15 inch speaker for 5E3

[screamin eagle]

I have been thinking about pairing up my 5E3 with a 15" speaker. I'll likely get a combo cab made for it so I don't have to have a combo and ext. speaker cabinet.
Do any of you have any experience with a 5E3 and a 15" speaker?

Do any of you have any speaker recommendations? I have a weber Sig. 12S alnico in it right now.

I would like a little more bottom end and a little later breakup. I assume that just adding a 15" speaker and pro (5E5) cabinet will add some bottom end before any speaker is concerned, but what would you recommend? I play (try anyway) 40's, 50's 60's music, you pick the genre.

[ac15]

I've got an Eminence Legend 15" that came stock with my Gretsch Executive amp. It sounds like it may be what you're looking for. The amp is clean and it breaks up later on the volume knob than most amps in its power range, but that probably has more to do with the amp circuitry. I really like the speaker though and have no plans to change it, even though I almost always swap out stock speakers. For what it's worth, the amp was made by Victoria amps and that speaker is what they use in their 15" speaker amps.

Sorry, no experience running a tweed amp through that speaker.

[woodman]

i think you're on the right track with the Weber alnico, just not the Sig ... one time, just for grins, i plugged the 15A150 from my brown Pro (still in the Pro cabinet) into my 5E3 and it was fairly majestic sounding. ... if you want later breakup, i'd think about avoiding the Sig series and going for something more efficient like the 150 voice coils. in fact, you could try one of the 12A150 variations and get more and tighter bottom end and later breakup in your existing 12" cabinet. you should be able to sell the Sig for a pretty decent nickel.

[Dr. Bill]

Originally Posted by screamin eagle

I have been thinking about pairing up my 5E3 with a 15" speaker. I'll likely get a combo cab made for it so I don't have to have a combo and ext. speaker cabinet.
Do any of you have any experience with a 5E3 and a 15" speaker?

Do any of you have any speaker recommendations? I have a weber Sig. 12S alnico in it right now.

I would like a little more bottom end and a little later breakup. I assume that just adding a 15" speaker and pro (5E5) cabinet will add some bottom end before any speaker is concerned, but what would you recommend? I play (try anyway) 40's, 50's 60's music, you pick the genre.

It seems to me that you can probably get what you want by replacing the Weber Sig 12S with another 12" speaker. That way you won't have to go to the trouble of replacing the speaker AND the cabinet (which strikes me as a lot of trouble).

I had a Weber alnico Sig 12S in my 5E3 for awhile. It is a wonderful value speaker for getting that snappy Jensen P12R sound at low volumes and it breaks up beautifully, but the bass is not crisp and firm (the alnico circuit has a lot of "give" to it when pushed). I actually went back to the generic Eminence ceramic 12" speaker I originally put in the amp when I got it. It solves the problems you mentioned--it is louder before breakup and the bass is more firm. If you want to go that route, Victoria is now putting Eminence Legend 1258 ceramic speakers in their 5E3 clones, and that would be a good place to start. Hope this helps.

Dr. Bill