New Amp Kits

[tomjackson]

"I've seen plenty of Champs with repro 8 Ohm speakers in them (I've got one in the work shop at the moment). This generally doesn't sound that great."

So this is because they are using a 4 ohm tap with an 8 ohm speaker?  They sound bad because of the mismatch?

[jpfamps]

Yes. In my opinion the mismatch doesn't help, and you will definitely lose power.

Now we are lucky are plenty of decent 4 ohm 8" speakers for guitar amps out there, however in the past is suspect that if you blew your Champ speaker you used whatever you could find, which would probably be 8 ohm, cheap and nasty.

[HTH AMPS]

a 12" speaker can transform the weediest of practice amps into something workable, even those Squier 15R combos sound passable through a 4x12 and my Epi VJ sounds very tasty with a crunchbox in the front into a 4x12.

[sgmypod]

well tried Jpamps(thanks) idea of change of cap.....is a subtle change but give it a better sound to me, oh yeah mine is through a 1x12

[jpfamps]

well tried Jpamps(thanks) idea of change of cap.....is a subtle change but give it a better sound to me, oh yeah mine is through a 1x12

The real fun's experimenting once you've built the amp.

I would concur with a 12" speaker and a larger box; I also really like 10" speakers.

[sgmypod]

To be honest I do like 10inch speakers..but flat pack cab was a 1 x 12...may get changed later *L*

Oh yeah thanks again

[tomjackson]

Yeah, I don't think bigger is always better, 10inch cones have a certain zing that 12's sometimes lack, certainly at lower powers.  The new 10inch Celestion Alnico Gold looks good but it will probably be expensive.
I think over about 15watts though you start to need 1x12 or 2x10 to make full use of the amps power.  I wouldn't put a 10 in a AC15 or '57 deluxe kind of amp.  That's where I think the Laney LC15's suffer a bit.  That and the cr@ppy cabinets and cheap transformers.

Rivera have now brought out their pubster with a 12inch driver which is about time, 25W into 1x10 is too much power IMO

[jpfamps]

Yeah, I don't think bigger is always better, 10inch cones have a certain zing that 12's sometimes lack, certainly at lower powers.  The new 10inch Celestion Alnico Gold looks good but it will probably be expensive.
I think over about 15watts though you start to need 1x12 or 2x10 to make full use of the amps power.  I wouldn't put a 10 in a AC15 or '57 deluxe kind of amp.  That's where I think the Laney LC15's suffer a bit.  That and the cr@ppy cabinets and cheap transformers.

Rivera have now brought out their pubster with a 12inch driver which is about time, 25W into 1x10 is too much power IMO

I would tend to agree with this, which I probably why I am not a fan of 50W single 12" speaker combos. One of my favourite amps in the Fender BF Vibrolux which is 2 x10 and 35 Watts. 10" speakers seem to cut through a bit more.

I expect the 10" Celestion Gold will be the same price as a 12" Gold. The magnet, which is the same in both the 10 and 12" Golds, is the major expense in these speakers. I'm not sure though how useful a 45W 10" Alnico speaker is. Most 2 x 10 combos are 30-40 watts, and this will be overkill and v-v-v-v-very heavy in a 4 x 10 combo. I would have thought a smaller magnet/ smaller voice coil 25 W speaker would have been a much better bet. Celstion make virtually all their speakers on a 1.75" voice coil, I expect to save money as much as any thing, so perhaps they didn't want to invest in new tooling to do this.