Pairing Eminence speaker opinions wanted.

[tonepoet]

I've been thinking of pairing some Eminence speakers and would like some opinions of those on the forum that have done so. You can include "branded" Eminence made speakers such as Peavey Blue Marvels, Fender Special Design, etc.

I've been thinking of using a combination of an open back Peavey Bravo 112 with a closed back 1x12 extension cab. Two ideas I've been hearing about out there using Eminence speakers are the pairing of a Texas Heat with a Swamp Thang and the other is pairing a Governor with a Wizard.

Does anyone have experience with any of those four speakers?

I've been looking at WGS, Weber, and Eminence because I do want to use American made speakers and keep fellow Americans employed.

Thanks and have fun,
tonepoet

[bob p]

Maybe I can help. I did some comparisons a few years ago and took notes. I have an Avatar open backed cabinet that came stuffed with a Governor and a Tonker (which I think is a really odd combination that didn't sell very well). I also have a NOS Ipswitch V30 that I've had sitting in a box for maybe 15 years that I finally pulled out and mounted to do some comparisons. I set up an A/B/Y test where I had a footswitch that could select between either speaker or both speakers in the open backed 2x12 cabinet. Before listening to any of the speakers, I mounted each speaker in the cabinet, put the cabinet at the far end of the house, and drove it with the Back in Black CD on auto-repeat for 100 hours to loosen the cones up a bit.

Comparing the Governor to a NOS UK-made V30:

I think that the Governor lacks that spikey midrange hump that's characteristic of the V30. That could be good or bad depending upon what you want. Personally, I think that the V30 can sound kind of shrill in some situations, and that although the midrange hump sounds good at first, it tends to wear on you after a while. I like the Governor's removal of the mid-range hump. The result is that the Governor seemed a bit "throatier" due to the removal of the ice pick, and felt like it was less fatiguing to my ears. So I'd have to say that not having so much on the high end, the Governor is a bit of an American take on the V30, and that even though Eminence is selling it as a "Redcoat" speaker, they could pass it off as a "Patriot" if they wanted to. When I tried running the V30 and the Governor in the same 2x12 cab I didn't like the result -- the midrange hump in the V30 tended to overwhelm the lack of the midrange hump provided by the Governor, and the amp sounded like it was driving a V30.

Regarding the Tonker:

I know this isn't on your list, but I think this is a speaker that tends to get ignored by most people who are looking for celestion-type tone coloration speakers. In this respect it may be a well kept secret. The Tonker is more of a transducer than a tone-coloration speaker. It's got incredible bass response and incredible cleans for such a lightweight speaker. If you drive it hard it will respond with what the amp gives it, rather than breaking up and coloring the sound on it's own. If you've got an amp that gives you great sound, and you're not relying upon speaker coloration to produce your tone, you might like the Tonker. In some respects it reminds me of an EVM-12L in a much smaller/lighter package.

After doing all of these tests, I put all of the speakers back in their boxes, where they've been sitting for years. I went back to using an EVM-15L in a TL-606 cabinet for clean applications, and put a pair of UK Celestion Blues into the 2x12 cab for when I want coloration.

The Eminence speakers should give you some good options if you want to Buy American. HTH.

[tonepoet]

Thanks Bob. Great notes. The Tonker is on my secondary list, along with Cannabis Rex. One thing I'm looking for is a speaker with less ice-pick-to-the-ears effect. I've read that the Tonker, Can Rex, Swamp Thang, Texas Heat and Governor have less of the ice-pick-to-the-ears effect.

[bob p]

I can't comment on the other speakers you named, but based upon what you're saying about ice picks, I think that you might prefer the Governor over the Vintage30, if that helps any.

The Tonker might be nice if you wanted loud and clean rather than loud and crunch. It's very clean even when driven pretty hard.

[tonepoet]

Thanks for your replies. Well, I play clean and crunch. Sometimes heavily overdriven, sometimes clean chikin pickin or clean jazz, blues. I like it all but want something with less ice pick in the loud clean category.

[Orgazmo]

TEXAS HEAT and CANABIS REX are two of my fav speakers and 2 of emenence best.

if you go this route [and i would], the teaxas is your speaker for crunch and can handle anything. works great [but in no way limited to] southern rock, think skynyrd, allmans, molly hatchet, 38 special, etc... supposedly, the texas heats were made to sound like the old JBL 120's that skynyrd had in there peavey mace rigs. an allmans brothers roadie turned them on to those as they would take the heavy, loud torture those big peavey mace and marshall plexis put out.

THE CANABIS is eminence reply to TONE TUBBYS. for CLEAN, BEAUTIFUL, SHIMERING, GLASSY tones, this speaker cant be beat. i LOVE the sound of these and i have 1 4x12 loaded with them and play ALL clean stuff through that cab. AND, if you want bluesy, grinding over drive tones, the CR is the ticket. if i was a blues guy and that was my gig, the canabis would be in my amps/cabs. not a trace of ice pick anywhere!

i have 2 peavey combos, 1 heritage vtx and 1 classic vtx for my southern rock rig [big time skynyrd and southern-rock fan] and both are loaded with the texas heats. ONE NOTE ON THE TEXAS HEATS..............

break them in. get them loosened up. when i first got them in my heritage, i cranked it up and thought it a bit shrill. and i remembered a guy who told me run a good rockin cd though your amp for day or so at volume where your not getting the cops called, but loud enough you want it in another room. i did just that [black oak arkansas's high on the hog] for a good 40 hours.

the next day i fired up the rig, let the tubes get warm and it was a completely different speaker. the hi's were tame, but clear with a nice, breathing mid range. i can NAIL skynyrds epic live album ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD tone. the heritage vtx was the "little" brother to the mace. the mace was just to loud for clubs and home jamming. BRUTAL!! but, the heritage was toned down, some, and is basically the same amp. if anyone is a southern rock fan and you want the tones of skynyrd, 38 special, molly hatchet, etc...... the peavey heritage vtx is dead on the money. and, is VERY versatile, works great on ALL classic rock and even country music. respectable reverb and a pretty damned good built in phaser!! the classic vtx, the step down from the heritage is 50 watts [very conservative] and i can dial up marshall jcm 800 tones. AWSOME all around club amp, especially for those doing a variety of copy tunes.

the texas heats are a PERFECT match for both of those amps.

hope this helps. wish i knew what bands you like, that would help me. also what you plan to do with your set up. clubs? bedroom/garage jamming? etc....

1 texas and 1 canibas would be cool. the canibis would provide the lower and low mid frequencies the texas heat loses when the volume is down. and miking it so you have a mic on each speaker and each gets its own channel on the board so you can mix the tone would be killer!!!

[tonepoet]

@Orgazmo, I went with Texas Heats and Swamp Thangs and also have a pair using the Governor and the Wizard. I tend to like the Texas Heat and Swamp Thang pair better. Of the 4, I like the TH the best. No ice-picks-to-the-ears on any of these speakers, which is a plus I was looking for. I'm using these with Peavey bravo 112s and a Peavey Classic 30 with extension cabs.

BOA's High on the Hog... nice choice. The live "Raunch 'n' Roll" would have really done the job! Got to see them live 3 times back in the 1970s. An excellent live band.