Anyone compared the two?
I’m very pleased with my Studio 10 6L6 but wouldn’t mind a bit more headroom/volume.
Now the Blackstar is rated at 10W and the BK12 is rated at 15W. However both have a single 6L6 in the power stage so I’m wondering if 15W is, perhaps, being a little optimistic and it wouldn’t actually be any louder.
Yet to try a BK12 but would welcome opinions (or even other suggestions that would give a similar sound). Not keen on a Fender Blues Junior - they have a certain ‘harshness’ to their sound that I don’t like plus I know people who have had some major reliability issues with them.
Another possibility might be to just run the Studio 10 through a better speaker than the fitted Celestion Seventy-80.
(Budget is up to £700 ish)
I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
Comments
I'm not sure how well regarded the seventy-80 is, but someone here (again wiser than me) should chip in with a speaker suggestion with a better sensitivity
But I think if the question is "I like this amp, just want slightly more headroom" then a different speaker might be the answer.
I would probably pick a G12H-30 for clean headroom, but if you can afford it an Alnico Blue would probably be even better - they’re the same sensitivity on paper, but the Blue sounds louder to me. The V30 is very loud, but also has a slightly dirty aggressive midrange tone that may not be what you're after.
I also agree with Dave that any claim for over 100dB probably needs to be taken with a pinch of salt... for example Eminence claim 103dB for the Red Fang - but it’s no louder than the Celestion Blue. The only ones I know of which seem any louder are the Electro-Voice EVM, Celestion Sidewinder and Century (first model, not Vintage) and Peavey Black Widow, and even those are marginal, around 101dB.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I've also seen it myself when I swapped out a Celestion with a 94dB sensitivity for an Eminence with a 100.2dB sensitivity and couldn't believe how much louder it was.
The Alnico Blue (according to Celestion's website) comes in 8 or 15 - I assume that 15 is either a typo or that it's close enough?
Thanks
15 and 16 ohms are the same thing, 15 ohm is used for historical reasons on some speaker models - they were described as that before the ratings were standardised at 4/8/16 etc.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Ah, turns out a speaker swap is less easy than I’d assumed - the Seventy-80 is about 4.7” deep and isn’t far off touching the amp’s inner working. The Celestion Alnico Blue is 6.5” deep. So, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going to fit. Would probably need an external cabinet.
I was just browsing amps this morning and noticed that the Tone King Gremlin is rated at 5W from a single KT66 (which I gather is a 6L6 equivalent or thereabouts). So we’ve got the Gremlin putting out 5W, the Blackstar putting out 10W, and the Supro putting out 15W. Quite a difference. Is that because there’s other stuff going on in the higher-rated amps? Or because some run hotter than others? Or they don’t all use the same criteria for measuring the output?
Celestion might try to tell you that, but it doesn’t - it sounds more like an alnico version of a V30. They’re the same size as the Blue as well.
The alnico Cream apparently sounds closer to the Blue, but I haven’t heard one yet.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein