Mystery speakers - Fender/Celestion/Motorola

DanielGibbons

Hi guys!

I picked up a pair of secondhand passive speakers for (what I thought) was a fairly reasonable price.

I opened them up this evening, as I want to solder in speakon jacks.

They have a Fender Electronics badge on the front, inside is a Celestion K12T- 100 speaker, and the tweeters have a Motorola badge on it??


Can anyone tell me anything about these speakers?? (Age, value, quality etc.)

TroutMask

I'm guessing early-mid 90's? The Celestion K12T-100 is their OEM version of the same speaker - so they were supplying to Fender. It is a cheap, stamped-basket LF driver with a ceramic magnet. The Motorola is, I'm guessing, a Piezo driver coupled to a plastic horn flare, with a cap in series to act as a 'crossover'. Value, hmm - well, they do say 'Fender' on the front......... Quality - better than a PA speaker from Maplin. It's essentially a grot box with cheap, albeit name-brand, components. You might get pleasing results from it if the box design is good: one of those serendipitous 'sum is better than the individual parts' scenarios. I had a cheap Community speaker once that was essentially a POS but sounded very good.

DanielGibbons

TroutMask wrote: »

I'm guessing early-mid 90's? The Celestion K12T-100 is their OEM version of the same speaker - so they were supplying to Fender. It is a cheap, stamped-basket LF driver with a ceramic magnet. The Motorola is, I'm guessing, a Piezo driver coupled to a plastic horn flare, with a cap in series to act as a 'crossover'. Value, hmm - well, they do say 'Fender' on the front......... Quality - better than a PA speaker from Maplin. It's essentially a grot box with cheap, albeit name-brand, components. You might get pleasing results from it if the box design is good: one of those serendipitous 'sum is better than the individual parts' scenarios. I had a cheap Community speaker once that was essentially a POS but sounded very good.

Haha yeah fair enough! I'll post a few pictures so you can have a gawk, I only plan on using them as bass monitors anyway!

DanielGibbons

Some photos of the tweeters:

DanielGibbons

Other parts, including the actual speakers, cabs, fender logo, and resistors, which are soldered onto the + of the tweeter?