Guitar Speakers - Around and Around We Go
Like many other guitarists in the world I am always in search of "the tone." You know, that perfect sound - that amazing sound - that pure ecstasy sound - ear orgasm sound!
Part of that quest has been to try a lot of amps over the years, a lot of guitars and a lot of different speaker combinations.
Since this little post is about speakers I will save you the sad stories about the amps and guitars I have had and traded or sold over the years.
I did an online search and read about a bunch of resister and capacitor changes that you could do to the little Blues Junior. So, I bought a bunch of electronic components and dusted off my soldering gun. The changes helped a lot, but did not quite nail the sound.
Next, I put in a Mercury output transformer. The sound was drawing nearer, but was still hiding.
1st Speaker: Celestion Greenback - Damn, that was the wrong speaker for this amp. It farted all over the sound - not a good combo.
2nd Speaker: Celestion Century - Good speaker - really good - but not exactly what I had in mind (it ended up in a Fender Red Knob for a harmonica amp)
3rd Speaker: Carvin GT12: Whew! Surprise! excellent - but still not quite there.
4th Speaker: Celestion Vintage 30 - Ouch! My ears are bleeding from the high end - great speaker for a dark amp - but not so good for a modified Blues Junior. My Blues Junior is much darker than the stock amp, but yeow - not good with the Vintage 30.
Part of that quest has been to try a lot of amps over the years, a lot of guitars and a lot of different speaker combinations.
Since this little post is about speakers I will save you the sad stories about the amps and guitars I have had and traded or sold over the years.
BEFORE THE SPEAKER CHANGES
So, I picked up this Fender Blues Junior amp for about $300 a few years ago. It did not have the sound, but I could hear the sound lurking somewhere inside. Now, how do I get the sound out.I did an online search and read about a bunch of resister and capacitor changes that you could do to the little Blues Junior. So, I bought a bunch of electronic components and dusted off my soldering gun. The changes helped a lot, but did not quite nail the sound.
Next, I put in a Mercury output transformer. The sound was drawing nearer, but was still hiding.
WOW! A NEW SPEAKER. REALLY?
After more online searches I found comments about switching out the original Fender Gold Label Eminence Speaker and putting in a different speaker, so I decided to give it a try.1st Speaker: Celestion Greenback - Damn, that was the wrong speaker for this amp. It farted all over the sound - not a good combo.
2nd Speaker: Celestion Century - Good speaker - really good - but not exactly what I had in mind (it ended up in a Fender Red Knob for a harmonica amp)
3rd Speaker: Carvin GT12: Whew! Surprise! excellent - but still not quite there.
4th Speaker: Celestion Vintage 30 - Ouch! My ears are bleeding from the high end - great speaker for a dark amp - but not so good for a modified Blues Junior. My Blues Junior is much darker than the stock amp, but yeow - not good with the Vintage 30.
5th Speaker: Celestion G12H 30 Anniversary - Woohoo! This speaker sounds great! No ice pick highs like the VIN 30, and nice clean lows - good mids - sweet! It stayed in the amp for several years.
MORE MODS
So, the sound was getting so close, but not quite. That last mod I did was to change the power tube sockets to hold 6V6 tubes instead of the small EL84 tubes (there were a couple big capacitor changes too) and I clipped a bright resister out of the circuits)
Damnation - that made a HUGE difference. The amp is now pushing around 25watts and has a seriously strong sound.
Now, the amp has THE SOUND!
BUT WAIT - ONE MORE SPEAKER CHANGE
After several years of mods and speaker changes, I decided to go back to the original Fender Gold Label Eminence Speaker.
You guessed it - it was as good as the great Celestion G12H 30 Anniversary speaker, maybe even a little better.
The Gold Label did not have quite as much volume as the Celestion G12H, but it had slightly more mids, which I liked a lot.
Also, I had to turn the master volume on the amp up a little more (to 4 or 5 instead of 3 or 4). This helped to get the power tubes pumping juice a little stronger, which feel out the sound with more depth. I still have plenty of overhead, but the amp opened up with the bump in the volume control, while the speaker did not convert it to more decibels, just a deeper sound.
After all of that, back to the Original Fender Gold Label Eminence Speaker!
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