Please help identify these FANE speakers.

[House of Aces]

Hi all,

I was gifted a random old 4x12 cab a while ago (weird old angled, grey textured tolex thing) battered to death, with the badge missing and no other sign of manufacturer. Only just got round to stripping it down and pulled out the 4 FANE speakers.

FANE 01.jpg (456.43 KiB) Viewed 2524 times

FANE 2.jpg (416.82 KiB) Viewed 2524 times

FANE 3.jpg (346.11 KiB) Viewed 2524 times

The markings are as follows:

Stamped on the arm
1221717 (the 12 at the beginning I think = 12", the rest I don't know)
89/928 (the 89 at the beginning I think = 1989, the rest I don't know - September? 28?)

Stamped on the cone
09 (or 60).

I have resisted any Hiwatt relationship, I gather they used FANE's pretty much exclusively although so did some others and I cannot be sure what cab the speakers originally came from. I pulled them from a cab that I have never seen the like of before and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Hiwatt.

Although at some point it had a big rectangle name badge in the middle of it (that has long since fallen off), it is angled and looks like a Silver Jubilee cab size and shape-wise (but isn't unfortunately) has the weirdest grey tolex I've ever seen, like tiny little abrasive pyramids (?) very basic - no mounting points for an amp, only handles and tiny casters. It doesn't have an original back, the solder for the speaker wiring had been done very badly and if it wasn't for the glue where a makers badge would have been on the front, I'd say it was an after- market cab (who makes grey cabs?!) and it is made from particle board...

I want to hook it all up to see how it sounds, but I am a complete novice and currently confusing myself by looking up wiring diagrams and it occurred to me that I don't even know what speakers I have and what they are capable of. Looking at the wiring diagrams I need to know if they are 4ohm or 8ohm and the wattage they will output...

Edit: After a little more research, I've seen that on some pictures of similar speakers there is a little more information on the magnet label and sometimes there is a little green sticker with an 8 on it declaring the Ohms. My speakers have the green sticker (with an 8 ) above the solder tags. I initially thought this was just + or - as the other tag has an orange sticker (blank) above it, but now I guess it also denotes the Ohms.

I haven't tested them in the cab yet - the speaker wiring in the cab had all been cut off and pulled out. I wanted to know the wattage of the cab, get some details of the speakers and test them individually before I bothered wiring it all back up and plugging anything into it.

I guess the speakers aren't really vintage or holy grail material, but I didn't want to chance blowing them.

Thanks in advance,

Ace.

[OldSchoolDave]

I guess the speakers aren't really vintage or holy grail material, but I didn't want to chance blowing them.

No, they're not holy grail material, but they could be pretty usable. I can't speak definitively about the model, but they remind me of Fanes used in Vox amps (Rose Morris era). I picked up one of those and ran it in a late 70's Deluxe Reverb with good results.

To be on the safe side, I'd not run more than 25 watts into each one. They are 8 ohm models. The most popular way to wire would be a series-parallel configuration to result in an 8 ohm load to your amp.

I've never seen a particle board baffle with clamps to secure the speakers from the back side. So, I can't be of any help identifying the cab.

Dave

[House of Aces]

Thanks for the reply OldSchoolDave,

I'd heard of the Vox connection with FANE as well as Hiwatt and Sound City, but also that the 80's wasn't a good one for Vox and I'm hoping it was a bit like Marshall and Fender where it was the electronics and build quality of a particular era and not the speakers that were sub-par (as those are outsourced materials).

Any ideas on the markings? Possibly the date code 89/928? Is there a standard on FANE speakers?

I'm guessing they have lost some sort of magnet cap which may have had the pertinent information on them, but intrigued at the cut off edges around the magnet, they also seem to have a very small FANE logo to accommodate the hole in the middle which seems to be a bit unusual from looking through hundreds of images on the web.

I found these though:

http://www.ukaudiomart.com/details/6491 ... kers-only/

Obviously there are differences, but the small logo with hole in the middle match.

Not surprised on the cab identification - I have never seen anything like it!

Ok, so wire them up series/parallel gives me 8ohm and 100 watts?

Many thanks in advance,

Ace.

[OldSchoolDave]

Any ideas on the markings? Possibly the date code 89/928? Is there a standard on FANE speakers?

A standard? No. Many standards? Unfortunately, yes. It is unusual to see the month before the day on a Fane (being British and all). That said, I would guess that September 28, 1989 is correct.

I'm guessing they have lost some sort of magnet cap which may have had the pertinent information on them, but intrigued at the cut off edges around the magnet, they also seem to have a very small FANE logo to accommodate the hole in the middle which seems to be a bit unusual from looking through hundreds of images on the web.

If a label was applied to the magnet, as with yours, I don't think they had plastic covers. Unless you can find glue residue to indicate otherwise. The clipped plate sides is a Fane thing, though not all had them.

Also, bear in mind that Fane produced a wide array of speakers, from car radio ovals to home hifi to guitar & PA models. And, the company itself suffered several iterations. Making comparisons between models is not all that easy.

Ok, so wire them up series/parallel gives me 8ohm and 100 watts?

Yes sir!