What speaker to use with my tube clone

[elementx]

So I'm making a Fender Princeton tube clone with 6v6, 5y3 and 12ax7... Just wondering what kind of speaker cab I should go with. Vintage? New? Any brands? I was looking into celestion/jaguar speakers, as I've had speaker cabs with those brands. What size as well? I'm thinking a 10-inch maybe?

[jsn]

I am a big fan of 12" speakers because they tend to have more of the low end that you just don't get with most 8" and 10" speakers. It is a shame to waste great amps like this on bad speakers.

Here is a Champ clone I built with a 12" Celestion Greenback:

http://boozhoundlabs.com/champ2/

If I were shopping for a speaker now-a-days I would probably get an Eminence Red Fang. They are alnico magnet and sound a lot like the very expensive Celestion Blue but are far cheaper.

jsn

[Trout]

Having built several Fender clones lately, I have to agree. Nothing less than a 12" Celestion.

An early princeton is basically the same as the champ in many ways. I can honestly say that you can even run a 4X12 Hartke Stuffed with celestions sounds amazing on a champ.

Champ Clone Clip

I built this Champ clone about a month ago. The Clip was with a Hartke 4 X 12" Cab, Mic was about an inch from the center of 1 speaker of course. On the Single 12 cab it also sounds great but my single 12" cab is suffering from the old I over Did it one day syndrome, And has developed a bit of rattle.

I would be afraid that 10" might start to sound a bit thin. Unless your a brightness nut and like the fender country kinda twang.
Gene

[aletheian]

Those Eminence 'Red Fang' speakers rule! All the Fender and Vox guys I know are switching to them.

[Trout]

Originally posted by aletheian
Those Eminence 'Red Fang' speakers rule! All the Fender and Vox guys I know are switching to them.

I Have been considering the Red Fangs but I dont know anyone personally that uses them.

What would you say they resemble in tone? I looked at a catalog of Eminence speakers but their description tended to make me think that a new color powder coat and label add $15.00 haha.

I agree they are fairly priced and look great, but I wonder if its truely a different speaker or just a cute new name for one of their others which indeed sound descent.

Lord knows I need a few new 12's here.
Gene

[aletheian]

They are punchy and a bit bright, but not in the Celestion Vintage 30 'icepick in the ear' kindda way... more rounded in the top end. The mids are aggressive in the upper mids without being honky, and a little scooped in the middle. They sound a bit compressed, and prety good clean or dirty. They have 90% of the "blue" tone at 50% of the price... althought they are still a bit on the expensive side (the most expensive guitar speaker Eminence makes actually). They sound great in an AC30. Oh yaeh, and they are LOUD. I wouldn't put them in a closed back 4x12, but in an open backed 2x12... they are pretty darned good.

If that is not what you are going for, The absolute opposite side of the spectrum is the Swamp thing. I own a few of those... very thick and sludgy with slamming low end and subdued highs, super high power handling and no breakup at higher spl's. The cabinet behind me in my Avatar picture is loaded with them.

If you are going with a 4x12 and want to save a bit of money, the Jensen MOD 12/50 is a surprising bang for the buck. At $35 each, I really expected them to suck, but they are not bad at all in the right cabinet.

And if you LIKE the Celestion Vin30 crunch, the Eminence Governor does it better... and cheaper. Side by side with real Vin30's they blew them away.

Eminence speakers take FOREVER to break in thouhg... a month or two of regular playing, but they really blosoom after that.

[elementx]

is the Celestion Silver series anygood? It's less than half the price of a greenback, and I could always upgrade later... I've already sank so much money into this amp...

[amperex]

I used to salvage older Rola/Celestion, Jensen & other speakers from organs & audition in guitar amps. I have sold at least 100 speakers. Here are my findings.

The vintage Jensen P12N are excellent, but expensive.

The late '50s to early '60s Jensen P15N are incredible and not only louder than a P12N with the same wattage, it has the high-end of a P12N. When one performs a solo, the higher frequencies step up and just scream. At 108 dB efficient in the upper frequencies, it will make a 15-watt amp sound loud like 30-watts vs using a 95dB efficient 12" speaker. These are expensive vintage speakers.

The Black frame Rola 12" speakers are very good & costs little on ePay. An early vintage Supro 1624 with the Rola sounds great. Drop-in the Jensen P12R as in the later Supro 1624 & the amp goes limp. That Jensen P12R is lousy sounding in the later Supro 1624. Infact I do not like any Jensen 12R or 15R- no balls.

Believe it or not, the new Jensen 12" MOD series are good sounding speakers. Few seem to know this & are actually put off by the very low price.

For example, take a dirt cheap Crate solid-state GX-60. Very crappy sounding amp in our estimation. Change that Crate label 12" speaker to a Jensen MOD12-50 and it is a different amp. Even the lousy distortion channels is usable with the new speaker.

BTW- Stay far away from any vintage CTS speakers. The voice coil gap is about 1/8". That will kill a speaker sonics.

[edl]

Hi,

I'm using Rocket-50 or Seventy-80 because of their low prices and availability. They are 12" drivers, especially for guitar amplification. Here they costs about 50USD. They sounding perfect, real Celstion sound... 95/98dB sensitivity, 50/80W.

Regards,

[elementx]

Found the Jensen MOD12-50 for 50usd
http://www.usspeaker.com/jensen%20mod12-50-1.htm

So, if you had $50.00 to spend, what speaker would you get?