I’ve been a fan of the Jensen speakers for a long time. The first custom speaker cabinet I had made used a Jensen P12N Alnico. I still use it when I record clean tones. But then I discovered the Jet series and fell in love! All my rock rigs have either a Falcon for 12″ and for my 10″ rigs, I use the Electric Lightning. Some gear purists may turn their nose up to these ceramic magnet speakers, but I absolutely love them. After all, it’s not about the materials, but about the tone, and the Jet series speakers – at least the ones I have – have never disappointed!
The other day, I got a press release from AmplifiedParts, announcing that they’re now carrying the Jensen Jet Nighthawk. Being such a fan-boy of the Jet series, I immediately contacted them to get a demo unit to do a test on the speaker. Can’t wait until it gets here. But until I get it and install it, here are sound clips from the Jensen site:
Blues
Country
Jazz
Metal
Classic Rock
If you take the time to go to the Nighthawk site, pay particular attention to the frequency response chart. This speaker has a “scooped” response, with fairly aggressive upper-mids, and a rounded bottom-end. From that, I expect it to be a fairly warm-sounding speaker, but with plenty of punch in the upper-mids to cut through a mix. While Jensen did the metal and rock tests with a Schecter and a Strat respectively, I looked at the chart and immediately said: Les Paul. Okay, okay… I admit it, it’s one of the first things usually comes to my mind. 🙂
But on the serious side, I can’t wait to try this speaker out with my R8 that’s equipped with Deacci Green Faze pickups, modeled after Peter Green’s (of the original Fleetwood Mac lineup) Les Paul, whose pickups are wired out-of-phase. The middle switch position KICKS ASS! Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound as good as I know it can with the Jet Falcon – it’s a little muffled for my tastes – but it worked incredibly well with the Electric Lightning. Unfortunately, that only means that I can only use it in the studio or in a small venue. I’m hoping that the Nighthawk will provide the upper-mid punch that I need.
Really looking forward to testing it!
Guitar Gear 
GoofyDawg, it will be interesting to hear what you think of this speaker after you get your review sample. The company’s recordings seem to have a weird EQ to my ears (I’m used to listening to Celestions and variants mainly). I’m wondering if it’s the recordings, or the speaker actually sounds like that. I’ll look forward to your full report.
Kris, I know what you mean; especially with the Jazz recording. Seemed a bit muffled to me, but that might be a function of the Bassman 70 they used, and the Les Paul in the neck position. The Bassman tends to be a very warm-sounding amp to start out with, so playing in the neck position with the tone knob not fully open could’ve affected the tone. As for the classic rock tone, I actually dug that tone, though I would’ve preferred they use the ’57 LP on that instead of a Strat. Oh well…
[…] I wrote my original announcement of the speaker, I included the sound clips that Jensen provides. I’ll just say it: While the playing was […]