RE: Speaker to mix with a Pre-Rola G12H30 55Hz Bass Cone

1

Hi there,

I am happy owner of a ´68 Celestion G12H30 55Hz Pulsonic BassCone Speaker. It has smoothed out over the years but seems not to have gotten too much playing time, so it still sounds fabolous, nowhere dull.

Compared to a fairly new Reaper55 I have, it seems to deliver still some more treble and upper midrange.

For having a quite loud amp (HK Puretone) I don´t feel comfortable powering it in a single 112, because I am afraid blowing it.

I have a few WGS Speaker right here, I could try. I have a G12C, a G12Q, a G10C and an ET65 (12"). I would love, if the second speaker opened the sound a bit. I had a combination with a 70ies Greenback, which I didn´t like at all (to my surprise).

Any opinions? Anybody tried mixing a heavy magnet Pre-Rola with any of the WGS line?

 

many thanks and merry christmas

 

Heiko

2

I'd love to have you try it with the G12C ... and post your results.  That might be super-sweeeeet.

3

Hi Vaughn,

I gave it a try and put my Pre-Rola into a 212 together with the G12C. I did like the allover tone.

But on the other hand, there was something missing, I had to find out first. Now, I know. Both speakers have lots of character. The G12H30 has this vintage Hendrix/Page feeling and flair, while the G12C ist extremely touch sensitive, spanky, bright voice.

Put together they sound liken, well, good sounding speakers. But the Celestion loses grit, while the sensitivity and spankiness doesn´t come through anymore.

I guess my next try will be the ET65 with the G12H. To me, the ET65 is an extremely good sounding speaker, but is less unique in it´s voicing. I guess it could be a better match, retaining more of the Pre-Rolas sweetness.

By incidence I also have a Reaper 55 and a Celestion G12-65 as well - so I can see how it will match just the other way round.

I got my hands on a Black´n´Blue. Maybe this could be a great match for the G12H30 55Hz...

best regards

Heiko

4

Hi Folks,

 

so here is my next update.

I can´t see what I posted about the G12H30/G12C mix, but I guess it is still in processing, so I will keep on showing up with my findings by and by - and guess they will be to be found here after a short while...

Next what I did, was mixing the Pre-Rola with an ET65.

First I was really blown away. The allround impression was a sound that captured clean sounds very well, allways with a hint of grit and shined with a tiny bit of dirt. There was an incredible sweetness, a little magic, something hard to describe to the tone. It was british all over, but not as limited as I found my cabs with medium magnet greenbacks. It had serious low mids/bass area and gave THAT blues kinda tone. I had a hard time, putting the guitar away.

When I went for speaker change I realized... I HAD FORGOTTEN TO CONNECT THE ET65.

I am really ashamed, but had to tell the story, because of it being that funny. All the sweetness was that Pulsonic magic. I have to admit, that there being something special about these +40ys Pre-Rolas.

OK - I connected the ET65 and tried again. The allover sound was MUCH cleaner than before. Not that bad. It delivered quite a bit less life in the tone. Don´t misunderstand me. I do really love the ET65 and the G12C. I use both of them quite frequently, because they fit perfectly to my cleantone. They just don´t get along with my G12H. Something is taken away from the tone. And the mix does not do justice to these fine drivers.

Then I literally stumbled into a G12Q I got laying around. So I opted for giving it a shoot.

And MAN - this is really SOMETHING. The tone of the cab is a bit cleaner than with my G12H alone, but not that much. The clean sound, especially when playing picking, fingerstyle or singlenotes has something very dimensional, shiney. This really ADDS something to the sound. I can´t say, if that is BETTER than the G12H alone, but at least, this has a unique voice, something the Celestion by itselves can´t deliver. When you drive them a bit harder, there is still a lot of that Pulsonic sweetness (the Cel. is louder quite a bit - but not all over the frequency range) - to be honest not ALL of that sweetness - BUT there is something more aggressive, more into your face in the upper midrange really rocks. The dirty sound is giving me much of what I had expected when mixing my G12H with a G12M. But the G12M fell short, while the G12Q delivered.

This is not what I had expected. The downside is, that I wanted to pair my G12H with another speaker to make the cab a bit more stable, to get at least a 50w cab for my amp that pushes 40w clean at 8Ohm.

I am afraid it might fry the G12Q to easy, because the cab is only 40w then. But that SOUND! Really worth trying it.

Anybody mixed a Reaper55 with a G12Q. Would love to hear your findings.

If I am lucky, I might get a Black´n´Blue and a Reaper, soon. These are my two next mates for the G12H. I will report back. And for the fun of it: I got a Cel. G12-65 and a Reaper55. I will report how it sounds the other way around.

best regards

Heiko

5

Yes ... the G12Q ... I had not thought about it.  I can see how it would mix well with the old Celestion, though!  I need to spend some time trying that G12Q with other speakers.  Oh ... and the G12Q can EASILY handle 20 true tube watts ... so you're probably okay.

Also ... Dean is working on a new line of speakers with the old Pulsonic cones :-)

6

Hi Vaughn,

a new line with pulsoniesque cones...? Don´t lead me into temptation...

I recieved a Black´n´Blue today and a Reaper which I could trade in for a pair of reconed greenbacks (reconed but 70ies, so it was a fair deal I think). I took chance on trying the mix with my G12H30 55Hz.

The Blue delivered some quite sweet edge of breakup and crunch sounds (and inbetween). Retained some of the sweetness of the Pre-Rola in the sound. But the mix seemed to be all about mids (middy mids ;) as you might insist guitar being ALL about mids).

So the clean was not as open as I expected. This worked well with singlecoils, not so much with buggies. It was nicer with some more push from the amp. At lower volumes I always have the impression of the speakers "choking" in/on the lower midrange. But I think a cab HAS to sound good at lower volumes as well, as I am growing into my 40ies, so I do play with less volume at home as well as on stage. And it keeps me from arguing with the FOH.

The mix with the Reaper sounded a bit less focused at a certain frequency (but maybe it´s my cab dimensions) than with the Blue (which really surprised me). While the cleansounds worked a bit better than with the Blue, they seemed a bit less articulate than I´d prefer. The EoB/Crunch sounds worked well, but did not achieve the Blue sweetness.

Allover I am still surprised - because I think, I liked the G12Q, which comes for a lot less money, better with the Celestion than the Blue or the Reaper. But it delivered, for some unknown reason, the most articulate and transparent cleans of the bunch, by retaining most of the Pre-Rola sweetness of the G12H. Maybe the low gain crunch worked a bit better with the Blue (really nice!) I liked the G12Q the most, regarding the whole range from clean to leadtones.

I will try out the Blue and the Reaper now with my TMB.

Thanks for reading. Hope my findings weren´t too boring or dilettantish...

best regards

Heiko

7

Hi,

 

OK - I did not match anything as good soundig with my Pre-Rola G12H 55Hz as the G12Q. This is still something, adds a little chime and just blends nicely - especially the 3D sounds I get with these two... So I would still recommend it, at least if you are not after plain british tones...

During the last days I was doing a lot of mixing different speakers and noodling around. So I found another very good match, which, sadly, excludes the Pre-Rola.

My favorite mix had been the G12C/G10C mix, which I still love for its "beef and chime" character, giving the all over sound really body´n´bottom, while retaining american flavor. So I still use this - but now with my H&K Puretone (which was meant to be played with my Cel.). It´s a very good fit, because of it being quite a bright beast, profits by the added body.

More for the fun of it, I tried a G12C/Black´n´Blue mix. This is really good. Compared to the G12/G10 mix, it adds a lot of chime and clarity in the upper midrange and delivering some more aggressivity. At the same time, it adds bass. So I had to dial out the bass almost completely with my Havelstar, which has already more than enough bass/lower midrange. So expect to reduce bass at your amp. But then... it really sings.

This is also a good fit, because my Havelstar only delivers 30w by a pair of 5881. For being not nearly that kind of loud 30w an AC30 pushes, I guess the B´n´B will stay on the safer side, even when diming the amp (which I rarely do). It seems a bit strange mixing a 15w with a 75w speaker, but let your ears decide.

By the way - my G12H sits in its own 112cab now - for having a 212 with a pair of G12Q I can still use my favorite mix, if needed.

Thanks for reading, hope it didn´t bore.

best regards

Heiko

8

...did anybody try mixing the G12C (or A) with a Blackhawk?