Celestion replacement speakers

Hi,

Here is my experience in speaker replacement.
To choose your speaker, you will need to define your sound correctly. Vintage, clear, muddy, bluesy, hard, deep...each speaker has a sound.
Then you will have to define your needs, impedance, closed or open back, wired in serie or parallel, power rating...

The Celestion speakers are common in british type amps such as Blackstar.
The G12M Classic "The greenback" is the most iconic of the range. This speaker needs to be in a closed back cabinet in order to have sufficient basses. It's the sound of big '70 stacks, with a lot of mids raging when using crunch sounds.
The V30 is the most common used speaker because of its versatility, blues, metal, jazz, depending of the amp, he can barely do anything. It's sharp and well-balanced. In a closed back, it will be more "powerfull", good for hard rock ; in a open back, it will fit almost any sound.
The G12H is the most beautifull speaker to me. It's the Hendrix sound even if he never really used those speakers. It will enhance a lot the sound of your amp and guitar, but will also show all you mistakes...this speaker is very sensitive to valve replacement or pickup upgrade.

All those classic series speaker will need a good running period. You can play a lot at home, put a mp3 player in it during the day, play it on stage...during this period, the sound of the speaker will change a lot, it will be more smooth and warm.

If you don't want to do this, buy the Heritage series speaker which will sound as if they were 40 years old speakers, but new...i can assure you it makes a huge huge difference...

To finish, you can check and custom order almost all real good speaker copies on this well known site : https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/
those speakers are made with really more care that "big brands" and based on real vintage speakers that really sound !!!!

You can also check this very good review on the Tube :


Make the good choice !

What is your opinion of the Celestion Gold and how do you think it would sound in a small combo like the Artisan 15?

Plustone wrote:What is your opinion of the Celestion Gold and how do you think it would sound in a small combo like the Artisan 15?

I had the Blue in a cabinet plugged into a Lionheart (Laney) head. It's quite the same type of sound. And it's the best speaker i've ever had for a bluesy warm sound. If you don't use your A15 at its max, you can use the blue with its 15W rms. Generally, you are using a class A 15w amp at 3-7 effective watts even on stage (i'm playing in a g12m 25w with a 50w Engl head...). It's a very mid based speaker, with a good clarity on highs when used with a very good amp (so you have no problem with that).

The gold will be the same, but with the spirit of the Heritage series. That means the speaker sounds like if it was 50 years old...you will have the same sound "vintageness" (???) with a blue after a good beaking-in (ask if want some advices).
The 50W will be more difficult to crank, so it depends if you want to keep your sound clear as long as possible (gold) or if you want to have a nice warm crunch on low volumes (blue).

MusashiChan wrote:The 50W will be more difficult to crank, so it depends if you want to keep your sound clear as long as possible (gold) or if you want to have a nice warm crunch on low volumes (blue).

Some extra clean headroom wouldn't go amiss and, from what you say, the Gold would provide this. Is that what you are saying?

MusashiChan wrote:... after a good beaking-in (ask if want some advices).

Yes, please - what do you suggest?

Plustone wrote:

MusashiChan wrote:The 50W will be more difficult to crank, so it depends if you want to keep your sound clear as long as possible (gold) or if you want to have a nice warm crunch on low volumes (blue).

Some extra clean headroom wouldn't go amiss and, from what you say, the Gold would provide this. Is that what you are saying?

Yes, the gold will stay clean a little more, you will need to use the gain to crunch. A 15 or 25W speaker can crunch "naturally" using the volume of the amp.
If you want a cheaper one, don't forget the AlNiCo Silver Bell on the Weber site : https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/
It's cheaper and in my opinion much better than the Celestion Gold...

Plustone wrote:

MusashiChan wrote:... after a good beaking-in (ask if want some advices).

Yes, please - what do you suggest?

I'm using a mp3 player plugged into the cab (the volume will be very reasonable, but to do this a long time i'm putting the cab in my car during the night...). I'm choosing a music i love to play but i think that makes no difference...the point is to put the speaker in action as long as possible to smooth it. I'm doing this in addition to home playing for about 25 hours. It seems long but if your put your cab in your car for 2 nights it's done...
After that i'm playing in band at stage volume for about 4 hours sessions. This allow that speaker to finish its softening...
A speaker can be played new without this, you can take your time, but a broke-in speaker is a lot more efficient that a new one. If you did not play a lot on your g12m, try it and it will change your sound !

But again one the gold, it's allready done, it's made to be play just like this !

Finally, someone has post a youtube video to do a frequency break-in, but i don't think it add something :

hello..Thanks a lot for this video
I want to know what's the second microphone used in this video? The first is the shure SM 57 but the second? An Idea?
Thanks

aurelien1686 wrote:hello..Thanks a lot for this video
I want to know what's the second microphone used in this video? The first is the shure SM 57 but the second? An Idea?
Thanks

I have ask to specialists... , we'll see...

MusashiChan wrote:

aurelien1686 wrote:hello..Thanks a lot for this video
I want to know what's the second microphone used in this video? The first is the shure SM 57 but the second? An Idea?
Thanks

I have ask to specialists... , we'll see...

Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mmmm... don't have a lot of speaker experience, but I'm leaning towards a Vintage30 as a prospective replacement in my HTV112s when the time comes, maybe with my tax return in a month or two.

I like their sound in that 15 speaker test video. Bright and crisp... the stock 70/80's sound a lot more middy and almost muffled to my ear in comparison in that video.

Oh as you have two cabs, you should mix two different ones. You are making very good home recordings and it will help a lot having a nice sound to have two different sounds in the same take ( eg right and left).
I have a g12h and an eminence in my fender combo and the sound is just perfect when you find the good matching !
It's wide, rich...and when recording it helps a lot to have a rythm left track more mid range down for example where you can put a solo !

Yeah the thought crossed my mind to go with 2 different speakers, but I brought the 2 cabs so I can leave them at separate locations and just transport the head around (instead of a big heavy combo all the time!). So for that reason I would be better just to have the same speaker in both so there's consistency in sound from practicing at home and at location with the other cab.

The two cabs will be paired for bigger gigs but that only happens every couple months at this stage.

But yes, I understand what you're saying for recording purposes - great idea. If I had a bigger music room I'd buy another cab and put a different speaker in it for that reason... but just don't have the room!

Just buy a cheap cab and change the speaker. I bought a cheap vox cab and i changed the speaker in it. So i have an extra cab which i can plug into my combos to have an extra sound. Very useful to try différent speakers and sounds.
The only issue is that my wife is thinking i'm nuts changing the speaker in it every two days to try something...

Since i've opened my Univox head, i'm soon going to open the back of the speaker cab as well to investigate which Celestions it's loaded with......it's a '71 cab, and the friend that gave me the rig said it was loaded with Celestion 8x10"s but he didn't say which ones.......
If at least 4 of them are still good, i'll probably use them for a 1/2 stack cab in the not too distant future.

If the stickers on the speakers are still there, you will have no issue to date and know the brand and model of the speakers.