in handling bass tones (on a regular, non-detuned Les Paul); the speaker sounded decent in this regard (see above under sound quality) but pretty much just blew despite receiving only light, low-volume, regular use. Unless mind was a defective unit, which I doubt very much, I would offer a very serious warning that these speakers are under-engineered and under-built in this regard. If you just play light, trebly stuff maybe yours will survive. I play in a wide range of styles, and favor a flat, full-range tone, and this speaker let me down big time. Maybe it does better in two or four-speaker configurations. In my case, it wasa POS waste of money -- a weak toy.

pointless

I'll never buy another new bogus reissue Jensen again. Total waste. Will replace with a real speaker, built to better specs from the ground up. A big mistake.

10" alnico speaker. These are brand new reissues. Don't know how to rate this.

As mentioned, these are brand new. A set of 4. I've only played them for about two hours all in all, but so far, they're all I wanted. I didn't see these reviews until after I had ordered them. I must say, that I'm very glad I didn't see these reviews before I ordered, because I might have passed upon them.
I like them. I was after a slightly compressed sound with early speaker distortion. That is what I got. I replaced the Emminence/fender speakers of my Fender Concert Reverb (4 10" super reverb-ish amp) and these weren't any brighter than the original ones. Just for comparison. But they feel lighter to play.
When I got them, I played the amp for about 15 minutes the way I usually play it, and then I replaced the speakers and left every setting the way it was and played it again. Acording to these reviews (the bad ones) I imagined, that I would have to turn down the treble on the amp, but no. It was fine. Sound was good and clear. Playing slow cords, I somehow ended up playing them a bit country-ish.
Driven single note bends defenetely have more ring to them. The bass is a bit flabby, but it was like that with the other speakers as well and I don't play that sort of guitar anymore.
There are probably speakers out there that are way better, but these are fine and for what I'm after, they fit the bill.

I havent been giggin' with them yet, nor have I rehearsed with my rock band with them, so I don't know yet. It is easier to damage alnico speakers than caramics, or so I've heard, so we will see. I will post again, when I have used them more extensively.

No experience.

I've been playing for about 15 years. I'm a teacher and a musician. This amp, is a Fender Concert Reverb Pro Tube Series. I've re-tubed it. I use a g&l legacy strat guitar with a Seymore Duncan lil'59 humbucker in the saddle position. I also use a Guild Starfire V from 1967, but I haven't tried it with these speakers.
I play rock/jazz.

It's a speaker. It does what it's supposed to.

These speakers make my '69 Super Reverb sound like it should. As mentioned, out of the box, without break-in, these can be a bit shrill and transparent. But let's face it...if any amp you play sounds THAT bad, you're obviously not "playing the amp" right!! Come on...Let them break-in. After a couple weeks, I had a classic fender sound with plenty of bluesy sustain upon break up. Loud and tight with plenty of jingle jangle. I play a Tele, a strat and a Danelectro U2...I have no complaints. I've never owned a better setup.

Never had a problem. 6 months.

Never had to deal with Jensen.

I've been playing for 15 years. I own a Fender Vibro Champ w/original 8" speaker, many guitars, a tube screamer, a Rat, etc. If some industrious thief managed to de-solder the speakers and remove 'em from my Super without elecrocuting himself, I suppose I'd try to find some used ones. These are superior to the Eminence Fender replacement speakers that were in my Super, obviously. If I ever got as bad a sound as the previous reviewer, I might call Jensen and send the speakers back, or I would alter my own set up to make these speakers sound good. That hasn't been necessary for me...My Super with P10-R's has served me well on countless gigs and recordings.

In a new Bassman LTD reissue. Looks like the old ones, but...

Garbage. Stay away from these if you're used to good tone. Buy an old Bassman before one of the new ones, that's my opinion. I sold the amp because of how bad the speakers sounded. I thought I hated 10's until I played some Webers. Shame on Fender and Victoria.

What a scam. They're made by a shit company in Italy and they slap the Jensen sticker on it for all of the dopes who buy into Fender "relic" jobs and old school gear. These are crappy speakers...try Weber or Celestion, at least. This may be a good choice for a cheap combo, but not for a serious amp.

Its a speaker. What is it to made to do but project sound? Well, it does that much.

Dreadful! DREADFUL! At low volumes, these speakers do a good enough job, clean and sparkly. BUT crank up the amp towards anything remotely powerful enough to fill a room or to play w/ drums (about 3.5 on my Bassman) and out comes the most tinny, overly emphasized highs you have EVER heard! It sounds like what it must feel like to be stung in the scrotum by a entire hive of bees, one by one. It stings, it hurts, it's shrill and unforgiving. Considering I use an Epiphone w/ P90s and a Jazzmaster (an already bright guitar), these speakers make even the best amp (its a friggin tweed BASSMAN!) sound hideous.

Haven't blown or anything. So reliability has not been a problem.

haven't dealt w/ them

Sound awful awful awful. Can everybody say, "FUCKING ICE PICK IN THE FRONT OF MY SKULL!"

I have a Mesa Blue Angel 4x10" wich I use for a rock based band.
Originally it is a blues amp and its just 1 channel. I don't like high-gain amps, and this amp get its overdrive from driving the output tubes, which I totally dig. The amp has a selector for 3 output options: 2x6V6 tubes for 18 watt, 4x EL83 tubes for 30 watt, and simullink, which combines both tube caracteristics (output amps) for a total of 40 watts.

It's stock (black&unlabeled) mesa(?) speakers sounded terrible (very very harsh ear destroying highs). A friend has the same amp (head version) but with a Mesa cabinet loaded with Jensen P10R's. When he heard my amp he said: "where are the lows + low/mids?? This totally doesn't sound like my amp". I have read some reviews here on H-C and noticed early Blue Angels had Jensen P10R's in them, so I decided to go that way.

With the P10R's in it, the ear destroying highs are gone and what I get is a balanced tone. Nice highs, good mids and I can get lows now. Note that this is a 10" speaker, so the lows are not as good projected as a 12" speaker. I am very satisfied with this speaker setup.

I would like to mention that these speakers where made in a time that amps where between 15 and 50 watts and that's where these speakers will excell. If you play an amp with higher output, then these speakers will not be good.

My rate is a good 7. I cannot go higher, because I did not test other speakers.

Don't know. Just got them.

Haven't tried them yet.

Because nothing is perfect.

10" alnico magnet, paper cone, untreated surround. Very well built.

Installed this speaker in my Fender Pro Junior...what a difference from the stock Eminence. The low end tones come across with a sharper attack, the highs are crisp and clear. Make no bones about it, this is a bright speaker, but that means the tone control on your amp or guitar will finally be useful. When I dial down the tone on my humbucker archtop (Epiphone Broadway) to 5, set the volume at 6, and the amp to 5, I get a great, fat, jazz tone that is articulate in the highs and muted in the bass. With my strat, the amp GROWLS unlike it's ever growled before. "Chimey" highs and biting midrange. I no longer use any effects b/w my guitar and my amp. Fits my playing perfectly (jazz + blues).

Can't complain. I put the speaker into the amp, it works and keeps on working.

Bought the speaker from Joe at vintagespeakers.com. Great customer service - he'll spend the time to find the speaker that best fits your needs.

I don't want to go back to the stock Eminence (105, I think...). The Jensen P10R gave my Pro Jr. the sound I was looking for. I'm very happy with it.

Ive owned the original jensens and these are about as close as you can get. Got a set of four for my Home Made Bassman cab.

These are well made speakers. Very tight and bright well made for the cab I built. I got an fender M-50 guitar head a while ago. It had a huge head cabinet for its size. I finally got around to making the 4x10 cabnet into an open back and mounted this head in it like an earley blonde Bassman.
I tried other speakers in it including Jenson Ceramics, Eminance, Etc but I was looking for a certain sound they couldnt give me without a lot of tweaking. Too much Mids. I put a set of these Alnicos in it and now it matches the fender head to a T. The range on the amp EQ knobs are right there now. I now get a great Vintage American Sound out of this amp I couldnt quite capture before. The speaks have good attack and are superbly clean at lower volumes. Kick it up a notch and Crank up gradually as you increase volume. These speakers have a SPL of 95 so they may not be good or as loud in all applications. they are 25w and in my amp which is 100w its just right. 1/2 of the volume knob is clean then it begins to break up from there up. My opinion is they best for the fender sound. Dont expect just any amp to be plugged in and sound good. IE I need a set of 10's for my Marshall and will probibly try the eminance Deltas or Red coats. I'm an electronic tech and know a littel about matching the resonate frequencies of the speakers to the frequency responce of the head to get the best dynamics out of it. I hit on this fender sound dead on with these Jensens. These speaks would probibly sound good with my Ampeg, Sunn, and Marshall heads also but I plan to match them with other speaks. I have 4x12 Marshall with 75w Celestrons and Peavey with 4x12 eminance for the big jobs. But for the Garage rehursals up to small clubs I wanted a Big sound at Lower DBs, Portability, and Light weight. Alnicos did the trick here. Hell I can use this baby anyplace now.

Jensens been around for nearly 60 years. Theyre expensive but there is a reason. If they blow I can recone them anyplace.

Bought these new from Orange speaker repair in Calif. They been in business awhile and could get them repaired easy enough but dont expect a problem in my lifetime.

They're what I wanted, But I knew what I wanted. Been playing 35 Yrs and wanted to get back to a sound I had a long time ago when I bought my first Bassman 50 back in 1967. (Still have the head) I play alot of 60s stuff in one of my 3 bands and this amp now nails the sound perfectly.

New Italian re-issue alnico 15 watt guitar speaker. 8 ohms. The most special feature is the magical lack of anything resembling how the REAL Jensen p10R sounded. Recoton (the Italian company that makes these under the name "Jensen") should be ashamed.

If you like NO LOW END, DEAD MIDS, and BRITTLE HIGHS, this is the speaker for you. On the other hand, if you want a real Jensen P10R reproduction speaker buy a Weber 10A100 or 10A125. This new Italian Jensen speaker is absolutely terrible. Why Mark at Victoria couldn't have sprung for Weber speakers in his otherwise wonderful Victoria amps, I'll never know. Oh well, they are cheap and say "Jensen" on them.

These have stayed togther, but a friend of mine bought a bad one right out of the box. This is a company that is obviously profiteering from the name "Jensen" by making an extremely cheap and bad speaker, then selling them at a relative "bargain" by using the name "Jensen." Shame!

This is an insult to the name "Jensen." If you think these sound good, you either (a) are completely tone deaf, (2) have never heard a REAL Jensen P10R, (3) have never heard a Weber 10A125, or (4) all of the above. These are honestly of Radio Shack quality.

It's a speaker... 8ohms, 25 watts.

I play a new Am Deluxe Fat Strat QMT, a '96 Lonestar Strat tuned open for slide, and a '72 Tele with a Curbow neck. Stock pick-ups. MXR 10 band EQ in the effects loop, Vox Wah - TS-9 - amp.

These speakers sound good. Not great, but certainly good. Compared to the stock "Special Design" Fender ceramic speakers I was replacing, they sound excellent in my Hot Rod DeVille. They are somewhat crisp sounding new, but they are very clear and defined. The bottom end isn't as huge as it was with the stockers, but it's more natural and articulate sounding. Still big. In general, the amp sounds 10 times better at low volumes now, but I will agree that you give up some of the high volume tightness the ceramics offered. What you get in place is a more touch sensitive, clearer, natural, more interesting tone that oozes vintage. I thought they sounded fine when the power amp was driven hard.

Haven't had 'em long enough...

Got mine from Speakerrepair.com's ebay store. Great price and quick shipping.

I've been playing almost 10 years professionally. The P10R isn't the greatest speaker in the world, and it doesn't sound exactly like the vintages, but for the price it's very hard to beat. I'd buy four more of the these in a heartbeat. They were definitely worth the $196.

10" alnico magnet speaker, vintage re-issue.

Use a '82 telecaster with stock bridge pick-up and blue lace senser in neck position. Perfectly suited to blues, R&B and classic rock that I play. Could also cop some pretty tasty country tones, if you were into that. I have a 6-watt, single-ended tube amp (similar to Champ circuit, but with 6SL7 or 6SN7 instead of 12AX7) built into an open-back, laminated pine combo with a 7/16" fir plywood baffle. The Jensen seems very well matched to this setup, with/without my TS-9 TubeScreamer out front (probably not a good speaker for high gain/high output amp applications, however). Very full and musical, with excellent single-note definition within chords. Nice, softly-clipped alnico voice adds vintage flavour and sparkle to both clean and dirty settings.

Pretty new, so no opinion to date. Looks well-built for years of service, however.

Haven't dealt directly with Jensen. Distributor Joe Scinta at www.vintagespeaker.com has the best prices on Net for Jensen speakers and is an ideal source of information for your application (he recommended this speaker for my setup). All Jensens come with a full one-year warranty. Rating is for sales service from Joe and his crew - great job, mate!

Would definitely buy this speaker again. Excellent value for the money. Would consider Celestions if playing more hard rock, metal or modern styles, but for that vintage tone, it's hard to beat the alnico Jensen re-issues.

10 inch alnico guitar speaker

Ok,I didn't purchase these speakers but almost did and I just want to pass on some imfo to those considering these speakers.These speakers are good if you want a really crisp clean tone but are AWFULL if you push you power tubes into clipping.The hifi-ish treble puts a razors edge on your tone that will make the best of the best amps sound bizarre.I own an older Tophat vibratrem and a custom built AC30 type amp that otherwise sounds great.For kicks I ran them through 4-p10r speakers(from a Fender Bassman) and out came a brittle buzzing tone from my otherwise warm sounding Celestion Blue/Greenback equipted amps.Even in Victoria's Bassman style amp they souded way too edgy when the power section was pushed.I think Fender got it right when they used Celestion Vintage 30's in their Bass Breaker instead of the p10r speakers.At lower volumes they sounded detailed and pretty good.All that changed as I pushed the amp power tubes into clipping.Out came an ugly fizzy tone.Perhaps they sound good if amp tone is clean and loud and sheer power is used to make the SPEAKERS clip.Maybe they sound good if you have a master volume amp where you can roll the high end off after preamp clipping occurs.However,my addvice is DON'T use these speakers(or any other crispy sounding speaker) if you rely on powertube distortion

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Again for those who like powertube distortion,a speaker with a darker/warmer high end is MUCH better suited for this application.Also beware of Weber speakers labelled "bright" or "full range".I had a Weber p10p and a p10s and they were much too crisp for power tube bite.I posted this as I've been burned from buying the wrong speakers for the wrong application.