Mesa Black Shadows

[jdurso]

Wasnt sure where to post this so sorry in advance if its in the wrong place

does anyone know what the equivalent is for the black shadow c90s in celestions current line? I know the speakers a designed for boogie, but is it based on any of celestions stock speakers? or is there a celestion speaker thats very close?

 

[NoGlassNoClass]

Classic Lead 80

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Yup!

If you're thinking about trying them, I HIGHLY recommend mixing them with V30s...alone, they are flat and bland to my ears, but with the V30s, they make for a HUGE sound!

 

[jdurso]

yeah thats where my head was at.... i was thinking either g75s or c90s .... but now that i know the c90s are based on the cl80s then maybe them.... still unsure if i want to make any swith to the new diezel... the question was more out of curiousity

 

[clutch71]

The drawback with speaker combos is it's hard to demo them to find out if it's going to suit your tone. You have the time it take to break them in and then they may not sit well with your rig. MY ROV had a C90 and I loved it with my 2x12 rectifier sound it was a great all around. I would have no reserve about puting an x patern of C90 and V30 in rectifier cab.

With ebay you can always unload the left over speakers.

 

[Tweeked]

Everything makes sense once you know about the CL80.
I've had good luck with them by themselves and with
V30's running at the same time(huge tone)
Greenbacks are cool too
The 75's are Greenbacks with more power.
I think these would be my desert island speakers of choice.

 

[kmanick]

I'm running an Avatar 2X12 I loaded with C90's alongside my 2X12 recto cab and together they make my Rectoverb sound great.
I think they compliment each other really well.
I started running my JSX thru both of these cabs together and I am loving them with that amp as well.
I think these 2 speakers work together really well.

 

[phyrexia]

75s don't sound anything like greenbacks, wtf are you talking about?

celestion calls the vintage 30 the "higher powered celestion blue replacement" (this was before the Gold was released) but they sound nothing alike.

 

[siggy14]

Yeah they do, just as described though, more power, higher highs and a relaxed mid. They are closer then you think, but you will never get a 75 to sound exactly like a greeback and you will never get a greenback to sound like a 75.

75s don't sound anything like greenbacks, wtf are you talking about?

celestion calls the vintage 30 the "higher powered celestion blue replacement" (this was before the Gold was released) but they sound nothing alike.

 

[123thefirst]

The C in C90 is for "Century", isn't it? Celestion sells a C80 "Century 80" that might basically be a stock C90 unmodified for slightly higher power capacity.

Celestion's website has some recorded demos. To my ears the C80 didn't sound very close to the CL80. Nor did the CL80 sound like the C90's in my cabinet.

I think Mesa got it entirely right: V30's for high gain sounds thru closed cabinets and C90's in open cabinets for low to medium gain.

 

[MrMarkIII]

The Century has a Neodymium magnet, a different animal altogether. They're very light (4 lbs.), but pricey, and IMO lack bottom and are easily blown-up.
I've been running a Celestion G12T-100 in a MkIII combo atop a EVM 12L Thiele. Sounds good to me.

 

[Tweeked]

75s don't sound anything like greenbacks, wtf are you talking about?

http://professional.celestion.com/guitar/products/classic/detail.asp?ID=5

 

[noodles]

The drawback with speaker combos is it's hard to demo them to find out if it's going to suit your tone. You have the time it take to break them in and then they may not sit well with your rig. MY ROV had a C90 and I loved it with my 2x12 rectifier sound it was a great all around. I would have no reserve about puting an x patern of C90 and V30 in rectifier cab.

I had just that speaker setup in a Recto cab, and I hated it. They didn't blend well at all. The G12T-75 and V30 blend together much better. That's what Bogner uses in the Ubercab.

 

[mikey383]

I had the MC90/V30 setup in my Recto cab a few years ago. I liked it at first, but the more I dialed in "my" sound, the less I liked it and ended up going back to the stock V30 configuration. V30s are a lot middier than MC90s.

As far as Classic Lead 80s and Mesa C90s, I emailed Celestion about the C90s once, and though they wouldn't tell me exact specs due to supplier confidentiality, they did say the C90 is very close in specs to the Classic Lead 80.

 

[noodles]

I had the MC90/V30 setup in my Recto cab a few years ago. I liked it at first, but the more I dialed in "my" sound, the less I liked it and ended up going back to the stock V30 configuration. V30s are a lot middier than MC90s.

Right you are, they actually have a slight upper midrange peak to them.

It is this peak that makes me absolutely hate them for metal. The C90s have that "thwump" sound to them when you palm mute, whereas the V30s have a honk that I just can't dial out. This makes them great for hard rock, where you're landing on big chords a lot more, but I just don't think they track well for fast, complex riffs.

 

[Almost Human Guitarist]

Then you haven't seen us play enough..haha

 

[mikey383]

I had the MC90/V30 setup in my Recto cab a few years ago. I liked it at first, but the more I dialed in "my" sound, the less I liked it and ended up going back to the stock V30 configuration. V30s are a lot middier than MC90s.

Right you are, they actually have a slight upper midrange peak to them.

It is this peak that makes me absolutely hate them for metal. The C90s have that "thwump" sound to them when you palm mute, whereas the V30s have a honk that I just can't dial out. This makes them great for hard rock, where you're landing on big chords a lot more, but I just don't think they track well for fast, complex riffs.

I agree. That's one of the reasons I went back to the V30 setup. I don't play metal much, and I just couldn't get a big airy open tone from the V30/C90 setup that I was happy with. I ended up taking the C90s out and putting them into an Avatar 2x12 for my other guitarist to use with a JMP-1/ Mesa 50/50 setup since he did a lot more palm muting than I did, and it worked out fantastic.

 

[70sRock]

Is the graph that was posted for the V30?

I'm looking at it and what I see is a peak starting just before 2kHz and dropping off after 3kHz. Is this the high mid range peak that you are refering to? The question that I have is; when the graph goes to 20k, is 3kHz considered the high mid range?

Where would the peak be for the C90?

 

[mikey383]

Yes, that's for the V30.

The top one is the Classic Lead and the bottom is the Vintage 30. They both have a midrange peak to them, but the V30 is a little more drastic than the CL80.

 

[70sRock]

I see now, in general there is more content and the level is higher at 10k and after for the V30 than the CL80/C90.

Thanks, this is a great post, lots of info.

I also play more classic rock than metal. I never related this to power chords/palm muting and how that sounded to playing chords unmuted and that sound.

I have several cabs with different speakers and never looked at it this closely. It's amazing what speakers can do for your sound. Very good info.

Thanks.