Tube Amp Archive

I'm building a cab set for the Brown Suger amp.He wants one alnico blue for sure,the other speaker would be a greenback,or vintage 30.I tried the green and the blue and it was perfect for the ef86 brownote.This amp is a fender type.Lots of clean headroom,nice with pedals.He was thinking about adding a cel Gold.Any opinions on a blue and a Gold together.Would they be to much alike?I know for sure the greenback and the blue is a killer setup.Ive just have never tried a Celestion Gold.I don't really have any idea what the " Gold" sounds like.Any input on these too speakers?.Mikey

I suggest WGS Veteran 30 paired with WGS Retro 30.

Blue and Gold sound the same just that the Gold has higher wattage handling. I like them with Vox bases EL84 amps.

Thanks Mark,I never heard of WGS speakers.Thanks for clearing up the Blue and the Gold.Mikey

have never tried the blue and gold together but have A-B tested one after the other loaded in a 4x12 with a Palmer speaker switcher.
There was a slightly more lower mid with the gold. That is if you are really listening carefully for it!
Best, tony

Thanks Tony,Mark,My only experience was when I built the Foxy 18 for a kid.He wanted figured Maple cabs and was not concerned about money.I got the Alnico blue and a greenback and to this day I have never heard a better sounding cab.You could dime the amp out and it still stayed tight,focused.No sloppy,Boomy mush in that cab ay all.So this amp I built for my daughters boyfriend.So he is just paying for materials.I think Im going to put at least one expensive celestion gold and then a cheaper speaker to get a bit of breakup.I have a dealership for jensen and can get those with a huge savings but I have never been able to test any.I have v 30"s.Blues,G75"s and greenies here.Im sold on the idea of mixing different speakers to get a nice mixed sound.Another thing I would like to do is put some type of switch to play one speaker on,one speaker off.Some way of not having to mess with the impedence as well.I think the new EC fender handwired series has this.If you are playing at a smaller venue you can switch one speaker off and cut the power in half.Any idea"s on the best way to do that guys,Much apreciated!!Mikey

Buy the speakers 16 ohm, and wire them to 2 jacks.

Make a Y cable that parallels them. You can plug in one, the other or both.

Both would be 8 ohms.

With just one playing the other becomes a passive radiator unless you build the cab as 2 chambers.

John

Mikey, if you have access to good prices on Jensen take a listen to the Blackbird. It really surprised me.
When we blind A-B tested the Blue, Gold, '58 Jensen and the Blackbird, it was the latter that was liked by the guys in the room most of all. This was all with single coils, teles and Gretsch semis. The Blackbird was a touch warmer. But that may not be your aim.

The speaker switching was done with a Palmer speaker selector which cuts the signal for a few milliseconds to spare the OT getting a spike. Because of that drop out in sound you cannot use it fluidly in a set unless you have a pause between the use of the two different sounds. I'm hanging on to it to switch-a-roo between four 4x cabs. Will have to re-write some tunes with pauses, but that is not a bad thing.

tony

Mikey,

FWIW, I was in an old Blackface Deluxe Reverb recently and the owner had replaced the speaker with a Gold. Sounded very, very good.

Thanks Fellas,That is some great ideas,I wander what it would be like to put a center pc of wood and make 2 separate removable back panels.You could have a closed back and a open on the other.I always make my 2x12"s with 3 removable back panels.This would be like having two cabs in one box.As far as the speaker goes maybe I will get the blackbird in place of the blue.It would be about half the cost as well.Thanks guys,Ill keep you posted,Mikey

Avatar just quoted me $475 for a pair of Blues and that includes shipping! That's even better than CE Distribution.

Yea it is,I think I was paying 240 each without shipping.I have a set in my Z Stangray and was playing into that for a reference.You cant really get a closed back application but you can get a decent test with that.If the Jensen Blackbird is close to the Alnico Blue,Its half the cost.The one thing that really changes the overall tone in an amp is the speakers.Playing with the baffles is a big game changer too.Like I said , the Brownote Foxy 18 with the Blue and the greenback was the perfect combination.I dont know about how much the maple box accounted for the tone but all these things together made that amp outstanding!!Mikey

The Blackbird is a 100W Alnico, The gold is 50W, the blue 15W. If you're attaching to an 18W amp, you probably shouldn't allow just the blue to play unless you like blowing $300 speakers.

I'm with you on mixing Alnico and ceramic speakers. I would try the blue and green with an 18W amp. For ~50W amps, I enjoy the Tone Tubby Alnico / ceramic mix. I have some Jensen Alnicos but have not yet tried the Blackbirds; they are on the short list to try.

Yea,I totally agree.This amp is a 40 watt so Im going to try to rate the speaker accordantly.I would like to keep them at least 50 watt.Im going to research the blackbird today in hopes of that replacing the alnico blue.Then for the 2nd speaker there is quite a few in a decent price range to choose from.It just needs to be a bit quicker to break up to get the blend.I have to put this order together soon.Im going to try to get the cabs started in the mean time,Thanks,Mikey

ampmike wrote:Yea,I totally agree.This amp is a 40 watt so Im going to try to rate the speaker accordantly.I would like to keep them at least 50 watt.Im going to research the blackbird today in hopes of that replacing the alnico blue.Then for the 2nd speaker there is quite a few in a decent price range to choose from.It just needs to be a bit quicker to break up to get the blend.I have to put this order together soon.Im going to try to get the cabs started in the mean time,Thanks,Mikey

The Tone Tubby ceramic hempcone speaker is about $160 new. I've got a buddy with a small 4x10 cab with four of the 10" version in it and it sounds amazing. I'm pretty sure the price for the 10" & 12" version is the same.

One thing I didnt see mentioned, that should be considered, is the difference in efficiencies. A greenback has a nominal sensitivity of 96db.
An Alnico blue is rated at 100 db nominal sensitivity. A difference of 4db is substantial. That means you will hear the Blue much more. Consider that it takes almost twice the power to get the greenback to be as loud as the Blue. The Blue is a better match with a G12H (larger mag) which is also 100db sensitivity. This is a big reason why Fred Taccone(divided by 13) uses that combination.