Comparing 3 speakers - Fender Blue Frame Alnico, Celestion Tube10, Celestion Vintage10

[rickenbackerkid]

Slowys' thread on 10" vs 12" speakers reminded me about the 10" speakers I have and have been meaning to compare.


I started to make a demo track but having one of those days where guitar playing was shit, the backing track I made was just not good, ect. So i just played guitar and can report the following:

Fender Blue Frame (Eminence Alnico) is very open in the top end - not trebly, but very clear and articulate up there. Not a lot of bass and seems to compress slightly when you hit it hard.

Celestion G10 Vintage is way louder, and very closed off in the top end, not that it's dark, because it does have quite a bite to it, but not at all the same clarity and almost breathiness that the Eminence has.
It also has a huge amount more bass than the Eminence. In general it's big and chunky and powerful and loves a Hotcake.

Celestion Tube10 - the shock of the lot. This thing is a great speaker - I struggle to see how this is sold as the cheapest option. It's in between the other two with a lot more bass and power than the Eminence, but with more treble and open sounding high end than the G10 Vintage. It wasn't bright or harsh or mid scooped it was just very nice.

To sum up both the Eminence and G10 Vintage are quite polarising, or could be loved or hated. The Celestion Tube10 is a really good all round speaker.

I have installed the Eminence. It's actually worse than the other two with lots of FX and distortion, but on it's own with the amp up loud enough to get a bit crunchy it is a wicked 'pure' electric guitar sound and I can see it encouraging me to use less gain and FX and focus on the playing.

[jeremyb]

The 10" Celestion VX10 in my AC4 sounds surprisingly good, really expected to have to swap it out, fairly well worn in by the previous owner me thinks.

[rickenbackerkid]

interesting you say that JB because this post suggests that the VX10 and Tube10 are the same speaker with a different sticker.