F-30 Speaker Swap?

[guitarman_nebr]

Hey all,

i have searched the forums and haven't found an answer to my question.

has any one swapped the V30 speaker in an F-30 for something "better"?

the V30 seems gritty and too bright.

if you have changed the speaker, what did you switch to, why did you switch, and did it make a difference?

Lew

 

[theroan]

I had an F-50 with a GT-75, sounded decent, though those speakers kind of blow. If your looking for something mellower I'm sure the g12 will do fine.

 

[paytojt]

Eminence Governor is supposed to sound similar to a V30, with less top. Maybe?

 

[guitarman_nebr]

i have used a Celestion G12T-75 to replace a V30 with great results in the past.

the V30 is raspy and lacks depth in this application. i am looking for something to add depth and tone to the F-30's cabinet.

i have an 8 ohm cab loaded with a Red Fang and Private Jack. both speakers are 16 ohm. this cab sounds great with the F-30. i want that tone (or close to it) in an 8 ohm single speaker.

i don't want to spend the money on a 8 ohm Red Fang. Maybe an 8 ohm Private Jack?

 

[Artmusic]

I wonder how a Tonker would sound in the F-30.

 

[goodwill559]

I have a tonker and I would describe it as fat in the bottom and a tad dark in the top, nice mids.

If I'm not too wiped out after work, I can unplug the celestion from my F-30 combo and hook up to the tonker loaded cab.

It wouldn't be a direct 1:1 comparison though because the tonker is in a closed back cab. Still, it might be worth the effort...

 

[MusicManJP6]

I swapped the V30 for a C90 in my F30 combo when I had it. Made a big difference in taming the highs and balancing the tone out. Worth a try! If you decide to go that route I may have one for sale...

 

[guitarman_nebr]

yea, the C90 sounds like a great speaker for a 1x12 small box combo.

why didn't i think of that?

i need a speaker that will open up at mid volume without the nasty high mid spike. the C90 has a lower mid hump..........

my email is [email protected] if you want to shoot me a deal, MusicMan :wink:

 

[Artmusic]

Music man, I use my Thiele cab w/C-90 together with my F-30 w/Vintage 30 stock speaker and I find the Thiele over powers the combo speaker. do you think that is because of the cab or did you find that the C-90 was more efficent and thus louder than the V-30.
Art

 

[guitarman_nebr]

hey all,

i found an Eminence Private Jack 8ohm 50watt speaker in a cabinet i traded for several months ago. i put that in my F-30 with a new set of JJ's and WOW!!

what a difference. the mid bump in the Private Jack is much lower than the V30 Celestion. this speaker is sooooo much better for the amp, i can't believe my ears.

i highly recommend this speaker if the high mids and the raspy highs are bothering you. it puts new life in the EL84's.

 

[soundchaser59]

For a bit more $$$$$ I'm having excellent results with an Eminence Commonwealth.

For a lot more $$$$$ I also have excellent results from an EVM-12L.

I have always thought the Tonker is a great brute force speaker, but I think it's brighter than the Swamp Thang, not darker.

CRex is good also, which seems odd because I actually dont care for the sound of the Tone Tubby hemp cones with my amp. I believe the TT cone is all hemp, while the CRex cone is merely hemp impregnated! I have yet to find any amp where the CRex sounds unacceptable!

The C90 is a good one, sometimes you can find Black Shadows on ebay for reasonable prices. I have really liked the sound of the higher power Black Shadows with the Mesa amps.

I am also having good luck/results with a 15 inch alnico Blue Dog.

 

[guitarman_nebr]

hey Soundchaser,

a fellow Husker here!!

i put the C-Rex in my Hot Rod Deluxe. it is a great speaker. to me it seems voiced for the 6L6 Fender tone. i dig the mid hump of the EL84 sound, the V30 was just voiced wrong IMHO. the Private Jack has the British flavor, just has a lower mid hump and smoother highs.

25 years ago, i had a Mesa Mark I (i think that was it. blonde with cane grill), it had a speaker perfectly fit for an open back cab. that opened my eyes to matching all components of an amp.

my quest has been to match speakers with cabs as well as chassis. it is a challenge, especially with these small boxes. i have found this, and the right tubes, gets me better tone without having to modify too much.

 

[lyman]

hey all,

i found an Eminence Private Jack 8ohm 50watt speaker in a cabinet i traded for several months ago. i put that in my F-30 with a new set of JJ's and WOW!!

what a difference. the mid bump in the Private Jack is much lower than the V30 Celestion. this speaker is sooooo much better for the amp, i can't believe my ears.

i highly recommend this speaker if the high mids and the raspy highs are bothering you. it puts new life in the EL84's.

i had a private jack in the cab i use with a maverick, which is an el-84 mesa as is the f-30. that speaker is pretty good with el84's. i agree that it doesn't have the upper mid spike of a v30.

 

[MusicManJP6]

another good speaker to consider (if the mid spike is all that ails you) is the Veteran 30 from Warehouse Guitar Speakers (WGS). The Veteran 30 is an awesome V30 clone that gets rid of the upper mid issue. Check 'em out... They are half the price of a Celestion too. I had one in my RoV combo and loved it...

 

[soundchaser59]

hey Soundchaser,

a fellow Husker here!!

i put the C-Rex in my Hot Rod Deluxe. it is a great speaker. to me it seems voiced for the 6L6 Fender tone. i dig the mid hump of the EL84 sound, the V30 was just voiced wrong IMHO.


my quest has been to match speakers with cabs as well as chassis. it is a challenge, especially with these small boxes.

Go HUSKERS! "Hey Bo....this is O!"

Yeah, I did not really appreciate the CRex until I put a pair of them in a Red Knob Twin. That thing was a monster when it had C12N's in it, but the CRex was much nicer for that 6L6 power. Very smooth.

I also noticed the upper range bite of the V30. Great speaker for the right amp, it was nice in the Traynor I used to have, and they sound great in Orange cabs. I test drove a couple of Orange and Layney's at Shade's (now Red House) in Hastings, and the V30's were great for that. But not really great for my taste or my ears. I like the darker smoother stuff. I ended up with a Hot 100 in the Traynor, didn't like that, so I force fed the Traynor an Eminence Swamp Thang, and that was nice.

I spent many years underestimating the value of matching cab to speakers. But it is very noticeable when a speaker gets switched around a lot. You can really catch yourself saying, "Man that speaker sounded great in that other cab, what's wrong with it now?"

I have an alnico Michigan in my amp now. I think the speakers, cabs, and pickups affect the tone more than anything.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Music man, I use my Thiele cab w/C-90 together with my F-30 w/Vintage 30 stock speaker and I find the Thiele over powers the combo speaker. do you think that is because of the cab or did you find that the C-90 was more efficent and thus louder than the V-30.
Art

Sorry, Art. I didn't read your post! It sounds like it may be a projection thing. The ported closed back thiele projects much more of the sound forward compared to the V30 in the open back combo. An interesting test would be to swap the speakers and see if the same holds true...

 

[Artmusic]

No prob Music man, I did get ahold of an EV Force 12" which I find is much closer in volume to the Thiele than the V-30. The EV seems to be a pretty powerful speaker. It does not color the sound at all. I got it used for $80.

 

[MusicManJP6]

I compared the C90 and EV 12L in a thiele cab once and thought the difference was not tremendous. The weight difference was though! There was a slight coloring going on with the C90, but nothing that I would consider detrimental to the tone or anything. You could definitely hear why they started going with the C90 instead of the EV... the sound was VERY similar to my ears. Glad you sorted out the volume difference!