Greetings fellow Kustom-lovers. I have a '66 K-200 that I've had for years, and love it. I use it for bass, and it has the original 8 ohm 15" speakers in it, which I'm looking to change out. I just ordered some Jensen MOD 15" (8 ohm). When I take the back panel off, I notice that there are what look to be fuses on the speakers themselves connecting them to the wires. Can anyone tell me if they are in fact fuses or are they some capacitor situation? Do I need to use them for my new speakers, or can I just attach the wires directly to the speakers? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
Hello. First off, if you are only using one cabinet, dual 8 ohm speakers (wired in parallel for a 4 ohm load) will be perfectly fine. Can can't use anohter cabinet with this setup though since K200s go down to 4 ohms minimum. Secondly, if the cabinet is the same year as the head, the speakers probably are 16 ohms each to make for an 8 ohm cab. Perhaps your speakers were replaced at some point or yours is a rare exception (pics of the speakers would help confirm this). Thirdly, no capacitor or anything is needed inline with the speakers; i think you may have been describing the metal crimp on clips used to attach the wires to the speaker terminals. I would reccomend attaching your wires to your new speakers in this manner unless the MODs have a different kind of terminal (like a spring loaded one for example). Anyway, good luck with your project and save your old speakers too! Have fun Kustomizing!
Thanks a lot! Yes, I'm only using one cab, and to the best of my knowledge, both the cab and the head are of the same year. I've never really cracked open my cabinet. I got a 'new' bass that's much louder and has a lot more low-end, and I'd been wanting to put new speakers into the for a while - so this was the perfect time.
Are the original speakers wired in parallel or series? Any opinions on whether or not I should upgrade the wire as well, or just use the same wire that's already there? Thanks for all of your help.
stevem Messages: 4730 Registered: June 2004 Location: NY
Senior Member
Yes, the fuses your are talking about are probily just the factory female spade connector crimped to the wire, and these will hook to the new jensen speakers in the same manor. unfortunatly I do not think your choise of new speakers is a good one, If your original speakers where the CTS brand, which can be confirmed by the number stamping of 137 in white on the speaker frame or magnet, these are better speakers then the replacment jensen mods you speak of, the only speaker jensen makes now that is equal to or better would be the C12K model with a magnet size comparable to the CTS, if that is what is in your cabinet, you could have jensens in their now. Kustoms speaker jack plate on the back of the cabinet should tell you what the cabinet was originaly loaded with.Your two new speakers should be wired in parralle for a 4 ohm load