James Pennebaker is a cherished friend and ToneQuest editorial board member with over forty years of touring and studio session experience, and a Grammy. James has performed with John Fogerty, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Levon Helm, and many others.
It is great to be back in the pages of The Tonequest Report to tell you about my tour adventures with the Jupiter 12LC, a 12-inch, 50-watt, Ceramic magnet guitar speaker from Jupiter Condenser. If you read last April's ToneQuest Report (April 2023, Vol.24 No. 6), then you saw Riverhorse's review of the Jupiter 12LA, their 50-watt AlNiCo 12-inch speaker. I read that review and was so impressed by the back story conversation with Chris Young and Jupiter Condenser it sent me down the capacitor rabbit hole since Jupiter Condenser's main line of business has been manufacturing high end cable and capacitors for the Hi-Fi market, as well as vintage inspired capacitors for use in guitar amps. Based on that interview, I ordered a Jupiter 12LA from Jupiter's website. Jupiter speakers are assembled by WGS in Paducah, KY, so it was here at my place in Tennessee in just a few days. WGS manufactures Jupiter Speakers to Christopher Young's own specifications with materials and parts he's personally sourced, some that've been forgotten with the passing of time.
I put the Jupiter 12LA in my reissue '57 Tweed Deluxe, one of Fender's hand-wired versions I've had for about fourteen years. I loved the 12LA so much that after playing it for a week or so I ordered a 12LA-P from Jupiter. It's their 25-watt AlNiCo speaker with a paper voice coil. The 12LA-P went into my '73 Princeton Reverb. What a wonderful speaker, too! Being a '56 model myself, I grew up playing speakers with paper voice coils. They don't just sound better to me, they "feel" better too. Although these speakers are NOT inexpensive, and I've just purchased two of them! Money well spent though, as I love these speakers. After two or three months I touch base with Riverhorse and mentioned I'd gotten these speakers and was about to embark on a twenty-eight date tour with AJ Croce. "Hey would you be interested in taking a Ceramic Jupiter on the tour and writing about it if I can get one sent down?" Does the Pope wear a funny hat? The Jupiter 12LC was here in three days.
Off we go on a six-week bus tour. Three weeks out, back home for a week at Thanksgiving, then back out for three more weeks through mid-December playing 1800–3000 seat theaters and performing arts centers. On the first leg I took my Tweed Deluxe with the Jupiter 12LA, a '53 Valco-made Oahu Tonemaster 230 which I loaded with the Jupiter 12LA-P, and the newly received Jupiter 12LC went in my Deluxe Reverb which I used during a week of rehearsals in early October.
The Jupiter 12LC was instantly responsive, open and very efficient. The amp sounded 2 or 3dB louder! Clean tones are clear, detailed and glassy. You dig in hard, and the speaker just barks and gives it right back to you. I guess I should mention what guitars I'm plugging in. My Nachocaster Blackguard Tele with Nacho's stock pickups. Also, a relic Fender Telecaster that Vince Cunetto gifted me over twenty-five years ago and a custom shop Gibson '59 ES-330 with stock P90s. For humbuckers, it's my '06 Historic R7 with Seymour Antiquities. This speaker brings back the sound and feel that I remember from playing vintage black panel Fender amps back when they weren't vintage! Yes, I'm that old.
The Jupiter 12LC takes pedals incredibly well, too, as you might imagine. I ran the above-mentioned guitars through my Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive and King Tone HeavyHand. Very touch sensitive and creamy overdrive tones. Not the usual edginess that I'd expect from a Ceramic speaker as opposed to AlNiCo. I honestly didn't notice any difference from right out of the box through break in after a week of six-hour rehearsals. When we got out on the road, I rotated rigs. I'd use the Tweed Deluxe, the Tweed Deluxe along with the Oahu, or the Deluxe Reverb by itself depending on the venue acoustics. The lower wattage cathode biased amps were better suited most of the time, so the Deluxe Reverb didn't see a lot of use. When it was time for the mid-tour break, I came home for Thanksgiving bringing the Deluxe Reverb with me.
The Jupiter 12LC came out of the Deluxe Reverb and went into my Bell & Howell Filmosound 12-inch speaker cabinet and back out on the road for the second leg. That Filmosound cabinet with the Jupiter 12LC plugged into the extension speaker jack of the Tweed Deluxe was the ticket.
The warm breakup of the AlNiCo along with the Ceramic's clean edge was a win-win. Jupiter Speakers all the way around. AlNiCo and Ceramic together. I want for nothing. But then there's that Jupiter 12LC-P. Ceramic with a paper voice coil. Yeah, I want one of those too. I'll be back on the road with AJ Croce again in 2024. Look for us as we're going to be everywhere. Tour dates at ajcrocemusic.com. Quest forth… TQ—James Pennebaker
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