elkabong! said:
I have a Celestion G12 , 16 OHm, "Vintage 30" kicking around. Would it work with 5:50? ...Or would it blow up because it's only rated at 30 watts ?
Vintage 30s are rated at 60 watts.
Ok.
G12T - 75 is the 'high wattage' version of a G12m - 25 and
Vintage 30 is the 'high wattage' version of a G12H - 30.
While the high wattage versions are similar in sound, they really have their own voice. The v30s tend to be very tight like a c90, but they are much more mid heavy with a bite in the high end. They won't give you that smooth blues breakup you want. A G12m - 25 or a G12H - 30 would be better for that. You'd just have to build an extension cab to run when you use the amp on the 50watt mode. What you COULD do is put a G12m- 25 Greenback Reissue OR a G12m Heritage (built to pre - rola specs and costs an arm and a leg) in the combo. You can run that in the combo and you can have a G12H - 30 or a Vintage 30 in the extension cab. Build a close back cab or a thiele cab. There are specs for that on this board.
The G12H 30 or the V30 both have a higher sensitivity (100db / watt / metre) than the G12m -25 or G12m Heritage ( 97 & 96 DB / watt / metre) so when you use the combo only, you can get good tone at a relatively quiet level but when you want to do a big show, you bust out the tight extension cab that has the high sensitivity speaker in it and behold, your rig is twice as loud.
This would be an extremely flexible sounding setup. I personally would go with a V30 extension cab because I love the tightness of the v30 combined with the creaminess of the Greenback. I'd also build a thiele cab because it has a massively extended bass response compared to a close back 1 x 12 which, in my opinion, sounds tinny.
Hope this helps. If you want, I'll link you to the 1 x 12 cab build plans and the build project threads so you can see some of the Marvelous DYI work out here.
[edit] I just realized that with a 5 / 50 watt amp, you'd need at least a 25 watt speaker if you were going to run an extension cab as well while using both speakers, unless you swapped to the extension cab alone and loaded it with a high power handling speaker. G12H - 30 / V30 speaker combo is also nice. Dr Z says the phat bass of the G12H - 30 really balances the mid heaviness of the V30 nicely. My brother bought a G12H Heritage for his Lonestar special and he said the amp went from dark and muddy to open, clear, and very warm. He said it was a huge improvement. He uses a 4 x 12 when running the amp super loud. (He also has a Red Bear MK60 for high gain stuff)
