SCXD questions

[drunkinminer]

I have a couple of questions that I've looked all over for the answer to but can't find anything. So I thought I'd ask here since I'm sure someone here could help.

1) About the speaker change how easy is it to do. Can someone who hasn't done anything like that before do it is there any precautions I should take. any advice would be great

2) I want to put amp corners on my SCXD but was wondering about the two for the top. Because that's where the electronics are will I be safe if I used 1/2 inch screws. I've noticed on other amps there are corners on the top so I'm thinking I should be ok but maybe someone here that's more knowledgeable then myself could assist me.

Any help would be greatful
Thanks

[markb]

NB: These are general instructions and not SCXD specific. I've never worked on an SCXD. In fact I've never even played through one :what

The speaker will just be bolted into the cabinet usually on captive threaded rods. Undo the nuts to remove. If you're lucky, the wires will just be connected with spade terminators. If you're extra lucky, the new speaker will use the same size of spade terminal and have its mounting holes in the same pattern as the old one. This is worth checking before you start.

I've never seen corners screws poking through the cabinet on a Fender amp. Measure the depth of the cabinet and use shorter screws. It doesn't take much to hold a corner in place. If you're lucky (again) there will be battens reinforcing the corners just where your screws need to go.

As for safety, just don't poke around inside the chassis and you'll be OK.

[Duffy]

The Eminence Ragin' Cajun is the recommended speaker to put in the SCXD according to Bill M. on the Fender Forum, who is a guru of sorts and very knowledgeable through experimentation with the SCXD as to know a lot about what he is talking about.

I immediately, upon his reviews and advice, got a Ragin' Cajun from MF for sixty four dollars and removed the cheap skimpy Fender stock speaker and replaced it with the RC which weighs about five times or more than the stock speaker. The RC has a huge magnet on the back and is heavy.

To do the job is not difficult using the RC, the holes match up perfectly and the mounting board on the front has a rubber ring going around as a gasket with holes where the bolts go and the board has metal threaded built in nuts for the bolts.

You NEED to use the stock mounting screws instead of getting longer ones that will go too far thru and ruin the grill cloth, wrapping around it and tearing it up.

The trick is to push down VERY hard with a screwdriver on the phillips head bolts until you get one to engage the threads. Don't cross thread them. This requires pushing down with great force, relatively, in order to compress the rubber baffle and not go too far thru the mounting board. Once you see how hard you need to push on the first one it is easy to replicate the other four or so bolts. Tighten them up good and snug.

The metal speaker basket is constructed so that if you are pushing down on the bolts trying to get them to engage the threads, with significantly great force, and the screwdriver slips forceably off of the screw head, it will not be able to penetrate the speaker cone and ruin it because there is substantial metal arond the bolt area so that the screw driver would just hit solid steel, causing no damage to the speaker. So the risk of really messing up the cone on the RC is non-existent.

The RC, Ragin' Cajun, is a very sensitive speaker: like 100dB pr 102dB and the stock fender is about 95dB. This means that the RC sounds to the perceptibility of the ear to be approximately twice as loud as the stock Fender speaker. But you don't just get a LOT more loudness out of the amp , but the Ragin' Cajun has some seriously beautiful tone compared to the stock speaker and compliments the natural and original sounds of the amps being modeled. Therefore the Fender amps being modeled sound like the intended amps and are not overly colored by the speaker change. The Bassman model sounds really full and beautiful and all the other Fender amp simulations sound equally original. Plus you get great super overdriven Marshall and Vox and Mesa tones out of the other side of the amp model dial.

It made my amp sound incredible and gigable with a reasonably loud drummer frantically waving me down because I was way to loud jamming. I love that. I hate having a drummer tell me to, "Get a real amp!" because your amp isn't loud enough. I love to see them frantidally waving down my SCXD, that is really fun. This is because the RC is a very sensitive speaker and LOUD.

That is the only mod I did to my SCXD and it is an awesome amp.

Just be forceful with the screwdriver and compress the S(&) out of the rubber gasket around the speaker perimeter and bolt holes. It takes quite a bit of force to get the bolts to thread in and you might want to give up, but don't and just bear down harder and with more precision, keeping the screwdriver straight up and down to the screw head. Rather easy to do actually, after you get your first one successfully in.

I highly recommend the inexpensive Eminence Ragin' Cajun as recommended by the experts; at least experts as far as I'm concerned, relatively speaking. You will be very pleased, I'm highly confident of that.

The stock speaker looks like a toy compared to the RC, and sounds like one too, even though it is a decent sounding stock speaker. This is evidence of how great the RC sounds. This simple mod turns the SCXD into a SERIOUS amp, well respected by the am aficianados over at the Fender Forum. And they are not an easy bunch to please.

Good luck with it. Do it with a great speaker and be persistent in forcing the bolts to match up with the threads. At first you will think the bolts are too short, but the aren't. It just requires the mentioned SUBSTANTIAL force to get them, especially the first one to engage the threads.

I will put some JJ tubes in mine when the retube time comes and I suppose that will also greatly improve the tone; but right now it is a rippingly great sounding amp and LOUD with a very musical tone.

Hope these ideas help you out at least some. Be persistent and don't be afraid to press down real hard on the speaker mounting bolts, you need to in order to compress the rubber gasket.

I will soon solder in a female quarter inch jack into the speaker wire so that I can use just my SCXD speaker as an extension speaker for one of my other amps. That RC is incredible and impressive.

Remember which terminal on the Fender stock speaker that the individual wires connect to so that you get it the same on the replacement speaker to maintain correct polarity or the speaker will sound weak, pushing instead of pulling and visa versa.

As far as the amp corners, the front top corners are angled and will require a special shaped metal corner. They are not box corners.

I wondered and pondered the same idea as you and decided, at least for now to leave them unprotected; but the way the tolex is folded and glued into place at those front corners doesn't seem to look like it will stand up to the test of time with any great fortitude. I baby my amps so I'm not too woried. Let me know if you find some offset corners that will fit on those non box end front corners. I'll beef mine up too.

Great choice of an amp though, congratulations!

Let us know how it goes,

Duffy

[drunkinminer]

Thanks for the info. :master

I used a screw that was a little shorter then the one mentioned above. The only two problems I had (and they were minor) was one of the corners that are on the bottom in the back had the lip that was for the front but pliers fixed that and the other the holes in the corners didn't match the screw holes but that wasn't a problem either. The funny thing also is the store only had loose ones and all they had was 4 chrome and 2 black but that'll just add character.

Duffy I also baby my amps but wanted to put the on there because accidents do happen. I will too be going with the RC and leaving the stock tubes but will be using JJs when the stock tubes go. One other thing I did that improved the sound of the amp was put Tele knobs on it. :rollover I put them on because I think they look better that's all.

After I'm done the speaker mod with this amp I hope to buy another one and turn it into a head then turn the stock cab into a slant cab then get a straight cab from Lopoline to make a mini stack. I think after that my GAS maybe cured.

But then again I'm sure we all have said that before. :AOK