Never underestimate the power of a speaker change

[paisleywookiee]

A friend and I were messing around with the various Mesa Boogie combos, particularly the new Cali Tweed 2:20, and Fillmore 25. I was kinda meh on the Cali, UNTIL we decided to see how it sounded through the Fillmore’s cabinet. First of all, the C90 sounds WAY better than the shite Jensen in the Cali combo. Second of all, the Celestion C90 was considerably louder at the same exact settings.

So basically, don’t be afraid to try different speakers, it may surprise you how different you might think about an amp you don’t like. Also, the efficiency ratings are no joke. I’m not sure how accurately Celestion measures efficiency vs. Jensen, but they’re listed as a 3dB difference, and I would tend to believe that. We didn’t measure it with an amp, but the C90 was “seat of the pants” louder, in terms of in the room.

 

[andergtr]

speakers are arguably the biggest tonal factor in the amplifier rig.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Reminds me of a story...

The other guitarist in one of my first bands played through a Deluxe Reverb, and on the day of a gig the bastard shows up with a 100 watt Marshall Plexi head. (We were both absolutely LUSTING over Marshalls, and he gets one first!)

So he sets it up on top of his Fender, and uses the speakers in that amp, and it sounded like absolute azz! So he played through the Fender, and the next day goes to take it back to the store, whereupon the sales guy asked him what he played it through. Gave him that key piece of info he needed to know, and he promptly bought 2 Celestion speakers, loaded them into an old Dual Showman cab he had, and there it was: The Marshall Sound!

He still gigs with it to this day, some 40 years later. (Although he did also get a Power Brake, and damn if that amp doesn't sound absolutely amazing!)