Lonestar & Weber?

[justjeff]

I have a Lonestar Classic 112 that I love. It has the Shadow c90 that I don't love.

I'm looking at Weber's. Does anyone here have experience with Weber's high power line?

My style leans toward vintage rock stuff - more driven than clean - but love my cleans.

I am leaning toward the Chicago (jensen voiced) but I would like to know how they do with overdriven tones.

All input is appreciated.

 

[Guitarzan]

Personally I think that would be a great match!

 

[RR]

You will be using only 1 Weber? They're listed at 60 watt ratting. With the LoneStar Classic I would use two.

I'm sure you read the all of Webers specifications. I'm pretty familiar with Webers and use them on my non-Boogies since they're really design after classic vintage speakers. Of course you know this.

But some general rules: Alnico has a sweet compress tone at high volumes but at the expense, you lose that top end sizzling agressive tone.

Ceramic give you that top end edge. But it doesn't have the sweetness like Alnico.

But then again, its a matter of preference which you prefer. I would say on the board, the majority likes Ceramic speakers.

Yeah, for a Lone Star Classic, I think the Chicago would be the one I prefer over the Thames, California, Michigian. But the Texan has a pretty good write up.

 

[ylo]

Hello Justjeff

I have a Weber 12F150 (C12N) that I tried in my LSS.

The Weber 12F150 is supposed to be a warm speaker, but wow, it really added top end brightness to the LSS. This improved the clean sounds, especially using the neck humbucker of an ES-335. However, the OD and distortion tones were too raspy, almost to the point of "ice pick in the ears." Dropping the treble and presence controls down helped, but the tone started to sound kind of lifeless when I did this.

I e-mailed Ted Weber about this, and he suggested a couple of speakers, among them the Weber Blue Dog (ceramic or alnico versions available), which emulates the Vox Blue from the original AC-30. Note that the new Celestion Blue gets rave reviews, but handles only low wattage and costs an arm and a leg.

I think a California would give you a similar effect to the Weber 12F150, too much brightness for the overdriven tones. In fact, if it sounds like a JBL, it will give you even MORE brightness than the 12F150, more suitable for Surf than Blues.

I ended up with the Eminence Red White & Blues speaker. This sounds just slightly brighter than the C90, and seems to improve the clean sounds and add a little high end to the OD sounds of the LSS without causing raspiness. Eminence has several other speakers, and you could probably choose a slightly brigher one for the LSS without problem, depending on your preferences and rig (pickups, cord length, effects etc.).

Hope this helps.

 

[justjeff]

Thanks for that insight ylo

I was actually considering the Eminence Red White & Blues too. The folks at Eminence were less than helpful though.

The LSS is el84's right? They are a bit more British in nature in some amps. I know my Nomad 45 was fairly Brit in nature. Do you find that to be the case with the Special? If so, how much (if at all) does that influence the crispness on the top?

As you mentioned, I want to wake up the high-end without cutting heads.

BTW The Weber California is a JBL voiced speaker.

 

[ylo]

I'm surprised that you didn't get much help from the people at Eminence. In any case, they post descriptions and frequency plots on their site. Celestion posts frequency plots too. If you can translate what you want to hear roughly into decibels at which frequencies (treble = above 1 kHz etc), you can narrow down your choices.

The LSS uses EL84s. I have not compared the LSS directly to the LSC, but you get power tube breakup a little earlier with the LSS. In the 5 watt mode, the power tube saturation takes some of the edge off of the attack of notes for a darker sound, especially with the gain cranked.

If you generally like the British sound of Celestions but not the C90s, I would check out the Eminence Redcoat line -- you have lots of versions to choose from to tweak your sound. Also e-mail Ted Weber for suggestions, he makes many speakers with British cones and Celestion type sounds. Finally, if any of your friends has an amp with a JBL or Weber California etc, you could connect your LSC to it temporarily to see how it sounds.

In the end, you may have to bite the bullet and try a couple of speakers. There is no accounting for different rigs and tastes. With luck you can resell them on eBay and get most of your investment back.