Re: OT Marshall amp + external spk

[bill walker <wildbillwalker@icloud.com>]

Save for a few, most classic speakers have modern variants that spec the 
same and sound the same. I've used both modern British and Chinese made 
blue vox alnico speakers as well as vintage ones and they sound the same, 
save for the amount they have been broken in. I love those speakers.  
There are also modern variants that take those classic designs and beef 
them up, which is what i personally favor. That being said if I wasn't 
gigging with my amps I might be inclined to use the original speakers if 
Im never pushing the amp and it sits at home. I like low wattage amps but 
if I drive them hard, I don't want the original spec low wattage speaker, 
because in addition to possibly blowing, they will also exhibit more cone 
cry when overdriven and a mushier bass response clean or overdriven. For 
the longest time I thought the blue vox speaker was the perfect fit for my 
Princeton reverb which is a 12-15 watt amp, the blue is rated at 15 watts, 
but more importantly has a sensitivity rating of over 100 decibels, which 
means, its a loud sucker for its wattage, much louder than a black face 
era  stock Jensen or CTS speaker. But I was noticing that when I was 
hitting it hard with a big signal from a pedal board that the bass got 
sloppy. I replaced it with an Eminence made Alnico speaker with a 50 watt 
rating with an equally high DB rating, and the bass firmed up and it tamed 
a bit of the harshness in the high end that the Princeton, being a bright 
amp, didn't need anyway.  In any case a decision of this type only makes 
sense if the resulting sound is improved, and of course that is 
subjective, for me it was the right decision, and I love the sound.  In 
the case of the two vintage amps that i bought second hand and neither of 
which had the original speakers. My vox AC10 which I occasionally gig with 
has a pair of weber 30 watt blue pups, where the original speakers would 
have been most likely Goodman's or Elac's , not blue Celestion's,  both of 
which are hard to find vintage in playing condition as they blow pretty 
easily. The Princeton  Reverb which I always gig with was missing its 
original speaker as well, a some what low efficiency Jensen  that also 
would have had a hard time handling the kind of signal a modern pedal 
board is capable of sending it.    
Bill


On Aug 18, 2014, at 1:40 PM, andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> 
> On 18/08/2014 21:07, David wrote:
>> I find your thought about speakers highly limiting.
> 
> so, er...   do otherwise  :-)
> 
> problem solved, yes?
> 
> 
> 
> andy
>