DRRI - Celestion Gold .. worth it ?

[uriah1]

This is about the last speaker I havent tried yet, everything
I have seen written and heard, sound great...SO...worth the cost?????

Ultimate tone....that is what it is all about , isn't it.

Can never find those bad boys (Celestion gold 12) on ebay or craig..
people hold on to them.

(besides, someone needs a shiny gold christmas present)...lol

 

[InyoTim]

I invested in a Gold for my Super Champ. It was money well spent. All the good things said about this speaker are true.

 

[uriah1]

tks..just polling here before I go for it.

 

[dmarcus30]

This is about the last speaker I havent tried yet, everything
I have seen written and heard, sound great...SO...worth the cost?????

Ultimate tone....that is what it is all about , isn't it.

Can never find those bad boys (Celestion gold 12) on ebay or craig..
people hold on to them.

(besides, someone needs a shiny gold christmas present)...lol

Search YouTube, there are many very helpful speaker comparison vids....The Golds sure sound great but I wonder if a Weber Blue (Pup or Dog, depending on the speed of breakup you want) might do the trick at a much lower price point.

 

[jmaul]

great speaker. Worth it? depends. I think there are a lot of really great sounding speakers for a lot less $$...

 

[uriah1]

great speaker. Worth it? depends. I think there are a lot of really great sounding speakers for a lot less $$...

Yea, but, I have been through about 9 of them..

 

[uriah1]

Search YouTube, there are many very helpful speaker comparison vids....The Golds sure sound great but I wonder if a Weber Blue (Pup or Dog, depending on the speed of breakup you want) might do the trick at a much lower price point.

The wattage on the pup seems a little low in comments I have read.

 

[Singin' Dave]

I Love my Golds! Have one in a SFDR and another in a SFPR. Really sweet sounding speaker that definitely gets most of the way to a Blue with more power handling.

But is it worth $250-$300? Hard to say....that's a lot of cheddar. Best price I found when shopping was at avatar speakers. I must have been flush that week.

 

[jmaul]

Yea, but, I have been through about 9 of them..

If you have already been through 9 great speakers- what are you expecting to find from the golds that the others did not offer?

I have a gold, btw, so I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but I'm not particularly sure it is better than my EV12L, my well broken in weber blue dogs, or the weber 12F150.

 

[mabley123]

im sure the celestion will sound good in the amp. theres really only 1 way to find out. im sure it will sound really good but is it the sound you want ? thats the question we all ask when we buy anything the contributes for out personal quest for tone.

for me if im going to spend 200 + on a speaker its going to be an EV, JBL ( my favorite ) fane, altec lansing. i can buy a used jbl e120 for 200 or less....less most of the time. i did pay 500 for 2. but i also got 1 for 130. you just have to wait and look.
santan recones his with hemp cones.

im really a jbl guy but.....the ev12L is 1 of the best speakers ever made and i would love to have some myself. i have 2 x15 altec 418 8h and have thought about buying 2 ev15l. it is a tug of war for me over the jbl e130 or the ev 15l.

the ev 12l is similar to the jbl e120 .. it can handle alot of wattage and is very efficient. if you ever try either one of these and you like it..it will last forever...especially in a deluxe reverb. i think the jbl e120 is a bit brighter than the ev. the ev is more neutral sounding is what reviews i have read. im told steel guitar players like the jbl's.

some people like the sound of speaker breakup and amp distortion combined and im not saying it doesnt/cant sound great but.....

if you look at dave gilmores hiwatts and the original fane speakers..they are very hi output and amongst the most efficient speakers made. fane were the first to break the 100db @ 1 watt @ 1 meter.
hendrix went through all the celestions of the day and towards the end was experimenting with jbl d120f. it seems he was trying to find high wattage speaker as he played on 10 and was blowing them all the time.
his showman amps at monterey were equipt with jbl d130f"s.
steve howe had his 2 fender dual showman reverbs ( 2- 2 x 15 cabinets each ) and 2 twin reverbs ( i know it was the 70's ) fitted with jbl d130f and d120f.
srv used both jbl and electro voice.
dick betts and duane allman both took the celestions out og=f thier marshalls and replaced tham with jbl d120f.
warren haynes uses ev.
santana uses jbl e120 reconed with hemp cones
jerry garcia known for huge amounts of speakers but not really my bag ( was great on many crn&y tunes on pedal steel ) went through all the jbl series and was using the e120's. and yep..he did blow them.
eric johnson has used/uses ev and jbl.

my point here is that most of these guys are running speakers that are way more powerful than vintage celestion, jensen, cts ect..and arent getting much speaker breakup. especially if you consider how many of them they use. there amps are in no way pushing the speakers very much.
if you have 100 watts of anything and you have a 4 x 12 cabinet and 4 ev's in it? jbl e120... you got 600- 800 wartts of rms power capable speakers being pushed by 100 watts. ??????? thats 6- 8 to 1 amp output to speaker capability.

gilmore says he likes the cleanest signal possible and then dirties it up himself.

some people like more speaker break up. some dont.

 

[crackpot]

I haven't tried a Gold in a DR but when I pulled the Blue from my Maz Jr -- where it sounds great -- and put it in my VS112P (PR Clone) I thought it was the worst amp/speaker combination I'd heard in a long time. Not remotely in the blackface neighborhood. At any volume.

You might try hooking your amp to a cabinet with a Gold at a local music store to check it out with your own ears before buying.

 

[uriah1]

im sure the celestion will sound good in the amp. theres really only 1 way to find out. im sure it will sound really good but is it the sound you want ? thats the question we all ask when we buy anything the contributes for out personal quest for tone.

for me if im going to spend 200 + on a speaker its going to be an EV, JBL ( my favorite ) fane, altec lansing. i can buy a used jbl e120 for 200 or less....less most of the time. i did pay 500 for 2. but i also got 1 for 130. you just have to wait and look.
santan recones his with hemp cones.

im really a jbl guy but.....the ev12L .

I had EV SRO...nice sound but so heavy it started to pull my baffle out....never tried the JBL..I believe those are ceramic ...with real high fidelity

 

[mabley123]

yeah the jbl e series are ceramic. they are heavy too. 18lb magnet. around 20-21 lbs. im not so worried about the weight. the jbl df and k series are alnico.
srv replaced the baffles in his jbl...ev equipt amps.

ted weber says his favorite speaker is the jbl d120f

heres a little info on srv stuff.

The Vibroverbs and Supers had 3/4" plywood baffle boards to accomodate the weight of the speakers. The EVM's larger magnets required repositioning some of the transformers in the chassis. In the later years, the Vibroverbs had Super Reverb-style transformers. The first channel from the phase inverter tube were disconnected, and the tremolo disabled (by disconnecting the wires from the intensity control - don't try this at home unless you want to turn yourself into a light bulb).

Around 1989 Stevie also took a couple of 4x10 Fender reissue Bassmans on the road, but the speakers were replaced. probably with ev. jbl e110 were used in the super reverbs
John V. recalls working the stage in the late '80s and noticing an "old-style Fender footswitch ... and the top 4x12 cabinet had its top two 12's wired so that they could be shut off and their place in the speaker-wiring replaced with a line over to the JBL in the Vibratone Leslie cabinet, which was mic'd thru the PA. Switch choices: full 8x12 stack, or six of the eight 12's in the stack plus the Vibratone. This slammed a lot of power into the single speaker in the Leslie and there was a box of replacement drivers on stage for it."
the speaker he chose to slam the power into was a jbl e130 which has a 105db sensitivity.

 

[rokdog49]

IMHO The Weber 12F150 Light Dope sounds very comparable for a lot less $$

 

[Wally]

For the DRR, I like the EMinence Legend GB 128. Since you don't say which 9 speakers you have tried, so the only thing we can surmise is that you didn't like the JEnsen C12K, right? I don't either. The Emi Legend 128 improves the DRRI a lot....bigger low end, warmer highs...smooth distortion characteristics...woody tone. Caution: it is high efficiency.
For my money, I have yet to hear a Celestion that justifies the expense. YMMV.....and ime after big bucks are spent I find very few people who will be willing to deny that the money was well-spent. Human condition, ime.
I just traded for a 3rd Super Champ. IT came with the OEM speaker in a box and a Celestion ceramic G10 installed in the amp. The G10 couldnt' hold a candle to my Super Champs that have Eminence Alnico LEgend 1028's in them....and the fellow who made the trade agreed. He and his significant other went wide-eyed at the difference....actualy said "I can't believe that there is that much difference.". The EMinence 1028 costs me about $22 less wholesale than does the Chinese built G10 and smokes it for sonics in any area you want to name...lows, highs, clarity, distortion characteristics. The Emi 1028 is about 5 times cheaper wholesale than is the Celestion Gold Alnico!!!
I dislike that the Celestion company is no longer English-owned, and that the profits for the most part--90% of the speakers are not made in England but are priced exorbitantly because they have the Celestion lable on them---- are being made on reputation and cheap, cheap, cheap labor.
Do some research and you'll understand....or you might not care.
The inexpensive WEber Signature speakers are built with that same cheap labor, but they are priced accordingly, ime.

I have a '63 FEnder PRinceton 6G2 sitting here with a Weber Blue Pup Ceramic in it. What a huge sound! Smooth, articulate, full range...

I like Eminence and Weber speakers.

Steve Miller---
"Lliving in the USA....
Somebody buy me a cheeseburger!"

 

[uriah1]

For the DRR, I like the EMinence Legend GB 128. Since you don't say which 9 speakers you have tried, so the only thing we can surmise is that you didn't like the JEnsen C12K, right? I don't either. The Emi Legend 128 improves the DRRI a lot....bigger low end, warmer highs...smooth distortion characteristics...woody tone. Caution: it is high efficiency. "

Isnt the EMI legend the same as the EMI speaker in the DRRI pre C12K..
gold label in their DRRI? I tried those...not much..not bad..though

 

[crackpot]

IMHO The Weber 12F150 Light Dope sounds very comparable for a lot less $$

I don't think the 12F150 sounds at all like a Celestion. But it does sound terrific in a small blackface Fender.

 

[etiquettemona]

No.
If you don´t want it to.

 

[Wally]

Isnt the EMI legend the same as the EMI speaker in the DRRI pre C12K..
gold label in their DRRI? I tried those...not much..not bad..though

Uriah, my apology. I left off a couple of letters that better identify the specific Eminence LEgend to which I am referring. The Emi Legend that FEnder used in the DRRI prior to the JEnsens would of course be the 'clone' of the vintage Jensen C12N, I would think.
The Eminence speaker I am referring to is the LEgend GB128....it is a British cone speaker. The Eminence Private Jack is the 'Red Coat' version..possibly the same speaker with a higher price tag. The two spec out very simularly.
I have been using the GB128's since long before Emi came out with the Patriot and REd Coat series of speakers. I discoverd the GB 128 when I was looking for a higher efficiency speaker to replace the low-efficiency OXfords in a late '60's PRo Reverb. Fender BF/SF circuits seem to love this speaker, ime.

 

[johnreardon]

I have a Celestion Gold, which BTW is made in UK, and it's an amazing speaker for my type of, mainly blues style playing. I have it housed a Torres 1x12 cab and drive it with an Orange TT.

I bought a DRRI a few months ago and drilled the 4 extra holes into my Gold to fit into the DRRI. I fitted the Gold into the amp and gigged it a couple of times. To be honest, I didn't like the Gold in the amp. There seemed to be something missing that I was getting with whatever the stock speaker is, so I swapped them back.

I still love the Gold in the Torres cab and the DRRI as it was when I bought it