Celestion V-30 clone on Ebay, check this out.

[Slobrain]

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-inch-VINTAGE-...QQcmdZViewItem

If these sound like the real deal then its a good deal but? If not? Hmmmm

Anyone know these folks?


SLO

[Slobrain]

Update...

Well, I took the plunge and bought one, I'll let you guys know how it sounds when I get it. It's suppose to sound like a real vintage 30 celestion, we will see.

SLO.....

[bob p]

can't beat the price. as it turns out, there are some of the rebuild shops that sell V30 clones that are pretty much the real deal -- they take a V30 recone kit and magnet, and mount them on a generic bracket. to me, that's a V30. IIRC orange county speaker repair does this sort of thing on eminence frames.

now matter how you slice it, your price is a good one. an eminence governor wholesales for $32 when you buy them by the container.

[Slobrain]

Hey Bob,
I should get myy V30 clone Monday so I can rate it. Looking at the folks who already bought from this guy they seem to like these speakers he's selling.

The story is that this fellow bought a bunch of OEM speakers from a manufacturer cheap and decided to Ebay them off but he also wantes to start a speaker building biz here in the USA and sell clones at a cheaper price than celestion. I wonder if he got these from Dave at Avatar? who knows....

here is the site,
http://warehousespeakers.com/phpBB2/index.php

I figure I can get an idea of the speaker sound even though its not broken in so maybe this will turn out to be one of those great deals. I sure hope so.

Anyway I wanted to post so if these do turnout to be a good deal you all can jump on this deal while he has the first batch. If not, no big deal.

Heck, I found these while looking for a replacement speaker for an amp I'm gonna sell to a friend. The amp has been without a speaker for a long while and I figured what the heck, i'll give it a shot. The speaker frame looks just like a celestion and the paper looks the same too.

SLO

[Slobrain]

Update to the V30 clone

Well I got the speaker in today and unboxed it and the speaker frame is exactly like the vintage 30 frame except in a grey finish instead of gold like the Celestion V30 has. The paper and cone look exactly like the real deal vintage 30 and the magnet looks exactly like the vintage 30 too. A real clone in build from the looks, its a heavy speaker.

Well how does it sound???

I paired it into a 2x12 open back SS Peavey renown cab as this amp will show what sounds good or not. I didn't get a chance to run my fender bassman head thru it yet.

I paired it with a real celestion vintage 30 that was put together in the UK and here is what I found. Trying both speakers thru the peavey SS 2x12 combo amp the speakers sounded almost Identical except the V clone had less hi's in it. The real deal celestion V30 has a loose paper movement as it was broken in so comparison isn't easy since I didn't get a chance to break in the new V30 clone but the clones mids and lows are so damn close to the real deal V30 its great, almost dead on. The real V30 has a slight bit of harsh hi endness I never cared for even though I do like its tone. The V30 clone has a smoother hi end. but still close to the hi's the real deal V30 has just less hi's.

Over all I need to break in the new clone but for the hour and a half I played thru it loud and soft was the most closest sounding V30 I have heard to date as I tried the eminence V30 clone and it never did sound much like a real V30 to me.


Is it a good deal for $21.00 I would say yes so far so good.

SLO

[bob p]

thanks for the update. it would be very interesting to know how the speaker sounds after some break-in, so be sure to keep us posted.

i also notice a little harshness in the high end of the V30. but then i've always been a fan of speakers that don't sound excessively sharp on top.

[Slobrain]

Hey Bob,
I'm going to try and do a breaking this coming week if the wife permits

The funny thing about this is that this speaker sounds darn good in the Peavey renown as where all the rest of the speakers I tried didn't sound all that good other than the real V-30 in the renown which sounded good but a bit flubby on the low end with the bass turned up. The clone didn't have that flub.

The V-30 clone feels real tight though, thats the one thing I wonder about as It seems a bit tighter than the others when you take both hands and try to move the paper back or forward. The real V-30 is a loose moving speaker when you use your hands to move the paper. I always try to be real careful when I do this.

I tried running a Peavey Bravo tube (EL84) 25 watt amp thru the clone last night at low volume and the bravo is a very bright sounding amp but sounded good with this clone speaker.
But the real test would be break it in and then crank my other amps thru it too. I did hit it hard yesterday with very hi volume from the PV renown and it held its own very well. One other thing I did notice was the clones magnet is a tad bit bigger than the real V-30 speaker, I didn't catch that til real late last night.

A few years back I went thru some eminence speakers from Avatar one was a greenback clone and the other was a V30 clone. Both of those speakers just did not seem to be very close to the real speakers they were suppose to be clones of but they did sound ok. I wound up selling them on Ebay as I wasn't real happy with them. I am more a fan of celestion, but in saying that even celestion doesn't always hit the mark of tone I like, the V-30 and the
G12M-70 seem to be more what I like. I may buy two more of these clones to install in the renown permanent after I do a break in if all goes well.

I mixed the clone 30 in the renown open back with another 2x12 fully enclosed cab last night and the clone 30 mixed well with the G12M-70s in that 2x12 cab. That was a suprise to me.

SLO

[bob p]

how heavy is the doping on the rim of the new speaker?

[Slobrain]

Hey Bob,
The doping looks about the same as the real V-30 so that is suprising that it feels stiffer.
It definitally moves when played and I don't hear any wierd oddities in the sound. I cranded it up again today for an hour while the wife was gone shopping so it seems to sound just like the real V-30. Hmmmm, maybe stiff from needing to be broke in.

I'm gonna keep beating it up this week to see what happens.

SLO

[Thorny]

I drove down there to meet the guy as I live a couple hours away. I bought a bunch of them for some projects I have going on, so I hope they are as good as you say. I also tried few of the "Classic" version too - supposed to be brighter and like the 80w celestion.

The guy seems to be a really nice guy. He offered a money back guarantee if I discovered I didn't like them, so there was not that much to lose.

[Slobrain]

Thorny,
Yes David seems to be a cool guy to deal with. I just ordered more of these as I found that looking at the speaker frames at the rims they are actually real celestion frames, someone grinded the logos off smoothly but I still see the logo there faintly.
Thats why I bet these were painted with a grey crinkle paint. Paint looks good too. I just moved that V clone to a 1x12 open back cab and it sounded good in that too.

David said the paper on these are from the manufacturer that makes for celestion so if the paper and the frames are celestion then its a real celestion, I did comparisons again a little while ago with a friend that plays guitar and he said the real vintage 30 and the clone sound the same to him.

Go figure, I bet these won't last long as when the word gets out the prices will go up or he will run out of these and knowing celestion will probably try to stop him from selling any more, you know how big campanies can get, just look at how Gibson sues every one with a single cutaway guitar.

Let us know how your speakers sound when you get them in your projects.

I hope some of the folks here can get in on these cheap costing speakers as I feel the folks here at Ampage are all really cool people, even though they probably think I'm a little out there on my political views

SLO

[AdmiralB]

How old are the original V30s?

I have eight UK-made Marshall/Celestion G12Vs...the Marshall-labelled version of the V30. Two of them are from 1987, four from 1999, and two from 2003.

The six later ones all have pretty stiff suspensions and (other than the frame code marking method) are all identical, cosmetically.

The two early ones have much looser suspensions and a lot less doping. They've always been looser, it's not from use (the four from 1999 have the most hours, by far).

So, it appears that sometime between the late '80s and the late '90s, Celestion changed the recipe. The older ones have noticeably more low-end, FWIW.

[Slobrain]

Well, I figured I would post back as I have been beating up the new speaker by playing on it loud plus running a stereo thru it afterwards and I have to say its sounding really good with no problems and the bass has deepened slightly more and the hi's are smooth. Midrange good.

I just got some new ones in today to put in a 4x12 cab I had and right off they sound just like the V-30's but need broken in. I played on them for over an hour cranking till my ears rang and they sound good comparing to the real V-30's.

I am really suprised that these are good speakers, I was expecting some junk speakers for the cheap cost but a really good deal so far. Who knows, maybe next week I'll find that I hate them but so far so good.

SLO

[bob p]

it looks like this fellow is selling them at minimal markup to encourage enough turnover for him to get his feet planted as a manufacturer. if the truth be told, $35 is about what you'd pay for a V30 if you ordered them by the shipping container from Celestion. its no surprise to me that some guy in KY can make the same speakers here at a cost that's comparable to the wholesale cost of speakers that get marked up after being shipped halfway around the world.

one place that he's making some extra money is on his shipping. he's charging twice what it really costs him to ship the speakers, and because it looks like what you or I would pay at retail, we don't blink at it. bear in mind that Avatar ships them from OR to Maine for only $8.

Even at the low prices he has, by the time he ships your speaker there's enough profit in them to keep the business alive. Now all he needs to do is expand his customer base, and implement some moderate price hikes once his name is out there. Realistically speaking, he needs a better name. Warehouse Speakers is a cheap sounding name, and that will work against him.

[Slobrain]

Hey Bob,
I have to agree to the name (warehouse speakers) sounding not so good.
I don't know if the guy gave the name that much thought but I think it may work against him and that's a shame too since the quality of speaker is really good. He seems to be a nice guy as I have emailed him several times about the speakers I have ordered and he is always email polite.

Of course Warehouse Tires seem to do well biz wise so who knows

Regarding the shipping cost, I emailed him and told him that Dave at Avatar ships for around $8.00 and asked if I could get as good or better shipping price. After I asked he did give me a much better shipping price. I think it was around $40.00 for 6 speakers to be shipped to me, KY to TX. This was 4 speakers for me and two speakers for someone else. That was a good price as these speakers are heavy. (23 pounds for two in a box).

I am one of those kind of people that always ask about cheaper shipping, even though some people will give a reduced price and some don't, asking never hurts

Overall I hope for him he does do well as it's nice to see an American succeed in business other than some foreigner coming from India or Pakistan or wherever raking in American Dollars to send to other countries. Not trying to sound rude to folks or offend anyone from other countries but its time WE Americans start to get our own thing going here and stop the our Dollars going out of the country.

SLO