|
|
|
|
|
|
This one's not for sale, sorry! After playing through a couple of Leslie 16 speakers over past years, I finally found a vintage Fender Vibratone version. The Fender Vibratone is essentially a Leslie 16 in a slightly different cabinet (slightly larger, and with servicing access through the front panel), and in fact the baffle board carries the Leslie 16 factory paper label (see the 'more pictures' link below). I elected to keep this one, rather than one of the 16s, as it has been modified by a previous owner to have a higher-powered 12" speaker installed. Leslie 16s and Fender Vibratones all had a Utah 10" speaker with limited power handling capability, whereas the Leslie 18 (and indeed Stevie Ray Vaughan's own Vibratone) had a 100 watt 12" JBL speaker. This enables the unit to be used with higher-powered Fender amps, and I am keeping this one to use with my much-loved Fender Vibrosonic, which I can assure you is a match made in heaven! For many years I wasn't sure what brand of (obviously) high-quality speaker had been installed in this cabinet, but it was a really nice match for the 15" JBL in the Vibrosonic, both in tone and in efficiency. In late June 2017, I received an email from Patrick, who suggested the speaker looks like a cast-frame Fane (from England), the same as fitted to '70s Hiwatts. Subsequent research shows he is absolutely correct - thanks Patrick! The cabinet was originally a US-spec 117 volt (the electric motor driving the drum is mains-powered), but has been converted to 240 volt operation. I'm not sure of the date of manufacture of this cabinet, as it has been professionally re-tolexed and a new Fender grille installed, so I can't determine if the cast Fender badge is original (which would make it a '67/'68), or whether it would have originally had the 'solid-state' styling to the grille, which would make it a '68-'72). Click here to see a very informative link on these grouse speakers. not for sale
|
