Celestion Alnico Blues are my faves, I love the way they chime and the complex, thick tone. Bright but sweet highs, fat but fairly well controlled lows. Handles clean or dirty (up to a point) with equal panache and are suitable for everything from clean country through blues to classic rock. The downside is price and low power handling (15W), although the new Golds are basically Blues with a 50W handling.

However, it does depend on amp, cabinet and style of music. Classic 30s, G12Hs, Greenbacks, old Jensens, EVs, Eminences - all are good speakers in the right situation.

The newer Jensens in the Fenders work fine up to a point, but can get a bit harsh at volume or driven. However, Eminence has a huge range these days that offers the classic sounds and loads of variation on the theme. The EVs and JBLs are ideal for those who don't want speaker breakup at high volume, but weigh an absolute ton (8.5Kgs for the EV and 9.5 for the JBLs) - it looks like the newer Neodymium magnet speakers are taking over from them purely based on weight.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Celestion Alnico Blues are my faves,

Ditto...and the older, the better. Very efficient speakers.

I have to go with Celestion vintage 30's ?

While you're soul searching, can I just say that there now is a Celestion Gold 10? I didn't know....

I read a comparison between the Gold and Blue. Very similar I read, just one had more bass or something. Anyone got experience or knowledge about the differences between these two?

The General consensus is while there are subtle differences, they are pretty near identical and have all the vibe of the Blues.

Sebastian,

What Fender speakers? You are painting with a big brush there... the vintage and reissues like the Princeton & Deluxe use quality Jensen's, but many of the other amps use cheapies, some made by Jensen, others by Chinese suppliers and many do indeed suck.

I like the Jensen C12N, as heard on most records that have a Blackface Deluxe, Princeton, Bassman, Bandmaster etc on, it is a ceramic and well suited to the Fender tone, which I enjoy.

And as Vic shared, Blues, the older, the better.

Cheers

Matt

So alan, the basic intention of the EV is to not change its sound as it gets louder? My set up right now is very dark (mahogany body guitar, alnico 2 push/pull humbuckers, laney lionheart 20w head and marshall 2x12 loaded with celestion g12t-75's). Are the speakers the first thing i should look at changing? The g12t's are very round and mellow sounding. Don't like cutting through...
What characteristics do the EV's have? I'm aiming for an eric johnson type lead tone, blues rhythm and a crystal clean sound eventual. The head can be replaced

Matta

Yes i'm painting with a big brush. i like big brushes ok?? Less strokes ?

The studio i practice in has a fender hot rod deluxe which i plug into. It has "fender special" speakers i think. Terrible terrible. Average cleans and crackly distortion. Yuck. I also owned a solid state fender (possibly doesn't count cuz its a solid state ? ) with the same speakers. Yuck.

But in fairness i tried the new fender super sonic the other day. Comes with 2 vintage 30's. Not my cup of tea... I also tried a bassman reissue. Which i can only presume comes with jensons. I was far too lazy to lean over and look ? they sounded good.

Anybody have any comments between a Celestion G12 Greenback and a Blue.

The greenback being a Ceramic Magnet and the Blue Alnico........

TomCat wrote: Anybody have any comments between a Celestion G12 Greenback and a Blue.

The greenback being a Ceramic Magnet and the Blue Alnico........

I am no expert but the blue alnico speaker is far more efficient than the greenback. The main difference is in the magnet material which in turn determines the magnetic field strength. You immediately hear the difference if you swop out a greenback for a blue speaker. The blue has much better audio clarity.

I'm sure that Karel, Alan and Matta can add a lot more.

vic wrote:

TomCat wrote: Anybody have any comments between a Celestion G12 Greenback and a Blue.

The greenback being a Ceramic Magnet and the Blue Alnico........

I am no expert but the blue alnico speaker is far more efficient than the greenback. The main difference is in the magnet material which in turn determines the magnetic field strength. You immediately hear the difference if you swop out a greenback for a blue speaker. The blue has much better audio clarity.

I'm sure that Karel, Alan and Matta can add a lot more.

It seems the general feeling on the net is that the Blue is better than the greenback in terms of a balanced tone.

The Greenback tends to sound more "Marshall" where the blue is more balanced.

Here are examples of '60's Celestion Alnico speakers.

The silver coloured (actually grey-) ones were used in AC30's from about late '64 to about '68, and the blue finished ones prior to that since about '61.
The celestion in the bottom pic is an earlier G12 used in AC15's and AC30's during 1960. It's essentially a grey or blue speaker without the bell cover. Prior to this Vox used Goodmans speakers.

TomCat wrote: Anybody have any comments between a Celestion G12 Greenback and a Blue.

The greenback being a Ceramic Magnet and the Blue Alnico........

Different animals IMO. Greenback is a bit more aggressive (think Marshall), while the blue is more even and balanced. The Greenback is arguably the best speaker for rock ever, the Blue is a more flexible, sounding great clean or dirty.

Both great speakers, but ultimately it's down to what you like. Take a listen to the most popular speakers in the same amp (Dr. Z Carmen Ghia) , with the same player and the same two guitars (Strat and Les Paul) on all the different switch positions: http://ratcliffe.co.za/sundry/speakers/