How much power can a Celestion Blue handle?

[M Fowler]

Well there is a big difference between the 15w alnico blues speaker you noted and the Dr Z openback cab with blues I use with my Stangray. They handle more wattage then the speaker you noted. My Stangray is in the 30w + range but is very clean amp. I use a pedal board in front of the amp and have had no problems after gigging straight for over 2 years. My Rocket also works well with the 212 blues cab but my Express and Asteroid are way too much for the alnico blues so I use a 212 with 1 25w greenback/G12H or 412 with Vin30English/Carvin Vin30 mix.

Mark

[collinsamps]

If I wanted two 12" cabs with options in a british flavored vein, I personally wouldn't use a greenback as a stand alone speaker. To my ears (<----meaning to yours it may be different) In 4x12 settings and pushed to the edge of what they are designed for(cranked 100 watts) they sound fantastic and few speakers can emulate that sound. However a single greenback, even when pushed with 25watts sounds marginal at best and doesn't have pronounced lows, mids or highs or an attribute that sounds particularly well balanced. The G12H30 as a single 12" sounds so much more balanced across the whole frequency range. While holding a nice tight bottom it still gets the shimmering bell/glass like highs going as well, especially with an el84 design that is correctly tweaked. My 2 cents.

[CapnCrunch]

I have a 2x12 semi-open back cabinet with a Celestion Gold and a heritage G12H30 in it. It sounds incredible. I can say from personal experience, that this is an excellent combination if you wanted two different sounding British voiced speakers. When you combine them, the results are awesome. The Gold has that honky almost rude brashness that the Blue has. It is a tad harsh to my ear until you push it a little and it starts to compress. Then it smooths out. The G12H30 has much more low end and is just more balanced. The combination of the upper mids of the Gold and the low end of the G12H30 are really tastey.

[solderstain]

Maybe check out the Eminence Red Fang? It's 50W and more affordable.

I've got a pair of those. I originally bought them to use in my '63 AC30/TB; the plan was to take out the original May, 1963 Blues and store them and use the Red Fangs for daily playing. (There's nothing wrong with the Blues... just being cautious.) The Red Fangs are well-broken-in at this point and I can tell you very-much first-hand: The Red Fangs do not sound much like the Blues. They don't sound 'bad', so I'm not saying that... they just shouldn't be considered as an economical replacement or substitute for a 'true Blue'. I ended up taking the Red Fangs back out of the AC30 and ran them for a while in my Pro-to-Bassman conversion. They sound really nice in a Fender-inspired amp. One of them is still in the Bassman 'conversion' - I run one Fang and one Eminence GB12 - damn-nice combo in an open-back cab.

But if the OP is looking for something that sounds like a Blue, I'd look elsewhere.

Just my experience.

[Kregg]

Plan on playing an arena gig any time soon? In reading the specs on the blues I'd use them with anything on your list. However if you plan on pushing them hard, I'd probably pair 'em up for smoother output. Keep in mind that these are loud speakers to begin with, if placed heads up with other speakers chances are they'd sound twice as loud* lower on the dial in comparison to other less efficient speakers (depending on cabinet type).

*We hear in decibels not watts.

[ettepostkonto]

Thanks for all the input!

Bear in mind though that I will use these 1x12" cabs almost entirely for recording - close-miking the single speaker with a Sennheiser MD421 straight into the cone and an SM57 placed at an angle compared to the MD421.

So I won't be building a 2x12" (eventhough I generally like the way they fill out a room more than a 1x12").

The mission here is trying out my different amps with different single 12" speakers in a recording situation.

Like I said - I just want to mix and match and have fun with it!

[Kregg]

In that case be sure to build an 8" and a 10" cabinet too. As you've probably read elsewhere 8" speakers record exceptionally well and have graced several hit songs.

[paulster]

*We hear in decibels not watts.

In that case be sure to build an 8" and a 10" cabinet too. As you've probably read elsewhere 8" speakers record exceptionally well and have graced several hit songs.

Very true, but the OP specified that he has a 30W and 50W amp that he wants to record, so overall volume probably isn't the concern, rather the recorded tone.

Both the Delta Blues and Jube need to get into power tube saturation to hit their sweet spots, so a single Blue isn't going to cut it, regardless of how sensitive it is (and I agree with you that it's a seriously loud speaker - I've got a pair of Golds in a cabinet and they kill!), and you're going to struggle to find either an 8" or 10" that you'll be able to enjoy these amps through. The smaller ones, fine.

[Kregg]

When I get around to putting the 8" Tone Tubby (ceramic) in a cabinet I'll post some clips using a few different amps. I think the reason that 8" speakers were used in recordings by Page, Hendrix, Clapton, Gibbons and Walsh is because the speakers compress so well. And because they sound awful when they're pushed too hard, it's easier to dial in exactly what you hear from the speaker and get what you hear onto the tape. By contrast, the dynamics of a more capable speaker needs more work from an engineering and post production. Especially if the best sounds produced by the speaker are often achieved at higher volumes.

[azatplayer]

I had a mate call me and wanted to swap his Eminence texas heat for a Vin 30 i had. I had never heard the heat before, but wasnt keen on my Vin 30 so we swapped.
I gotta say, for 69 dollars US online price, this speaker is very cool.
I have 2 amps with blues in them, and a 1x12 with a gold, all very keepable.
BUT this heat is very similar in tone, has a little more honk, kinda V30ish, but never harsh like the gold can be, and for 120 watts handling, will take anything! But has a nice early breakup, little less sensitivity than the alnicos.
Not a blue or gold, but for ceramic its very british flavoured.
I think.

[wscrane]

Speakers have two power ratings. The one they tell you is how much current the voice coil can handle before getting too hot. That is rarely how speakers fail. The real power rating is much lower and involves how much excursion they can take before they max out and deform, start rubbing, or get stuck.

Excursions are larger at low frequencies, so the relevant question is how much power can the speaker handle at 83 Hz before it reaches its excursion limit. One way to see this is to get a program like Eminence speaker designer and look at the large box excursion result at 83 Hz and compare it to xlim. Actual power handling of speakers is something like 1/3 or less than the number manufacturers give you, but it depends on the speaker and the cab.

I think the cab dependence is the manufacturer's excuse for not specifying the actual power handling. Its just a coincidence that it permits them to advertise speakers as being WAY better than they are.