Speaker suggestion for a Marshall build.

[Alan0354]

I like the WGS British Lead. I'm not sure how it would sound in an open backed combo though. I'm using it in my 6505+ combo which has a closed back chamber for the speaker, separate from the "head" section where the chassis lives. It's also quite large - the speaker chamber is about 18" high x 24" wide, and 12" deep. It really grinds, though. It sounds much bigger than it did with the stock Sheffield, and the British Lead handles 80 watts. I have an open backed unfinished pine 1x12 I build with an MDF baffle that's 15x15x13 that I might eventually try it out in, if I decide to try something else in the 6505+.

I have been listening to a lot of youtube, I like the British Lead also. I am debating BL and ET90 so far. Maybe Retro 30, but that might be too close to the Vet 30 I have.

[Alan0354]

I don't know whether you guys have better luck. WGS is not very good in replying questions. There is no way to test out their speakers, so youtube comparison and answering question become very important. I finally wrote to them if they don't answer my question, I am going to look at another brand. Eminence is very good in answering questions.

I might take a second look at Hellatone 60. It's just Vintage 30 broken in. To me, V30 sounds quite different from WGS Veteran 30.

[m_gear]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is there concern about using a 65W speaker on a 50W amp?

If it were me, I'd use the 75W Celestion I already have and voice the amp for it since you're building anyway. Also, since you're wanting a 4x12 sound out of a single 12, you might consider a closed back (maybe even ported) cabinet for extended low end.

It's not necessarily very hard for an amp rated at 50 watts -- especially a tube amp -- to blow a speaker rated at 65W if the amp is pushed hard. Rated amp output is usually the power before onset of clipping. You can get spikes well above the amp's rated power when pushing it hard, and even if that doesn't happen, certain frequencies can hit the speaker harder than it can handle.