Speaker Recommendations for WEM Westminster

LastMantra

I have used it mainly for bass or I've put my keyboard through it. Sounds good with guitar tho.
Got a nice ol' 'spiderback' 15" speaker in it.

Yours looks very clean. Sounds like you got a goodun.

LastMantra

My dad's been having a clear out and found an old "creamback". Anybody any thoughts on those? Not sure it even works.

ICBM

LastMantra said:

My dad's been having a clear out and found an old "creamback". Anybody any thoughts on those? Not sure it even works.

Exactly the same as "greenbacks" of the same era - that is, there is no single model, it's any one of a number of Celestions with a plastic magnet cover of that colour. Cream ones are most commonly G12H-30s in my experience, but in more than one cone type and impedance.

LastMantra

That's good to know, thanks @ICBM.

I'll have a look at it. Certainly seems well worn in 

JezWynd

WEM has landed, it's in excellent condition and sounds very nice, a warm quite mellow tone. It get's loud at about 2 on the volume control so I'm thinking I'll put a lower rated speaker in it.



I've measured the cab and I could get an Alnico Blue in there but I'm wondering if I could get by with a Jensen P12R - I don't play loud and I don't use distortion, just occ small amount of overdrive but it's mostly a very clean sound I prefer. I've read varying reports on the R, from horrible to good once it's broken in. Any others I should consider? I'd like to keep budget around a ton.

uncledick

ICBM said:

No, the G12-80 is not remotely original! Charlie would never have fitted something so much overkill as that .

The original would probably have been a black-framed alnico speaker of indeterminate origin, like this:



Although I've seen them with Fanes and Celestion G12S-20s as well, I think.

I would go for a Blue or a Greenback G12M-25 if you want a new speaker, or look for a G12S-20 - they're not very rare or expensive, nor particularly efficient, but they sound very nice for what you want.

I think that's a Danish Peerless speaker.

Bygone_Tones

ICBM said:

LastMantra said:

My dad's been having a clear out and found an old "creamback". Anybody any thoughts on those? Not sure it even works.

Exactly the same as "greenbacks" of the same era - that is, there is no single model, it's any one of a number of Celestions with a plastic magnet cover of that colour. Cream ones are most commonly G12H-30s in my experience, but in more than one cone type and impedance.

The cream magnet covers were mainly used from about Spring 1974 to Spring 1975, across all models not just the G12H.

To identify what the speaker is you need to look at the T number on the frame. The most common ones are probably T1221, T1217, T1234, but there is a full list on my website if you want to look up your T-number. This will tell you the full spec of the speaker.

1974 to 1975 was kind of a transitional period when Celestion were using a variety of different cone pulps. Have a look for a white number stamped on the cone. This page might help.

Most importantly you will need to check the speaker works properly otherwise it could be completey worthless and useless (and a lot of them are). This page should help with that.

JezWynd

Fitted a Jensen P12R into the Westminster. Although it was rated with a lower sensitivity than the Celestion which it arrived with, I can notice very little change in volume response. Perhaps these sensitivity figures only become relevant when the amp is cranked, which I'm unlikely to do.

The new speaker sounds slightly different, a bit brighter at the top end with less pronounced mids but these are quite minimal differences. I'm hoping that once it is broken in the brighter top end will settle down. A/Bing them at present I'd have to say I prefer the Celestion but the Jensen is yet to be broken in and the Jensen is 3.5lbs lighter, so that's definitely a plus.

Have to say I've been blown away by this little combo. I was initially taken by its pristine condition and as I'd never played a WEM I thought I'd give it a try. I thought that being old, even though in good condition that it might be noisy but it has turned out to be very quiet with the most gorgeous tone; quite pronounced upper mids, with a rich dense chime at the top end but always a mellow sound - an ideal jazz amp I imagine (it can get biting with the bridge pu selected and treble boost on). The Treble Boost button is the icing on the cake, it brings the dual pickup setting on the P90s to life, giving a really lovely Strat like sound.

When it has been on for a while the jack plug is quite warm when it's removed from the amp and there looks to be little ventilation (only the small vent holes on the top) so I've clipped a little battery operated fan on the rear, directed up at the circuit board, I'll see how that works but generally I'm really impressed by this little combo and super happy with the sound.