WGS Vet 10s in Super Reverb - Initial Review

[11 Gauge]

So I've got a late-60's SR that I've been wanting to put speakers in that are similar to the low power/low efficiency types that they came with from the factory.

I was originally thinking that the speakers I chose had to be alnico, but based on how much I love the pair of Emi GA10-SC64s in my '71 VR, I arrived at the conclusion that it has more to do with the small voice coil, than anything else.

Besides hearing so much positive stuff about the WGS Vet 10s, I also discovered that they have a really low efficiency rating of 93 dB, which is something I absolutely wanted.

The final thing that made me pull the trigger was the price - less than $50 a speaker. Then I discovered that Stew Mac is currently selling them at ~$45 each, and I just couldn't refuse.

I got the quad of speakers installed last night, and was able to spend about 20 minutes or so today trying the amp out. Even prior to any speaker break-in, they sound really good fresh out of the box. I noticed I had to drop the treble down just a bit vs. when I had the previous (very efficient and loud) speakers installed. I also was able to bump up the midrange just a bit vs. before, and it sounds great.

I typically run my SR at around 7 on the vol. dial (vibrato channel), and the Vet 10s are still nice and clean. Even with the volume dimed, things didn't sound overly dirty, so I'm really happy about that.

I've got a DIY Peppermill pedal for a slight bit of dirt, and that sounds great. I've also got a modded Boss SD-1, and that sounds great, too (drive/gain is around 10:00). I've also got a Rat that I tried out briefly, and IMO it sounds better now than it ever has, with any prior combo of speakers in the SR.

So even though it's really early on, I'm already very happy with these speakers. Their lower efficiency has dropped the volume a bit, and they don't sound overly crunchy IMO (what I wanted), and the bass response is also very good (possibly the only other concern that I had). So it's like a win/win/win.

 

[schmee]

Cool, yeah at that price hard to beat. I personally kinda prefer the ceramics that were stock in Super Reverbs myself. Oxford or CTS Ceramics.
But the CTS Alnico's were great too.
Are the Vet's 1" voice coils?
The CTS alnicos were 1.5" I think and the 10L6 oxfords were 1.5" voice coil also.

 

[PhredE]

https://wgsusa.com/vet10#specs

(Don't see a listing of VC size.. oh well)
WGS seems to not put as much effort or emphasize on publishing specs/stats.
Which is probably just fine, as most are essentially inflated or downright meaningless!.

I love my WGS speaker.

 

[corliss1]

Yup yup, have used these a few times in super reverbs when a customer needed all four. Impossible to beat for the price, and very good sound.

 

[11 Gauge]

Are the Vet's 1" voice coils?

Yes, with an 18 oz. ceramic magnet.

The previous four speakers I had installed were:

• Eminence Copperhead
• Celestion G10N-40
• Eminence Ramrod
• Weber California 10 Ceramic

...And it was just way too loud and clean, and I was never thrilled with the overall EQ response. The amp also got a bit lighter after swapping out for the Vet 10s.

 

[11 Gauge]

https://wgsusa.com/vet10#specs

(Don't see a listing of VC size.. oh well)
WGS seems to not put as much effort or emphasize on publishing specs/stats.
Which is probably just fine, as most are essentially inflated or downright meaningless!.

I love my WGS speaker.

They actually snuck in the 1" voice coil info under 'Description' at the top of the page:

"Description

The 10” Veteran™ speaker from WGS® has great, crunchy cone breakup when pushed and touch sensitive cleans with warm overtones. Sporting a 1" voice coil, seamed cone and 18oz magnet, this speaker is loaded with vintage mojo. Whether you are looking for fat, punchy cleans from your low powered combo or vintage American style breakup from your 4x10 the 10” Veteran™ will deliver."

 

[PhredE]

They actually snuck in the 1" voice coil info under 'Description' at the top of the page:

"Description

The 10” Veteran™ speaker from WGS® has great, crunchy cone breakup when pushed and touch sensitive cleans with warm overtones. Sporting a 1" voice coil, seamed cone and 18oz magnet, this speaker is loaded with vintage mojo. Whether you are looking for fat, punchy cleans from your low powered combo or vintage American style breakup from your 4x10 the 10” Veteran™ will deliver."

Argh! I don't like it when they do that!!
Good catch though -- thx.

 

[schmee]

Yes, with an 18 oz. ceramic magnet.

The previous four speakers I had installed were:

• Eminence Copperhead
• Celestion G10N-40
• Eminence Ramrod
• Weber California 10 Ceramic

...And it was just way too loud and clean, and I was never thrilled with the overall EQ response. The amp also got a bit lighter after swapping out for the Vet 10s.

Yeah, I think that is important in a 4 x 10, lightweight and light duty speakers make it magic!
I tried all kinds in 4 x 10 in the past. One Super I had 4 Weber 10F150's ! WAY too loud and heavy, unuseable.

 

[Bob Arbogast]

Nice, 11G!

My 2x10 Deluxe Reverb "clone" now sports a Fat Jimmy C1025 and a Jupiter 10SC. Both of those speakers are slight variations of the Veteran 10. They sound great. Sounds like your Vets do, too!

 

[monkeybanana]

Great review. These were out of stock for a while. Low efficiency is what I want as well so I just ordered one! It will go in my Princeton clone.

 

[homesick345]

Modern speakers - especially Emis (which I love) tend to be too efficient; & too HEAVY for that old traditional sound

Four heavy speakers on a Super baffle board will not sound the same as 4 lightweight speakers, imho

Second the efficiency. Most speakers are too damn efficient.

Finally, back to OP: there's hardly a speaker, 10 12 or 15; I haven't tried with a Super. My benchmark is CTS both alnico & ceramic: the WGS Vet 10 is the best of everything else I tried: it just makes "super reverb" sense

 

[11 Gauge]

Modern speakers - especially Emis (which I love) tend to be too efficient; & too HEAVY for that old traditional sound

Four heavy speakers on a Super baffle board will not sound the same as 4 lightweight speakers, imho

Second the efficiency. Most speakers are too damn efficient.

Finally, back to OP: there's hardly a speaker, 10 12 or 15; I haven't tried with a Super. My benchmark is CTS both alnico & ceramic: the WGS Vet 10 is the best of everything else I tried: it just makes "super reverb" sense

Yeah, the Emi Legend 1028K (which I was strongly considering getting) would probably be just too loud, with its sensitivity of over 97 dB. And the Legend 1058 is almost 99 dB.

The Celestion G10N-40 that I had in there only had a sensitivity of 95 dB, but the 1.75" VC and 20 oz. magnet still made it a bit of a monster 10, IMO. And now that Celestion considers this to be a legacy speaker, it's not as easy to find as it once was (in 8 ohms, anyway).

...And even the Emi GA10-SC64 has a sensitivity of a little more than 98 dB. I have a pair of them in my '71 VR. I have yet to A/B the VR with the SR, but I think that the SR w/the Vet 10s is now much more similar in volume levels to the VR (going by memory). But with the Vet 10s being half the cost of the GA10-SC64s, it would be crazy not to try the Vet 10s first.

I'm so glad that WGS offers the Vet 10 for its low price. The original CTS IMO were just a general duty speaker, so it almost seems wrong to have to pay big bucks for something that replicates one. Yeah, I understand the cost of alnico and all, but IMO that's not the critical aspect of these speakers.

 

[Drew617]

I really like the Vet10 in a few scenarios, nice that the most useful speaker WGS makes (for my purposes) still costs $50. The worst thing I can say about it is that it can be a little too polite, but never unpleasant. I'd choose a ribbed Weber Sig10 if a little more more "character" is required, and those come in 8 ohms only.

I don't know that I've seen it acknowledged, but IIRC the Celestion VT Jr. is very nearly the same speaker as the G10N-40. If not exactly, maybe close enough to have made the 10N-40 redundant. The VT Jr carries a 50W rating so it's at least different in its former, or just the rating.

 

[11 Gauge]

These were out of stock for a while.

Yeah, I got the last two that Stew Mac had on Reverb (as of last Wednesday, 9/15), so I had to order the other two from them via their store on eBay. I was a little worried that I would get notified that the ones on eBay were the same two left on Reverb, but I lucked out.

Hopefully they have more, but just have to list them?

It looks like WGS themselves have them in stock, just at $5 more each. Also not sure if WGS ships for free like Stew Mac did.

 

[Lowspeid]

I just put a Vet 10 in '75 PR, and I LOVE it! I had a Jupiter with the paper voice coil in it, but it was WAY too efficient and loud, and I it was too "compressed" for my taste, so it only lasted a couple weeks. It didn't have the "sparkle" and "openness" of the original oxford (I personally like the sound of old Oxfords in PR's and DR's), but the Oxford is pretty trashed (hence the Jupiter and Vet 10). As soon as I dropped the vet 10 in it, I knew it wasn't leaving. The Vet 10 has that same "clarity" of an old Oxford, but with tighter low end. Love it for my PR.

And after hitting it with a little volume for the last month it sounds even better than when I first put it in, so just wait till you get some break in! I'm absolutely blown away by how good my amp sounds, and I'm sure that SR is going to sound SWEET!

 

[11 Gauge]

I really like the Vet10 in a few scenarios, nice that the most useful speaker WGS makes (for my purposes) still costs $50. The worst thing I can say about it is that it can be a little too polite, but never unpleasant. I'd choose a ribbed Weber Sig10 if a little more more "character" is required, and those come in 8 ohms only.

I don't know that I've seen it acknowledged, but IIRC the Celestion VT Jr. is very nearly the same speaker as the G10N-40. If not exactly, maybe close enough to have made the 10N-40 redundant. The VT Jr carries a 50W rating so it's at least different in its former, or just the rating.

I can understand that, with the Vet 10 maybe being too polite, but I actually would prefer that over them being really crunchy.

I've got a pair of the Web Sig 10s with the straight cones, and IMO they are super crunchy, and didn't have enough bass for my tastes.

Thanks for the info on the Celstion VT Jr. It does indeed look like a G10N-40!

 

[Drew617]

I can understand that, with the Vet 10 maybe being too polite, but I actually would prefer that over them being really crunchy.

I've got a pair of the Web Sig 10s with the straight cones, and IMO they are super crunchy, and didn't have enough bass for my tastes.

Thanks for the info on the Celstion VT Jr. It does indeed look like a G10N-40!

Yeah, Weber advertise those smooth coned speakers as "warm" where I'd say "fuzzy" is a lot more correct. I own one and it's interesting in a 2x10" but is all mids and rasp on its own. Not a good general-purpose speaker, IMO. The seamed Sig10s are much closer to the Vet10: 1" VC, little magnet, undoped seamed ribbed cone. I find those Sigs a little brighter and more likely to sound harsh than the Vet, a good or bad thing depending on the amp it's in. Put another way, the ribbed Sig sounds to me like a more efficient version of the same speaker.

"Such a fine line between stupid and clever," as Nigel Tufnel said.

 

[adjason]

Nice- I finally found a good speaker combo for my super reverb- two cts alnicos and two eminence blue frames....yep low efficiency is where it is at with 4 speakers

 

[11 Gauge]

Yeah, Weber advertise those smooth coned speakers as "warm" where I'd say "fuzzy" is a lot more correct. I own one and it's interesting in a 2x10" but is all mids and rasp on its own. Not a good general-purpose speaker, IMO. The seamed Sig10s are much closer to the Vet10: 1" VC, little magnet, undoped seamed ribbed cone. I find those Sigs a little brighter and more likely to sound harsh than the Vet, a good or bad thing depending on the amp it's in. Put another way, the ribbed Sig sounds to me like a more efficient version of the same speaker.

"Such a fine line between stupid and clever," as Nigel Tufnel said.

The straight cone Sig 10s were one of the first replacements that I put in my '71 VR, and were pretty much the opposite of the sounds I was looking for. Because of that, I was mostly turned off from trying the seamed cone Sig 10s.

I got my Sig 10s probably 12 years ago, and want to say I paid roughly $30 each for them. Kind of crazy to think that I could have gotten the seamed ones for the same price, and potentially have avoided all the speaker swapping I did in the VR, and then probably could have applied that to the SR, too.

It looks like the seamed Sig 10 isn't available anywhere right now, and is out of stock at Weber, too. I guess that's a testament to how good some folks must think they sound!

 

[monkeybanana]

I got '64 Oxford reconed a while back then asked what the equivalent speaker was to use for another amp. I was told the Sig 10. Good thing they are out of stock and I ordered the GWS speaker last night because I ABed the reconed '64 with an old '68 today (same amp using two Princeton cabs) and there was a noticeable difference. Not bad just different. I hope the GWS will sound more like the '68. Playing a MKIII fuzz (I know you are a pedal guru) through them was quite different too. That was educational.