PSA: Celestion G12-35XC (8 ohm) for £50 @ Lean

DarnWeight

Seems like a good deal for a proper UK-made Celestion.  Meant to be somewhere between a G12M and a G12H30 tonally.  Seen them reduced in a few other places, but nowhere this cheap.  Watford Valves might price match, I s'pose, but hard to tell exactly what they're charging given they don't include VAT by default.

Anyway, just ordered one myself, so will see how it goes...

http://www.lean-business.co.uk/eshop/celestion-g1235xc-guitar-speaker-8ohm-limited-edition-p-3138.html

ICBM

I'll be interested to hear your impressions... it's quite an unusual speaker according to the spec - the magnet is neither the traditional M or H but in between, and it has very high sensitivity for something smaller than the H range - 100dB. It also looks like it has a vented magnet, which I've always suspected improved the sound - many of my favourite models have it, it seems to give a 'chunkier' low-end response.

Celestion have been coming out with some real winners in the last few years - the Creambacks and the V-Type in particular.

ecc83

Hmm? Now, THAT is the sort of thing Blackstar should partner up with the HT-20 and the 'Artists' !

Dave.

DarnWeight

ICBM said:

I'll be interested to hear your impressions... it's quite an unusual speaker according to the spec - the magnet is neither the traditional M or H but in between, and it has very high sensitivity for something smaller than the H range - 100dB. It also looks like it has a vented magnet, which I've always suspected improved the sound - many of my favourite models have it, it seems to give a 'chunkier' low-end response.

Celestion have been coming out with some real winners in the last few years - the Creambacks and the V-Type in particular.

I've got maybe 5-10 hours on this now, and while the top end is still just a little brittle/harsh (it's smoothing out...slowly), I'm pretty impressed with it.  The low-end started filling out nicely after an hour or two, and is definitely in the heavy-magnet Celestion ballpark...full, but rich and reasonably well-defined. The mid-range has a fair bit of the Greenback in it, but maybe a bit brighter and more centred on the upper mids.  Lovely cleans, with a nice chime to them.  Nicely suited to Vox-ish amps, but I'm also really really liking it with an Ampeg J20 (close to a 6G3 Deluxe)...so much so that it's turned me around on selling it for the time being!

Also, despite being 100dB, it doesn't have that overbearing shouty thing going on that some higher sensitivity speakers have.

timmysoft

How is it under a bit of gain? Kind of Jcm800 levels not mega high gain? 

DarnWeight

timmysoft said:

How is it under a bit of gain? Kind of Jcm800 levels not mega high gain? 

I tend to play cleaner, with a bit of edgy drive , or full-on fuzzier drive sounds.  But with gain in general?...the mids have that crunchy Greenback quality, but the overall sound is a bit brighter and more open and "wide-range" sounding.  It doesn't do that honky nasal-sounding "notched" thing you get with some Celestions under gain.  Not set up to record anything myself, but this Johan Segeborn video does a fairly good job at getting it across...

timmysoft

Sounds like it might be ideal for my Budda! 

Danielsguitars

Thanks for the link, I just ordered one and should go well with my 18watt combo

drphibes

Would this drop straight into a Blackstar id30tvp ? Sounds like a versatile speaker .

ICBM

drphibes said:

Would this drop straight into a Blackstar id30tvp ? Sounds like a versatile speaker .

What’s the impedance of the stock speaker? If it’s 4 ohm (I think it is) then the G12-35XC is only available in 8 or 16 ohms so you will lose some output power - whether that matters depends on how efficient the old speaker is, since the G12-35 is almost certainly higher, at 100dB.

I would also maybe be concerned about the power handling - Celestion are very conservative with ratings, but the secret behind the “as loud as valve” claim for the Blackstars is that they’re actually twice as powerful as they say!

drphibes

Think the speaker in the id30 tvp is a 4ohm. So basically do we think that the 30 tvp really needs a speaker capable of handling 60 Watts? 

ICBM

drphibes said:

Think the speaker in the id30 tvp is a 4ohm. So basically do we think that the 30 tvp really needs a speaker capable of handling 60 Watts? 

Ideally, although that would only apply if you're really going to thrash it. The stock Blackstar speaker is a 50W, and I don't know of one having blown yet. If it's an 8-ohm driver it will pull less power from the amp too, but I'm not sure how quickly the power falls off at double the impedance with these. 35 may be a cutting it a bit fine even with Celestion's conservative ratings though - at least without experience with these particular speakers. Some Celestions (eg the Alnico Blue) seem tougher than their ratings, others (eg the Hot 100) don't seem to be.

timmysoft

I’ve ordered one for my Budda, hoping it’ll be a winner!! 

timmysoft

Mine arrived today, slammed it straight into the Budda, sound great so far, its darker than the Phat12, but the mids are more balanced, i'm certainly not getting any harsh frequencies or any odd sounds i don't like!

 going to try running it alongside the Phat12 tomorrow, should be a mismatch made in heaven

shady

I ordered one at lunchtime today, albeit the 16ohm. Lean certainly don't muck about - they sent me a text 30 minutes after pulling the trigger informing me DPD will be delivering it tomorrow.  Class.

I was getting bloody annoyed with my indecision, waaay too many YouTube reviews and other articles started to get on me tits.
The V-Type and G12H-30 were also on my shortlist, but went for the 35XC in the end which is smack in the middle of the other two price wise as well. 

Here's hoping it's a good match with the often maligned Bassbreaker, I can't see it being a bad choice but fingers crossed eh?

shady

Yeah, it's sooo much better. Just in the size of the magnet compared to the stock Hayden speaker I could tell this was going to be a vast, yawning chasm of sonic differences.

Managed to hurt myself in the process though. The closed back panel of the cab was a right twat to remove, they obviously screwed the fecker on whilst the tolex glue was still wet and it had bonded itself tight as a gnat's gash to an inch long section of the cab interior. So, like some form of cheap box shaped hooker, I had it between my legs, face down on the lounge carpet and was going hammer and tongs at it trying to find an easy grapple hold. But then all too much of a sudden the panel let go...right into my ball sack. 

I then burnt myself on m'soldering iron.

drphibes

I went ahead and bought the speaker for my Blackstar id30 tvp. The tone is way better with the celestion and you get to hear more tones that did not appear to be there with the stock speaker. Well worth the money and good service as well from lean.