Speaker for 50's blues

[Paul P]

I'm down to buying the very last parts for my amp and still need a speaker.
Actually I probably want two : a cheap one to use while I'm working on
getting the amp stable, in case I blow it, and a good one for when things
settle down.

I have a Heritage H535 semi-hollow guitar (like a Gibson ES335) which I
believe is equipped with Schaller Golden 50 pickups, and want to play 50's
style blues for now and maybe some slow jazz further down the road. I
think 12" would be a good size and it should be capable of handling at least
the power of Deluxe Reverb (22w) though at first I'll be using it with a
Champ-like 5w output.

I plan on building a separate cabinet for the speaker and build the amp as
a head.

What would be a good 8 ohm speaker for these requirements ?

Also what would be a good cheap speaker to use while debugging my amp ?
Since good speakers seem to run about 250$ I'd rather blow something cheap
before installing a good speaker.

Thanks,

Paul P

[Chuck H]

You don't need two speakers

Unless you have wired something absurdley wrong you won't blow up a new modern 50 watt speaker with a 20 watt amp. The amp can squeal and honk and fill the room with smoke and I'll take the speaker in a bet every time. You will want a 50 watt speaker for an open back cabinet. In fact, if you'll be playing at the amps capacity often I would use a 50 watt speaker in a closed cabinet too.

As for a good speaker...Well, it's really a matter of tastes. Thats probably why you havent gotten a response until now. You should check out webervst.com and the Eminence site. Both have some sound clips of specific models that are very helpful in choosing.

FWIW if you plan to gig with this amp you will need a very high efficiency speaker (101 to 103db) if you want it to be loud enough.

HTH

Chuck

[TD_Madden]

I really like the Eminence RedFang in my 5E3 clone....think it's rated 30watts, but also 101db.

[Paul P]

Actually, the Red Fang is 103 db, pretty efficient ! It's good to hear that
it's hard to blow a speaker.

After doing quite a bit of research I've come to the conclusion that the Red
White and Blues, also from Eminence, would probably come close to what I
want but the Red Fang is tempting with its efficiency and alnico magnet.

Red Fang (50w) :

http://www.eminence.com/pdf/redfang.pdf

The Red Fang has quite a dip in its frequency response between 1 and 2khz.
Hard to tell what effect this might have without knowing the response of
the amp it'll be used with. It has a useable range of 70Hz-5.5kHz.

Red White and Blues (101db, 120w) :

http://www.eminence.com/pdf/redwhiteblues.pdf

I like the sound clip for the Red White and Blues and it's supposed to be good
for 'American' music, which is what I'm interested in, whereas the Red Fang
is more for 'British' music. The RW&B has a range of 70Hz-4.5kHz so it must
sound less bright than the Red Fang. I don't know if that is a good thing
or not.

For what it's worth the Red Fang is more than twice the price of the Red
White and Blues.

Paul P

[TD_Madden]

Yep, WF is a bit pricey as well....the pain of AlNiCo, I guess!

It really didn't sound "british" in my 6L6 Tweedie...the only problem with it in that amp is that I have to use 6L6WGB (short-bottles) in order to clear the non-removable magnet cover.

I've taken to using that speaker paired with ceramic BlueDog in an Avatar open-back cabinet...pretty sweet and PLENTY of lows....it helps that an old AC50 is pushing 'em!

[Paul P]

You can go crazy listening to the Eminence clips :

http://www.eminence.com/soundclips.asp

I'm now attracted to the Red Fang and Screaming Eagle, which both have
the cleanest cleans to my ears. The Red Fang sounds more precise on single
notes but I find the Eagle sounds better on chords with its wider spectrum.
Most everything else sounds pretty muddy compared to these two. They
both sound pretty good distorted as well. If these speakers are as close in
reality as they are in these clips what accounts for the big difference in
price (Red Fang 165 $, Eagle 75 $) ? 95$ worth of alnico magnet ?

I'm going on the assumption that it's better to have a clean speaker which
will faithfully reproduce the sound that you create with your guitar and
amp than to have the speaker add its own colour to the sound. This would
be difficult to change if it wasn't what you wanted.

Paul P

[Chuck H]

OK..I have to offer my opinion here. Only because I can relate to how confounded the choice can become when you want EVERYTHING from one speaker.

The Cannabis Rex is a great choice for a combo of clean and OD tones. Accurately reproduces highs but cuts off sharp where the uglys start. Good solid bottom end.

For a speaker that WILL color the tone, but in a good way, and not potentially make your amp sound harsh (like the 'Fang or the 'Eeagle) I would go with the Weber Ceramic Blue Dog.

Either of these will do a good job. The 'Rex will be more efficient and have a tighter bottom end. Accurate aggressive rock and blues tone but still pretty when clean.The 'Blue Dog will add more voxy wah and character on OD but without sounding odd and still do especially pretty clean tones and almost as efficient as the 'Rex (more expensive too). Niether will sound harsh or boomy (which is a risk with many other choices) so both are a safe bet. Unless you hear something in another choice that you feel you must have in your tone, I would go with one of these two.

JM2C

Chuck

[Steve A.]

I'm down to buying the very last parts for my amp and still need a speaker.
Actually I probably want two : a cheap one to use while I'm working on
getting the amp stable, in case I blow it, and a good one for when things
settle down.

I have a Heritage H535 semi-hollow guitar (like a Gibson ES335) which I
believe is equipped with Schaller Golden 50 pickups, and want to play 50's
style blues for now and maybe some slow jazz further down the road. I
think 12" would be a good size and it should be capable of handling at least
the power of Deluxe Reverb (22w) though at first I'll be using it with a
Champ-like 5w output.

I plan on building a separate cabinet for the speaker and build the amp as
a head.

What would be a good 8 ohm speaker for these requirements ?

Also what would be a good cheap speaker to use while debugging my amp ?
Since good speakers seem to run about 250$ I'd rather blow something cheap
before installing a good speaker.

Thanks,

Paul P

Changing the subject a bit, I got a H535 and was not very impressed with the Shaller pickups. I'm not sure if they are the same that you have, but they did have height screws for each pickup so that you could set the angle. I first put Seth Lovers in- they sounded great- but then I put some Lindy Fralins in which I think sound even better. Other people have been very pleased with the Antiquities.

I was thinking of swapping out the magnets on the two Shallers with Alnico II to see if that makes them usable for me.

Steve Ahola

[Lizard King]

For blues I prefer a 15" speaker. Best set up I ever played was an old Showmaster (or was it a Bandmaster?) w/ 2-15 bottom.