[Guitarist-Jonny]

I know this is really down to personal choice, but could you guys please maybe give me a basic idea on what celestion speaker is generally best for each genre/style of playing? I've been wanting Vintage 30's for ages but after seeing the frequency responses on the Celestion website I'm confused as they all seem very similar! :'(
I play most genres and favor lead playing,
Thanks
Regards
Jon

 

[Toadfish]

Hey Jon,

I can't comment on other Celestions, but I have a pair of little-used Vintage 30's up for sale right now that sound fab:

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f28/2-celestion-vintage-30-speakers-16ohm-12-1-month-use-89870.html

Great sounding, very punchy and very articulate sounding speakers. I've only changed them out as I had an itch to get some JSX speakers for my cab to match my head (JSX, obviously!).

Obviously the cab you use will make a difference to the sound also, but I guess there's no way of telling exactly how they will sound with your head/ cab until you try them out. I play predominantly rock/instrumental/indie style music in a covers band and the celestions were great sounding in that situation. I have some not-so-brilliant quality (but give you the general idea) YouTube clips of the band, with my sound coming from a JSX driving the Celestions, but I don't know how relevant that is to your setup / style etc. If it would be of use, let me know and I'll post a link

If you're interested, I'm up for doing a deal. If you're anywhere near me, you're welcome to put them in your cab and try them out for yourself.

Let me know!

Cheers,
Sukh

 

[kotornut]

It's all about how much bass response you want. V30s will be about normal for what guitarists look for but a few have more bass response.

 

[indeedido]

I like my amp to distort not my speakers, so I prefer the GT-75

 

[bhuard75]

go play a mesa boogie recto cab, their loaded with v30's. that'll give you the best idea for that speaker. i'm pretty sure the marshall jcm 1960 cabs have the gt-75. you can ask a million people for their opinions and at the end of the day you still dont know what you'll actually like. you might have some good ideas to start with. someone else said previously its gonna sound different with your head, cab ect.... thats very true. also consider the price of the speakers vs the price of a new cab (if your buying 4).

hope that helps

 

[Toadfish]

go play a mesa boogie recto cab, their loaded with v30's. that'll give you the best idea for that speaker. i'm pretty sure the marshall jcm 1960 cabs have the gt-75. you can ask a million people for their opinions and at the end of the day you still dont know what you'll actually like. you might have some good ideas to start with. someone else said previously its gonna sound different with your head, cab ect.... thats very true. also consider the price of the speakers vs the price of a new cab (if your buying 4).

hope that helps

I'd have to agree. If your cab is not that hot, it may be worth considering a new cab too. If your cab is good, then getting new speakers is definitely a cheaper option.

Consider that my cab (PortCity Wave 2x12 ) including the Celestions costs nearly $700 (and that excluded the shipping!)

The 2 V30's I'm selling (from that cab) are only going to cost you £100 (shameless plug, I know, but hey can't blame a guy for trying )

 

[Devo]

my vote goes for G12-century vintages.... sound great with less than half the weight

 

[kotornut]

I was reading a thing from Ynwie Malmsteen's tech and he was talking about how Yngwie uses the 75 watt speakers because they have better bass response and remain clearer at high volumes. He said that a lot of people these days like the V30s but they bass response and clarity suffer in his opinion.

I had a boogie cab with V30s in it and I loved ever second of it. But I'v eplaye dsome other cabs with the 75 watts and liked them too. And I've liked a lot of other brands speakers. So if I were you I'd try as many as I could to see what is best for what your are trying to achieve.

 

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Hi all, thank you all so much for your input ! Sorry Toadfish, I'm gonna need four V30's because I have a 4x12 ! The G12 Century Vintage has me curious, but I have to say my top two are V30's and G12T-75's (V30's currently the favourite from reviews and the artists' sounds who are using it.) Would you say comparing the Marshall 1960A and 1960AV cabs would be a good idea to compare these speakers?
I have a valveking 4x12 cab, would it be worth changing?
Thanks
Regards
Jon

 

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Would you guys say a new cab is necessary? My current cab is in brilliant condition if I do say so myself, its just the valveking speakers SUCK!
Thanks
Regards
Jon

 

[jim777]

You could always use 2 v30's and 2 GT-75s or something else. You needn't do 4 of the same speaker as long as the Ohm ratings are correct.

 

[Guitarist-Jonny]

Any opinions? Would a VK cab (with V30's speakers) sound inferior to, for example, a JSX cab with V30's in it?
Thanks
Regards
Jon

 

[Jaden]

ive just started trialing the centuries, like Devo says they are very very light...
the benchmark is the V30 for sure, great speaker in the right cab..
I tried a randall cab recently with some switches on the back so that you could adjust frequency accents (or something), that had V30's in and it was superb !

 

[Devo]

Played several gigs with the G12 century vintages now... funk, pop, rock, soul and jazz gigs and they handle everything brilliantly....

I would never go back to V30's .... definatly check them out

 

[Jaden]

Devo - i cant use mine in anger until june
do the spekers change a lot at higher volume ?
I can already tell that the clarity is better..

 

[Silverburst]

I'm about to cross mount V30's and greenback G12M 25's and wire them so that I can choose to only hook up V30's. So there will be no 'stereo effect' but rather a \ with V30's on the left input and a / with the G12M's on the right input. Using both inputs would give me an X

 

[Devo]

Devo - i cant use mine in anger until june
do the spekers change a lot at higher volume ?
I can already tell that the clarity is better..

Hey Jaden,

not that Ive noticed. They sound incredibly good quiet and they go shockingly loud... and Ive not had them anywhere near the top of their range..... I think the characteristics of the speaker is very consistant across the volume range.

as far as frequencies go they respond much better in the high end then V30's... so I need to turn down the treble on the amp by a point or so to get my old V30 tones. But I cut through the band mix better on clean and distorted tones. Unless celestion release a better neo speaker I dont see myself using anything else in the future.