46
GUITARBUYER
NOVEMBER 2006
CELESTION GOLD
BRITAIN’S CELEBRATED VINTAGE GUITAR SPEAKER
EVOLVES WITH A CHANGE OF COLOUR AND A KICK
UP THE POWER BACKSIDE. MICK TAYLOR
CONSIDERS BLUES, GOLDS AND WONDERS
IF YOU’LL BE TURNING GREEN WITH ENVY
QUICKBLAST SPEAKER CELESTION G12 ALNICO GOLD
➔
47
GUITARBUYER
NOVEMBER 2006
The fabled Celestion Blue
sits right up there with
The Fender Stratocaster and
Gibson Les Paul as a benchmark
in classic guitar tone and
history. It was the first
loudspeaker – first known as the
‘Bulldog’ – designed specifically
for guitar, used most famously
in the original Vox AC30,
helping no end to create that
combo’s characteristic
shimmering highs, warm
midrange, captivating overdrive
and high perceived volume.
Rated at a mere 15 watts, it’s easy to
push the Blue to a sweet spot where
it’s working hard, in conjunction with
a low-powered amp, for a wonderfully
rich tone, chock full of harmonics. A
little power stage distortion, plus some
speaker breakup makes for classic
guitar tone, which is all very well until
you start using a more powerful amp –
the Blue simply can’t cope with
today’s 50 and 100 watters. Welcome
then, the Celestion Gold.
LITTLE BIG VOICE COIL
Quite why it’s taken Celestion this
long to redress the situation and offer
a tonal equivalent to the Blue with
higher power capacity, is something
of a mystery when you look at the
sum total of the tweaks. According to
the marketing materials, Celestion has
come up with a new voice coil, albeit
after extensive R&D and testing, that
brings the power handling capacity up
to 50 watts, while keeping the tone
and response of the Blue. There have
been tweaks to the cone too, but
Celestion is remaining tight-lipped
about the specifics. Critically, the Gold
retains the alnico magnet design,
generally regarded to be less muscular
sounding than more modern ceramic
types, but richer in terms of
harmonics, and less harsh for classic
rock, roots and blues tones. Most
guitar players will know the term
‘alnico’ from guitar pickups, where
this alloy of aluminium, nickel and
cobalt is used for magnets. It brings
similar sonic and dynamic traits to
speakers when compared with
ceramic magnets, though is said to
be significantly more expensive.
Along with UK manufacturing,
that undoubtedly contributes to
the Gold’s high price.
To get an idea of how the Gold
sounds, we mounted it in a Vox AC30
Custom Classic, next to a reissue
Celestion Blue of the same impedance
and wired them separately, so we
could A/B test with different
amplifiers: the AC30 (set to lower
volumes), a Matamp C7 and the
Orange Tiny Terror. Upping the power
for the Gold, we used a Mesa Lone Star
and this issue’s WKZ Little Devil. For
comparison with the higher powered
amps, we used a Celestion Classic
Series G12H (30W) and a Mesa Black
Shadow C90 (90W), in separate
cabinets of roughly the same size,
materials and design as the AC30 box,
to try to keep the cabinet effect more
or less constant: obviously speakers
will sound very different in
different boxes.
FANCY A DRIVE?
With the Matamp C7 sat atop the Vox
cabinet, initial play testing confirms
Celestion’s claims in that the Gold
indeed has the requisite richness and
musicality we’d expect from alnico.
The 15-watt Blue breaks up that bit
earlier as you’d expect, where the Gold
holds its ground with a handful of
watts from the Matamp. As the amp
breaks into power-tube distortion, the
Blue is adding to the drive colour with
its own flap, while the Gold lets you
hear more of the amp itself at these
relatively modest power levels. It
QUICKBLAST SPEAKER CELESTION G12 ALNICO GOLD
CELESTION G12
ALNICO GOLD
PRICE: £239
BUILT IN: UK
TYPE: 12-inch guitar
speaker
FEATURES: 50 watts
power handling, 100dB
sensitivity, pressed steel
chassis, round copper
voice coil, alnico magnet.
Available in 8 and 15 ohm
variants
MOUNTING: Overall
diameter 309mm, overall
depth 165mm. 4 mounting
slots (7.9mm diameter),
cut-out diameter 283mm
WEIGHT: 4.2kg (9.3lbs)
CONTACT:
Celestion International Ltd
PHONE: 01473 835300
WEB: www.celestion.com
GBINFO
CELESTION G12
ALNICO GOLD
GOLD STARS
‘Blue’ tone, but at
higher power: nuff said!
BLACK MARKS
Extremely expensive
GBRATING
...
■ For the first part of
this test, the Blue and
the Gold are wired
separately for A/B
testing in the same cab
■ This is all looks
remarkably similar to
the Blue, but inside
lies a beefier voice coil
A FABULOUSLY RICH, HIGHLY
MUSICAL SOUNDING DRIVER
GBOPINION
■ All that glitters?
For the right kind of
amp, without a doubt
OFFERS A SIGNIFICANT
TONAL IMPROVEMENT TO
ANY NUMBER OF AMPS
48
GUITARBUYER
NOVEMBER 2006
never sounds constipated or strangled,
though, like some higher powered
speakers can before they’re working
hard. It’s much the same story with
the other amplifiers, in that the ‘sweet
spot’ – where the amp and speaker are
working together best – comes at lower
power with the Blue, even if there’s
not a huge difference in perceived
volume. We’re dealing with a very
efficient 100dB (measured at 1 watt/1
metre) for both speakers, remember.
Upping the power, it’s time to
disconnect the Blue and compare the
Gold with the more powerful drivers,
and it’s here you start to hear a more
marked difference. Celestion’s G12H is
a highly regarded speaker, but
compared with the Gold it has a less
vocal-like quality to the mid range;
less ‘Brian May’ factor is how it strikes
me. Its reaction under distortion is
■ There’s a great deal of
confusion when it comes to
power and volume: put simply,
a 100-watt amp or speaker is
most definitely not twice as
loud as a 50-watt equivalent.
When buying a replacement
speaker, you should be aware of
a number of things to, help point
you in the right direction.
■ POWER HANDLING:
Measured in watts (W). The
maximum wattage the speaker
can take. If you exceed the
stated rating, you risk blowing
the speaker. A 100-watt
speaker on a 20-watt amp may
return a clinical feel. Conversely,
a 50-watt amp into a 50-watt
speaker is likely to cause the
speaker to distort more and
colour your tone.
■ IMPEDANCE: Measured
in ohms (Ω). Critically
important, because amps
are designed to operate
at a specific impedances.
Mismatching them with
the ‘wrong’ speaker load
may cause damage to the
amp. Be aware that wiring
multiple speakers in series
or parallel results in different
impedance figures.
■ EFFICIENCY: Measured in dB
at 1 watt / 1 metre (dB).
Nothing to do with either of the
above, but drastically affects
sound. Decibels work on a
logarithmic scale, meaning that
roughly for every +3dB
increase, the volume doubles.
You soon see the tonal
significance of two speakers
rated at 97dB and 100dB
respectively, though bigger is
not always better, Many people
like the sound of less efficient
drivers, while some players like
the direct power delivery of a
modern, efficient speaker.
A QUICK GUIDE TO WHAT MAKES YOUR EARS BLEED
VOLUME, POWER & EFFICIENCY
different too, in that the G12H stays
tighter, dare we say somewhat more
clinical-sounding than the Gold, also
very much the case for the Mesa C90
which sounds downright clunky in
comparison at low power.
Now we’re into Marmite territory,
though – love it or hate it – because
the fact of the matter is that some
guitar players like their speaker to stay
tight, focussed and defined, and some
don’t. For example, hard rock and
metal (and testosterone-fuelled blues
or country players for that matter)
tend to like high-power speakers. JBLs
were a popular mod for silver-face
Fender Twins, and 200-watt
ElectroVoice drivers have turned up in
amps from Mesa Boogie to Marshall
and beyond over the years.
Conversely, many classic rock and
blues-rock guitarists like an element of
break up and colour from the speaker,
favouring drivers like the much lauded
Celestion G12M Greenback, older
alnico-magnet Jensens and of course
the Blue. The Celestion Gold falls
squarely into this latter camp,
meaning that partnering it with the
‘right’ amp is critical for your own
musical nirvana. That’s to say only
you know how much you want your
speaker to colour your tone. To put
you in the ballpark, we’d say the Gold
is ‘cleaner’ than a Blue or a Greenback,
slightly smoother and more ‘vintage’
sounding than the 30-watt G12H, but
not as ‘clean’ as a Vintage 30 or indeed
pretty much any other higher
powered speaker. My own personal
view is that the Gold is going to work
fabulously with Hand-Wired Marshalls
and amps of that ilk, particularly the
2061X head. I’d also bet a pair would
sound magic in a ’65 Reissue Fender
Twin, too, or indeed on the end of
most 40-80-watt classic-style Fenders.
Higher-powered Voxes and their many
derivatives as well, for that matter.
CONCLUSION
The Celestion Gold is a fabulously
rich-sounding, highly musical driver
for classic rock and rock’n’roll, that
does exactly what it says on the tin: it
retains the tone of the Blue, but with a
higher power handling capacity.
Naturally, it takes more oomph to get
it singing, but once it is, the Gold
offers a significant tonal improvement
to any number of amps – assuming
you want speaker colouration in your
tone, of course – not to mention a kick
of extra perceived volume thanks to
that 100dB sensitivity rating.
Price is the thorny issue; alnico
magnet material and ‘made in
England’ means you need to be made
of money and, as such, it’ll be a
painful outlay to upgrade something
like a Fender Blues Deluxe or, gulp,
any 4x12 cab. Boutique, vintage-type
combos and reissues are the more
likely targets, with this driver making
enough of their sonic complexities
and high quality components to
warrant the investment. Brilliant,
but only for the discerning. GB
■ As you can see, the Gold’s alnico magnet is a
different shape to a standard ceramic magnet.
Measure your combo before you try to fit one
QUICKBLAST SPEAKER CELESTION G12 ALNICO GOLD
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