Princeton 68 Reverb replacement Speaker

[Elusivesailor]

I keep hearing that the speaker in the new Princeton 68 Reverb is not high quality. If that is an accurate statement then what speaker would be an improvement and why?

I'm not trying to achieve a specific change but if I can make my amp "better", why not.

 

[PhredE]

Celestion Ten 30 - 10 inch Guitar Speaker - 30W

Celestion Ten 30 - This 10 inch guitar speaker is rich and expressive, combining warm lows with a vocal mid-range and an articulate top end.

celestion.com

A quick search suggests the 10-30 is the default speaker in your amp.

It isn't 'bad' in technical terms, and may sound fine. Can you do better? Probably. Is a speaker upgrade worth the $$$ ? I can't say.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

Funny, I like that Celestion in the Eight 15 ( 8") a lot now, in my Vox Pathfinder 15R ( which bought used, had a 4ohm Crate 8"), but did not care for the Ten 30.
I bought one as an ext.
Speaker for one of my amps, and happened to come in a used Fender Frontman 25R I bought- I just found it to sound, kind of weak or boring?

The Eminence Legend 1058 10" was my answer! They gone up in price, but are IMO, a fantastic cleaner, powerful all-around speaker.
It added clean power with some midrange to my Fender Frontman 25R, and took the 'fizz' out of the amp's Lead ( dirty) channel, which I now use all the time, along w/the Clean side.

 

[Pine Pitch]

I’ve tried about a dozen speakers in that amp. All were better than the ten 30 to my ears.
Really liked the celestion g10h anniversary. The eminence ragin cajun turned it into a very loud little combo.
I’ve settled on a Weber 10f125 with no dope, great vintage tone with headroom.

 

[fretknot]

If you can find one, a JBL E-110 is a remarkable speaker in that amp.

 

[uriah1]

Its relative. You have folks in the ALnico group and the Ceramic group. The grindy group, the bluesy group, the hot rock group and
the american classic group (beach boy and country)
Not sure which version or type your amp came with.

It is sort of like the Indy or F1. If you are just going to drive your car to the store and not take any
backroads or highways you can probably keep regular tires on it.

I am not good at analogies.

 

[King Fan]

As everyone is saying, the 10-30 is not all that well loved. FWIW, it's just about the cheapest 10" speaker on the market.

And as everyone is saying, if *many* other speakers might be better, you have a huge field of contenders. Luckily, the PR (and the '68 CPR) can sound good with quite a few different speakers.

I often like alnico, but to upgrade the 10-30 without spending huge bucks, ceramic -- as found in most vintage PRs -- is highly authentic. I tried the inexpensive WGS Veteran 10 -- nice -- but then swapped that to the also inexpensive Fat Jimmy 10, a 'custom' upgrade of the WGS. And the Fat Jimmy has survived a number of challenges from other alnico and ceramic speakers. Just my experience, but if it helps...

 

[FMA]

Not sure how it would work in a 68 PR, but I have a Ragin Cajun in my SF Princeton and it's a great speaker for that amp. Very efficient. Sounds big, like having a 12 in that amp.

 

[GotA24Fretter]

I actually kind of liked that speaker in my 68 Custom. I can never leave well enough alone so I tried a few I had laying around.

WGS G10C is often recommended for "American" and "vintage" sound. I found it nasal under overdrive and clack-y in the high end.

Eminence Lil Buddy is the next I tried. It's a much more mellow speaker with a huge low end response. This is what's currently in mine. I'm going to live with this for a while as I'm liking what it does. I can easily see how others wouldn't like it, though.

 

[schmee]

An Emi 1058 would be better, more robust, better low end.
The Cajun would be good too.
A Weber 10F150 or 10F150T 50 watt would be even more, much more.

 

['64 Tele]

I've got a 68 Custom PR (for 5-6 yrs) and wasn't thrilled with the stock speaker.
At the time I was swapping it out, I went with a Celestion Greenback, which was an improvement over stock.
Now, Celestion has a 10 inch V-Type available (I've got a 68 Custom DR with the V-type in it) and would have gone with a V-type for the PR if I'd had the chance. I really like the V-type in the 68 Custom DR.
My 2 cents.....

 

[68goldtop]

Hi!

I keep hearing that the speaker in the new Princeton 68 Reverb is not high quality...
I'm not trying to achieve a specific change but if I can make my amp "better", why not.

The "Ten 30" is of totally adequate quality.
If you don't find anything wrong with it and you don't have a specific sonic change/goal in mind, I'd just leave it in there!

I like trying different speakers in amps to hear the differences/nuances and I have more speakers than my wife thinks is "adequate"

But I picked this one (Celestion Ten 30) to use in my ´79 Princeton Reverb for playing out

Another really nice speaker I recently tried was a Jupiter 10SC.

cheers - 68.

 

[randym]

I went with the Eminence GA10-SC64 Allesandro

 

[LostGonzo85]

There are a gazillion Princeton speaker threads out there, and with so many great choices, it's hard to go wrong. I've tried a few, but to me the venerable Weber 10F150T is the winner, hands down. Sounds like a 12" and negates the need to stuff one in there, it's efficient in the bass, which allows me to run the bass knob lower, avoiding the "Princeton flub", and it has gorgeous, 3d clean sounds. There are other speakers out there that will make a Princeton sound "big" but flatten out the 3d Fender sparkle; the Weber doesn't.

Another option that's sort of a polar opposite is the Warehouse Veteran 20. This is a small magnet speaker that, to me, nails some of the charm of the standard Oxford 10J4. That characteristic speaker breakup is part of the sonic signature on countless 70s recordings, and if you want to nail that vibe without the risk of blowing a worn-out speaker up, the Vet does it well, and at a bargain. The Jupiter 10SC and Fat Jimmy C1025 split the difference - they'll break up easier than the Weber, which, even in 25W form, does not really break up in this amp at all, but have more of the 3d effect that the best old Jensens are known for.

 

[LostGonzo85]

This might help as well.

 

[Beachbum]

An Emi 1058 would be better, more robust, better low end.
The Cajun would be good too.

This. My Sweetwater 12" Princeton came with an Emi C-Rex which is a hemp cone speaker that I think is better suited to taming the fine line betwee Fender sparkle and Fender ice pick. I swapped it out for an Emi 1258 and got the clarity I was looking for.

 

[schmee]

There are a gazillion Princeton speaker threads out there, and with so many great choices, it's hard to go wrong. I've tried a few, but to me the venerable Weber 10F150T is the winner, hands down. Sounds like a 12" and negates the need to stuff one in there, it's efficient in the bass, which allows me to run the bass knob lower, avoiding the "Princeton flub", and it has gorgeous, 3d clean sounds. There are other speakers out there that will make a Princeton sound "big" but flatten out the 3d Fender sparkle; the Weber doesn't.

Another option that's sort of a polar opposite is the Warehouse Veteran 20. This is a small magnet speaker that, to me, nails some of the charm of the standard Oxford 10J4. That characteristic speaker breakup is part of the sonic signature on countless 70s recordings, and if you want to nail that vibe without the risk of blowing a worn-out speaker up, the Vet does it well, and at a bargain. The Jupiter 10SC and Fat Jimmy C1025 split the difference - they'll break up easier than the Weber, which, even in 25W form, does not really break up in this amp at all, but have more of the 3d effect that the best old Jensens are known for.

That's my conclusion also. Killer speaker for that amp. Part of what makes that speaker great is Weber uses the same voice coil size etc as the 12", all they did was make it a 10" frame instead of 12". SO yes, it sounds like the 12.

 

[LostGonzo85]

That's my conclusion also. Killer speaker for that amp. Part of what makes that speaker great is Weber uses the same voice coil size etc as the 12", all they did was make it a 10" frame instead of 12". SO yes, it sounds like the 12.

Yeah, I feel like such a fanboy of this particular speaker, but nothing else I've tried comes remotely close to making the amp sound like it's double the watts without sounding sterile or killing the Fender vibe. I play a gig with a rhythm guitarist who's playing through a silverface Princeton Reverb with a ceramic CTS 10", and he's always asking me if mine is modded, has bigger transformers, etc. Nope.

 

[Bob Womack]

Works fine.

Bob