Recommend an inefficient 12” speaker please!

jimmyguitar

Can anyone recommend a low wattage, inefficient 12” speaker for use with my WEM Dominator? I love the edge of breakup sound but dialled in it is too loud. Rather than use an attenuator I was wondering if a speaker change could help? Current speaker is a Celestion G12-50

Cirrus

Here's one. 0dB/watt. Very inefficient.

jimmyguitar

Cirrus said:

Here's one. 0dB/watt. Very inefficient.

That looks ideal! Plate reverb built in too! Is it ceramic?

ecc83

Ooooo! Don't tell ICBM you have a Rocket 50 going spare. He loves 'em!

No, the Rocket is 95dB/W/mtr and that is low sensitivity for a 12" guitar speaker, most are 98-100dB. The only way to get a significant volume loss is a power soak. The good news is the Dommy is only about 15W? That means you can use a cheap Lpad type attenuator. I would go for one specc'ed at 100W (it ain't) but a 50W jobby would probably be fine.

Dave.

steamabacus

There's always the Eminence attenuating speakers, the Reignmaker or the Maverick.

The Reignmaker is 'Britsh voiced' and 92.5 - 98.7 dB variable sensitivity, the Maverick is 'American voiced' and
92.5 - 99.5 dB variable sensitivity

ecc83

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_pa_100_power_attenuator.htm?glp=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnqH7BRDdARIsACTSAdu1OdQkPjiMkk6A9PH-rSbyMaF7SIKngn5rG0uk0P8H8ST9C8uwU3oaAjksEALw_wcB

You will pay that for another speaker. Mind you, many here would say you need that as well! Still, if YOU like it?

Dave.

ICBM

Yes, as Dave says the Rocket 50 (G12E-50) is only 95dB, but that won't actually reduce the volume that much, and they sound sh......

The Jensen P12R at just under 94dB (the lowest I can think of for any 12" guitar speaker) might be a better bet since they do actually sound good, but to get any serious volume reduction an attenuator will still be more effective.

Eminence make a couple of speakers with built-in attenuation via a large knob on the back - the Maverick and Reignmaker - which I think work by winding the magnet out of the coil - but they're fairly expensive and still not as quiet as an actual attenuator.

jimmyguitar

Thanks everyone, I’ll look into the Jensen P12r and attenuator suggestions 

musteatbrain

You could look for an old G12s or G12l Greenback.
I had some in a very similar amp and at home they were quite nice.

I’d avoid the Reignmaker. I had one of those too and it was ok with clean sounds but sounded terrible with any distortion.
An attenuator was far far better.

ecc83

Hmm, I have a Greenback under son's HT-20 head. Yes, nice but I wouldn't call it quiet and I am clinically deaf!

Dave.

stickyfiddle

+1 for the P12R. Sounds good too, at least for Fendery-flavored stuff.

musteatbrain

ecc83 said:

Hmm, I have a Greenback under son's HT-20 head. Yes, nice but I wouldn't call it quiet and I am clinically deaf!

Dave.

Sorry, I should have been more specific about the old lower watt ones

G12L 15w from the 60s is very quiet. 

My other greenbacks aren’t quiet.

tone1

The P12R came out top when I tried a few in my Cornell Romany 1 x 12”...

ICBM

The G12S-20 is pretty quiet, I’d guess about 95dB too, and it’s a very nice-sounding speaker. Some Dominators came with them as stock. ‘Quiet’ is only relative to a Greenback or a G12H-30 though, they’re still far too loud to crank the amp up at home volume.

Even if a G12L is a dB or two lower (it might be, I’m not sure) the same will apply. You really need to be getting down to about 90dB or less for a speaker to be really ‘quiet’ - you might find old hi-fi bass drivers as low as that, but they probably won’t sound any good for guitar. They also tend to be quite fragile.

jimmyguitar

I should add that I’m not talking about home volume, I’m talking about small gigs with a drummer! 

ICBM

jimmyguitar said:

I should add that I’m not talking about home volume, I’m talking about small gigs with a drummer! 

Ah... in that case look for a G12S-20! They're not that common, but the good news is that for a vintage Celestion, they're remarkably overlooked and not expensive.

ecc83

jimmyguitar said:

I should add that I’m not talking about home volume, I’m talking about small gigs with a drummer! 

You have found a drummer that you can stay with with a 15 watt amp and a 95 dibble speaker?!! Never let him leave!

You definitely need a power soak. From what I can deduce, you need the amp cooking but about 5 watts into speaker.

Dave.