Carmen Ghia -- Twelve Inch Speaker Ideas

[telel6s]

So I finally got a Carmen Ghia (head only) after desiring one for several years. I've got a couple of different speaker setups (2x10 Carvin Vintage, Weber 15F125, old 15" Magnavox Alnico {yes, it's a HiFi speaker but I like its sound}), but I was surprisingly disappointed with running the Ghia through a 4 ohm, 50 watt ceramic Blue Dog. I love that speaker with my Super Reverb, and a Blue Pup lives in a SF Princeton. With the Ghia, it was harsh and too trebly...turning the tone down on amp &/or guitar and it becomes muddy....very strange as the tone controls worked great with the other speakers. Guitars are a Tele, Hamer Special with p90s, & a '68 Yamaha hollow body.

The question, then, is what 12" speaker? For sound, I like some of the harder alt.country stuff, so I want good overdrive but not into heavy distortion. The speaker is going to be mounted in a Tweed Deluxe cabinet that I'll block off the chassis hole on the top and make a cover for the back which could either be closed-back or semi-open.

I've been thinking about the Weber Signature 12B, or one of the Warehouse Speakers that I've been hearing about, but also wonder about a Signature Alnico since my 10s and Weber 15 are ceramics. I'm not familiar enough with the Emi line to guess which speakers might work for me based off of their descriptions or sound clips.

Thanks!

Oh...and since I just bought the amp I've only got about $50-60 for a speaker.

[tele_jas]

Try a 12" Weber ALNICO blue dog...... Make sure you give it a chance to break in first or you might find it too stiff and harsh. Best to find one already broken in. A cheaper alternative to that would be an Eminence Red Fang (Alnico blue copy).

I HATED my alnico blue speaker, until it broke in... and now I won't own another amp without one - I love it that much!

**** Just seen you had a < $60 budget.... You might find a Celestion V30 for around that? That'd be my 2nd choice, or an Eminence Wizzard. But I'd save up for the Alnico blue, best choice for that style of amp IMO.

[RomanS]

Since you're on a budget, you might try the Eminence Legend 121; that's a speaker from their budget range, but it sounds really good; I play alt.country, too, mostly clean or with low gain OD, and it works very well for that - very punchy, full, muscular sound, plenty of treble, but not harsh, plenty of bass, flat midrange (no nasal V30 sound...); practically nom speaker breakup.

I don't have a Ghia, but it worked well with my Carvin V16 (2x EL84 - a very fickle amp when it comes to speaker choice, due to its overabundance of treble and lack of bass), Peavey Encore 65 (2x 6L6), Epi Valve Jr. (1x EL84), and it currently resides in a cab I use with my JTM45-clone (2x KT66).