Light speaker = shite speaker, heavy speaker = good speaker?

mellowsun

Just replaced the Celestion Rocket 50 speaker with a Greenback in a cheap valve amp. Aside from the huge improvement in tone, I was surprised at how light the Rocket 50 was in comparison to the Greenback. Probably about 1/3 - 1/2 the weight.

I know nothing about speakers, but is it generally true that light speakers are worse for guitar tone than heavier ones?

Jalapeno

No - alnico magnets are lot lighter, there's just crap ones and good ones, heavy & light

ICBM

mellowsun said:

Just replaced the Celestion Rocket 50 speaker with a Greenback in a cheap valve amp. Aside from the huge improvement in tone, I was surprised at how light the Rocket 50 was in comparison to the Greenback. Probably about 1/3 - 1/2 the weight.

I know nothing about speakers, but is it generally true that light speakers are worse for guitar tone than heavier ones?

In my opinion, yes.

Although Alnico magnets are generally lighter than ceramic, not that much, and heavier Alnicos still sound better than light ones, to me. Heavier-magnet speakers also tend to be more sensitive (efficient).

"Better" depends to an extent on personal taste once you get up to a "good" weight though - there is a characteristic difference between the 'M' magnet Celestions (35oz, like the Greenback) and the 'H' magnet ones (50oz, like the V30) which goes across most of the different types with each weight, but both sound good. Even some of the 'L' and 'S' magnet ones sound OK, although not as powerful as the Ms and Hs.

Neodymium-magnet speakers are very much lighter and are as sensitive as the heavier Alnicos and ceramics, but have a different tone, which I personally don't like - although I certainly haven't tried all the available models.

The Rocket 50 is a cheap light weight ceramic and a complete piece of junk in my opinion though. I can't think of a worse-sounding 12" speaker!

Drew_TNBD

Follow the man rules - if it's heavy, it must be good!

randomhandclaps

Must admit I have tried a lot of speakers and have never found a light one that I have really loved.

ecc83

Trouble is of course it is easy to tell a heavy cab from a light one even if you cannot see the speaker and now we "all know" heavy is better!

I don't know if the S145 combo was the only production amp loaded with Century Neos but I cannot recall anyone complaining about them?  I, and other people did a fair few custom swaps for "artists" but I do not ever recall a 45 change?

Speaking of SPEAKERS Paul???

Dave.

mellowsun

ICBM said:

Neodymium-magnet speakers are very much lighter and are as sensitive as the heavier Alnicos and ceramics, but have a different tone, which I personally don't like - although I certainly haven't tried all the available models.

The Rocket 50 is a cheap light weight ceramic and a complete piece of junk in my opinion though. I can't think of a worse-sounding 12" speaker!

My AER amp had neodymium magnet speakers, maybe they are better for acoustic instruments?

The Rocket 50 wasn't great. All guitars sounded the same through the amp, until I put in the Greenback, and now my Strat sounds more like a Strat should, nice and bouncy with a good bottom end

ICBM

mellowsun said:

My AER amp had neodymium magnet speakers, maybe they are better for acoustic instruments?

Quite likely - they seem good for PA as well.

Catthan

I used 2 century vintage neos for a while. Strangely they sounded better at home volumes and a bit worst at gigs; the opposite of the v30-type speaker the were replacing. But the weight reduction was certainly worth it imho.

Bygone_Tones

The smaller magnet speakers are better suited to lower powered amps in my experience. The G12S get a bad rap but are actually nice speakers with the right amp, say something like an 18 watt or 15 watt amp. However the G12L are a bit too weedy for my liking.

 

ICBM

Bygone_Tones said:

The smaller magnet speakers are better suited to lower powered amps in my experience. The G12S get a bad rap but are actually nice speakers with the right amp, say something like an 18 watt or 15 watt amp. However the G12L are a bit too weedy for my liking.

I quite like them in AC30s, surprisingly! They have something of the same sort of tone as the Alnicos - bright and jangly top, rich and slightly dirty mids, not a lot of bottom end - but are a lot less sensitive so you can drive the amp much harder without deafening people. I recently put a pair in an old AC30 with damaged speakers for a friend, they sounded great.