Johan Segeborn | 1 decade ago

In this clip I compare 27 Celestion 12 inch guitar speakers. I'm using a 2013 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom Shop Aged and a 1982 Marshall JCM800 4104. The Speakers are all mounted in the same Cabinet, an all ply Marshall JCM800 1933 1x12 closed back. It was recorded using two 1960s BeyerDynamic M160 Ribbon Microphones. The soundinterface is an Apogee Duet and the DAW is an Ipad with Cubasis. The 4104 JCM800 Amp settings are: preamp 2, master 1, bass 2.5, treble 6, mid 10, prescense 7, high input jack. I'm going for a typical seventies hard rock tone a la Jimmy Page.

Recorded dry at low volume. Thus it can be argued that speaker distortion necessary to bring out the character of the different may not develop, especially for the higher watt models. I do however believe that this test gives a fair estimate on how the speaker relate to each other.

The purpose is to identify the differences between the speakers. As a result I keep the room mic lower than I otherwise would have to avoid reverberation lower mids that mask the sound. This makes it less warm too however. Usually I would have used some compression to give it some body even at lower playback volumes.

The speakers are:

1. 1983 G12H-100 1:06
2. 2013 G12K-100 1:39
3. 1973 G12H-30 55Hz T1281, Pulsonic 1:57
4. 2014 G12H-30 55Hz Heritage 2:51
5. 1971 G12H-30 55Hz T1281, Pulsonic (May be Pre Rola) 3:24
6. 1976 G12H-30 55Hz T1281, Kurt Mueller, "Black Back” 3:58
7. 1970 G12M-25 75Hz T1221, Pulsonic, Pre Rola 4:55
8. 1995 G12M-25 75Hz Reissue 6:01
9. 1980 G12-65, 1777 7:13
10. 2014 G12-65 Heritage 7:48
11. 1982 G12-65, 1777 8:23
12. 1971 G12H-30 75Hz, Pulsonic, Pre Rola 8:55
13. 1974 G12H-30 75Hz, Pulsonic, “GreyBack” 10:07
14. 1978 G12-80, 1777 10:41
15. 2014 Classic Lead 80 (G12-80), 1777 11:14
16. 1993 G12-80, 1777 12:11
17. 1965 AlNiCo Silver B025 12:43
18. 1988 Vintage 30, 444 13:40
19. 2013 Vintage 30, 444 14:14
20. 1989 G12M-70 15:07
21. 1987 G12T-75 15:42
22. 2010 G12T-75 16:14
23. 1999 G12T-75 16:49
24. 1979 G12-125 17:22
25. 1991 G12B-150 17:56
26. 1993 G12T-100 18:29
27. G12F-60, RockDriver Junior. 19:02

Cheers!
Johan