Speaker Suggestions Please

[adamj]

Currently looking at spending a little bit of cash to put some life back into my gear. This is my current 4x12:

http://www.laney.co.uk/show_prod.php?prod=lx412a

Fortunately I got rid of the craaapp LX120 head and invested in an Orange Th30 head not too long ago. Back in the day (about 7 years ago) i was in a Death Metal band, so i pushed the speakers in my cab with quite a lot of filth, so im looking to compliment my new head as well as get a nice sound from the speakers. The current ones are Celestion Rocket 50's and I quite happy with them, but im a complete novice when it comes to speakers. The cab itself is fine so ill just whip the old ones out, probably one at a time so i can afford it. An suggestions ranging from budget and upwards is fine. I currently playing typical pub rock such as Pink Floyd, Oasis, Killers, Kasabian, GnR, Arctic Monkeys, Rolling Stones kind of stuff, so theres quite a big range of tones.

Also tempted to get different coloured ones (such as orange ;)) as you can see them through the kick grill and its an added bit of flair!

[JJretroTONEGOD]

there is an insane amount of choice!

I'd get 2 x G12M greenbacks and 2 x Celestion V30s, they combine well together.

[Twinfan]

Way too much choice.  You just have to try them out with your head and see what you like the sound of.  There is no "best" choice.

[adamj]

Forgot to say the cab runs on 8ohms if that narrows it down?!

[WeAreNotGentlemen]

You can usually get speakers in either 8 or 16 ohms so you'll be fine. I recommend the Celestion G12h30's with V30's.
For me it's perfect.

[dave_mc]

Forgot to say the cab runs on 8ohms if that narrows it down?!

the cab is whatever the speakers are (combined with the stock wiring), so i don't think it really affects things. Assuming it's the usual series/parallel combo that most 4x12s seem to use, you can pretty much use anything.

that being said...

is the cab any good? It's definitely one of laney's cheaper cabs- is it even ply? if it's not ply i'd just sell it and buy another cab. If it is, it might be worth upgrading the speakers, but four decent speakers are likely to cost you the guts of £300, which is not far off what decent 4x12s with decent speakers cost. Granted if you buy your own speakers you have more choice (as most cabs with decent speakers have v30s), but yeah.

for what you're playing i'd maybe try greenbacks with g12h30s. v30s sound pretty modern to me (though some of those combos which have been mentioned are very nice too, and do tone them down somewhat/a lot). the g12t75 is very nice combined with them, too, but again is a bit more on the modern side of things. Not metalcore modern, but certainly 80s thrash/hair metal type of modern.

EDIT: i've been on a bit of a speaker binge recently, lol. If you're in no rush, I was thinking of ordering another couple of speakers tonight, so you can wait to hear what i think of them. Or else just search in places like tgp and harmony central to see what people think.

if you want to keep the cost down, the eminence gb128 is meant to be pretty nice, but i haven't tried it yet (it's one of the ones i was going to pick up), and is supposedly pretty greenbacky.

[itamar101]

I own a TH30 and IMO nothing works with better with it than V30s

[dave_mc]

yeah oranges are pretty dark, aren't they? might work well. Some of those other options might be too dark (i don't have an orange to try my speakers with, most of my amps are brighter).

you could always get the harley benton cab on thomann... it's gone up a little since i got mine (:D ) but it's still pretty good value. you're getting the cab for like £30 or something like that when you account for the cost of the v30s, and while it's not going to win any prizes, it's a reasonable to decent cab made out of ply that sounds pretty good.

[itamar101]

yeah oranges are pretty dark, aren't they? might work well. Some of those other options might be too dark (i don't have an orange to try my speakers with, most of my amps are brighter).

you could always get the harley benton cab on thomann... it's gone up a little since i got mine (:D ) but it's still pretty good value. you're getting the cab for like £30 or something like that when you account for the cost of the v30s, and while it's not going to win any prizes, it's a reasonable to decent cab made out of ply that sounds pretty good.

The more vintage sounding oranges like the AD30 and OR50 are rather dark and spongy sounding but the more modern sounding one like the Rockerverb and TH30 are have a strong mid range and "present" top end. Certainly not spongy or dark.

[Telerocker]

yeah oranges are pretty dark, aren't they? might work well. Some of those other options might be too dark (i don't have an orange to try my speakers with, most of my amps are brighter).

you could always get the harley benton cab on thomann... it's gone up a little since i got mine (:D ) but it's still pretty good value. you're getting the cab for like £30 or something like that when you account for the cost of the v30s, and while it's not going to win any prizes, it's a reasonable to decent cab made out of ply that sounds pretty good.

I use my Rockerverb 50 sometimes with a Koch 2x12 cab loaded with Jensen VG90's. Doesn't sound dark, just enough of every frequency.

[dave_mc]

i thought the rockerverb was pretty dark :lol: Maybe that's just me :lol:

[adamj]

My orange at the mo sounds great, not really dark sounding but excellent soaring leads when i overdrive the gain channl with my bad monkey.
The celestiin vintage 30's sound good. assuming i can replace just one speaker at a time ( i dont have enough free cash for a new cab or all 4 speakers!) also, only one speaker will be mic'd up at gigs.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

I think I'd say V30's as well.

[Telerocker]

i thought the rockerverb was pretty dark :lol: Maybe that's just me :lol:

Compared to other amps they might sound dark. I had a Koch Multitone before my Rockerverb. Coming from the Koch the Orange sounded way more vintage and darker. It has more character too. Somehow they managed to keep the highs not icepicky, no matter how much treble you dial in. A great thing bec I play most of the time with single coils. On the Rockerverb they don;t sound whimpy. The amp provides a lot of low (land lowmids) when cranked, but it sure has enough highs. It's my workhorse and it cand handle every guitar with authority, though my impression is that strats and tele's sound better on the Orange then mahogany-setneck-guitars.

[dave_mc]

ah right, yeah if you mainly use single coils that makes sense. I generally use humbuckers (though mostly in superstrats or similar).