15w Alnico Blue [safe w/15w ?]

[petemoore]

I'm probably closer to 12w actual, but I read that speaker configuration should be about 2x the wattage rating of the amplifier output.
Right now I'm running the Celestion 15w blue speaker with another 8ohm in series [2x12'' cab], one reason being fear of speaker failure, expensive.
I think the Blue would sound great in a 1x12'' cabinet I have here, should I be worried about speaker failure with 1 x 15w speaker?

[TD_Madden]

What sort of volume do you play at?

I've been using a Blue in both a Mission Tweedy and another in a Victoria 2012(thinking of selling) for some time.....usually around 6-7 on the volume, with a Les Paul. I was fearful of it at first, but I generally don't use any pedals (occasional use of a MemoryMan), and don't take the volume past about 10 at MAX. Of course, that is in my basement for an hour or so a day....NOT on stage night after night....

I'd guess that a Strat or Tele would be even easier on the speaker.

[petemoore]

What sort of volume do you play at?

'2 x 12''s over easy...lol.
Or 1 x 12'' greenback...which sounds good pushed to where it's plenty loud and has room to get louder...the 5e3 sounds good at...some %age of what it sounds like 'floored'...touchy gas pedal and all...
I have EH6v6's in it, which are a good bit less 'pushy' than the JJ's.
I use pedals. Boosters Fuzzes etc.
I'm never 'flooring' the amp, it sounds a certain way with the distortion up to a volume point, then muds out after that, I have 1/2ed or reduced the caps values to the input side on the board, it's de-mud modded.
I don't know what that relates to in watts, but guess it's pushing <10w-12w.
PAF pro switched to series wiring mostly in bridge pos., 'hot' neck PU generally at 7, w/HF bypass cap mightily enhancing treble / cuts bass whoomph.
My thinking on: 'I can run it and not damage it' is ~borderline.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I have a customer (with too much extra $$ ) who runs two or three different vintage VOX AC50s into three different 2x12 bottoms, with real Bulldogs, reissue G12 Alnico Blues and a mix of MOJO BV30Vs an BV30H.
He also has a wall with 16 vintage G12 Alnicos boxed up and as of recently 4 or 5 of them are blown again.
So far, with the AC50s the only speakers he has not blown up are the MOJO ceramic ones.
Now, the AC50 amps are seriously tweaked up, running to full potential and any one of them can easily make about 60 watts fairly clean.
That makes each 15 watt speaker forced to handle a clean +30-40 watts if running hard... hence the constant rotating of blown G12s!!
Still he does not blow the reissue G12 ALnico speaker very often.
So I'd say the 5E3 is OK with the Blue if you are not consantly running in wide open.
I've heard they are supposedly rated at 15w RMS and 20-25 watts peak.
A really good running 5E3, at around 80Hz to 140Hz, will hit about 10-12 watts RMS and less then 20 watts fully gassed .

[bob p]

fwiw, i've chosen a more conservative path, and I run my 5E3 into a 2x12 that has a pair of 16-ohm Celestion Blues in parallel. with that setup you can run the amp wide open without having to worry about the speakers.

[tubeswell]

If you are running a clean sine wave at 15W RMS, the alnico Blue/Bulldog should be fine, as it is rated at about 25Wpeak I believe. Its when you start pushing a square wave thru the speaker that you have to worry. The same vol with a square wave is between 2-2.5 times the power output of a sine wave (you work it out by the area within the function line) - i.e. what would be 15W RMS power in a sine wave would become 30-38W RMS with a square wave, and that will burn out ya average bulldog. (Hey 'burn out ya bulldog' - I like that phrase)

[Sock Puppet]

Slightly off topic but...

I loaned my daughter my hi-fi speakers (Kef 104 II's at 200W R.M.S.) and she managed to blow the tweeters with a 30W R.M.S. amp - that square wave thing.

She also banged them with the vacuum cleaner, leaked water from her plants on the tops and trained her cat to claw the fronts but it's probably my fault.

S.

[bob p]

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, look on the bright side -- at least her cat is not urinating on the KEFs.

[petemoore]

I built an air attenuator for the second 12'' speaker, used for power soaking purposes and some bass. I've made a 1/2'' thin, foam placed about 1-1/4'' in front of the cone, covering it, it comes right out. Large beam blocker is more permanent.
ie...I prefer the sound of the mostly 'unadulterated' 15w.
This works great, even though I think the foam causes 'extra pushing' on the other speakers coil during peaks., because the 'foamed' cone/coil can't move as far in the speaker, some of the 'peaky juice' is absorbed by the 'free cone' 15w speaker, nominal amount I guess, or imagination?
This is only percieved to happen when I'm cranking, at which point I pull the foam out so now I have 2x12's fully sounding. I often set the 2x12 cab vertically on a seat, with the first 12's 'open' cone facing a bar chairs back, this puts the Alnico up where it's more easily heard with it's medium beam blocker.
I like the sound of the amp when it is powering 2 speakers, and I'm mostly hearing one...with these speakers anyway, I've not seen or heard of this, I suspect the foamed speaker will have greater stresses put on it's cone/coil structure. [actually I think foaming puts stress on both speakers, but dividing 15w should keep them off of the 'damage control wall'.

[shuffle]

Hi!
I'm running a Deluxeclone with a single (Reissue) Jensen P12N (Green with bellcover) rated 15W at full tilt with a Roger Mayer VooDoo-1 infront.
This is my AC/DC tributeband setup so it runs yhis way a couple of hours at a time. 12AX7 preamptube.
I've done some mods to keep the muddyness away, maybe that makes it nicer for the amp

I also use it when gigging with the two bluesbands i play in.

After 7 years it still runs like a charm!

/J