5E3 and 12” Alnico - can it sound any better?

I put a 12” Celestion Blue with my champ build.... glorious tones.

i think it reveals more of what is there... 10 & 8” shave off the body of the tone.

 

I have a 5e3 Lil Dawg head that I can run through 7 different speakers (five 10s" and two 12s"). The best sound IMO is through a Weber 10A100 in an oversize solid walnut cab.

 

It could if it was a 5c3 instead...

 

If it was mine, I'd run the 2x10 and the 1x12 together.

More has its own better. Try a Marshall 4x12 full of Celestions. It's a knockout.

The 12A125A is about as close as you can get to the original 5E3 setup. It's all personal preference in the end. I have a Weber alnico Sig 12 in my 5E3, and it is very satisfactory.

 

just like making brownies, every ingredient matters, starting with the strings and the pickups. Once you get a recipe you love, don't ever forget how you did it.

 

If you’ve only tried two different speaker options there’s a 73% chance it can indeed sound better.
A good starting point is ten different speakers but if you have more then all the better.

If it as mine I’d try a Jensen P12N, a Celestion in both blue and gold, then a couple of different greenbacks like the 20,25&30w versions, next an old alnico EV SRO coffee can, then an Eminence Red Ryder because those sound good in almost any amp, next might as well try a Red Fang and maybe back to Celestion maybe more modern like the G1275t which has more bass and less treble and might as well try a V30 because it’s there.
Don’t bother with a G12M65 those are overrated but there’s a couple of other Eminence that are worth trying if you want to be sure you’re getting the best sound.

 

Maybe it's the "A" cone on the 12". Maybe it's the speaker itself. I have had identical Weber speakers and have had them be like night and day.
Did you order the same wattage 10 vs 12? That can make a difference too.

 

schmee, unless I ordered the Weber’s I have found that it is kind of difficult in many situations to be assured that any two of them are exactly alike due to the options that Weber offers. I have asked people what specific Weber speaker they have ordered..what options...and they have had no idea. Weber has codes for some if not all of the options a specific build has These days, but they used to give no indicators of what a speaker actually is.

if I were to order two Weber speakers with the same options and they did not sound very much exactly alike, I would be discussing ‘options‘ with Weber.

 

I have a Mojotone 5f11 tweed vibrolux that has a 12a125a.
Highly recommended.
I swear it sounds like it has reverb.

Gato

 

Yeah, I sold my coveted old 12F150 with an amp I built. I just couldn't take it out it sounded so good. I figured I'd just get a new 12F150. After trying two I gave up and moved on from 12F150's. All had same specs. 12F150, 50 watt, no dope, screen dust cover.

 

I have used alnico Jensen P12R. Really nice break up.

 

I actually took the alnico out of of my 5e3 clone and put in a Jensen c12q instead. Tighter bass and better high end. I play the amp clean all the time, I never drive it.

 

You are missing the final mojo ingredient. You need to take your amp on a mystical roadtrip to the crossroads of robert johnson. You must place the amp in the EXACT center of the intersection. Then you must dance the bluesman shuffle while singing hellhound on my trail. This you must do .

 

Were they all the same breakup option??? I once worked on a 2x12 that had two 12F150s in it. The two speakers were very different...one was an O while one was a T. I did not like the combination.

 

I've been curious about the Alnico Blues. I put a Cannabis Rex in mine, I was trying to save money and found a used on on reverb for a great price. I love how it sounds, but I do eventually want to build one where I go all out just to see what a difference using all premium parts and components will make.

 

All identical. The first one was built by Ted in the early 2000's. It's possible things changed a bit. I know they had some issues with the tight voice coil clearances over the years... their motto was "making it louder every day". Ted said that speaker (then called the C12N) was modeled after a particular time period and model of Jensen C12N that had that clearance.

With Jensen evidently a C12N is a C12N is a C12N. Jensen seemed to have no alt designation for differences within the basic speaker number.
For instance, I have seen like C12Q's with straight cones, curved cones, ribs, no ribs. All ink stamped C12Q

 

i've had the same response regarding sounding like reverb in my 5e3 builds with that same speaker in a pine cab.

play music!

 

If you like the Celestion Blue, you would probably really like the Vox AC15