Some time ago I had posted that I had started my search for a replacement speaker for my original series Lonestar Classic. I had narrowed the search to a few manufacturers, then narrowed the search further to one manufacturer, Weber.
My Weber search took me to a whole new world, but it's a world I had visited many, many times in the past 45 years. If anyone may remember I had stated that ALNICO magnets, although tonefull and as old school as you might get, weren't always the best choice, especially with a 50/100 watt amp if you're looking for head room. I then went on to talk about speaker ratings, and being what they are and how speakers are rated by the manufacturer, that a 50 watt speaker should work fine when pushed to 100 watts. I also believe that this point was proved by another board member with a call to one or more manufacturers. In the end my quest took me in the exact opposite direction using higher powered ceramic speakers.
Those being my guidelines for guitar cabinets and speakers I decided, knew, had heard, owned, etc., exactly what I wanted for my genre, blues, R&B, soul, classic rock. I needed pristine clean, some grind, articulate distortion (no mud). So off I went on a buying spree that's taken over a month to complete, and found what I think to be an incredible combo of components for the Lonestar.
The AMP;
I have never really been 100% happy with the tone of the Lonestar, 95%, but never 100%. I have tried the mods and reverted back to the original configuration, tried different tubes, etc., but never found that clean sound that was the foundation for everything else heard.
I started by replacing the speaker. I tried an SRO, 6 or 7 Eminence, 6 or 7 Webers, 3 Jensens, and 2 JBL D120s.
In the end the speakers were compared side by side using multiple cabinets, listened to by 3 people, and recorded using Cubase 4 and Heil PR-40 microphones. The speaker ranking was as follows, best to worst;
Weber California, Ceramic
JBL D120F #1
JBL D120F #2
Weber Blue Dog, Ceramic
SRO
Weber 12F150, Ceramic
12" Jensen
Anything Eminence
The Weber California w/ aluminum dust cap had by far the smoothest response, but not as bright as a D120. There was no mid range hump and bass notes were clear and strong, the highs were articulate and seemed to be 3 dimensional. When pushed hard the bottom held up and there was no cone cry. I was able to run the amp at low volumes in the 100 watt mode withouit tone loss. When pushed hard the Weber gave up the goods like no other speaker except maybe the D120, but gave up the goods sooner.
All the JBLs and the SRO were the same for all intents and purposes, all were an equal to the Weber California, but all were too sensetive and thus too loud at lower amp settings.
The Blue Dog is a great speaker but lacks clean tones at higher amp settings. Articulate, but not as articulate as any of the speakers above it, and the bottom was not as stiff as either of the D120s or the California. I had recommended this speaker in the past and still do. It's a better speaker than most of the Celestions on the market today, and a far better speaker than what comes in the Lonestar.
The Eminence and Jensens were no match for any of the other speakers and all sounded like mud by comparison.
The Weber California is the speaker I chose. (Now what to do with all of the other speakers I have lying around.)
TUBES;
I changed the tubes in the amp to GT 6L6 GE re-issues rated at 7, and replaced all of the 12AX7s with GT ECC83s ($24 ea.). I did not like this combo at all at first and ended up replacing the reverb tube with a 12AX7 and the amp came to life. I now like the tone of the amp, regardless of speaker, far better than with 12AX7s all around.
Settings;
Whatever you feel is best with the effects loop at 1pm and the amp set at 100 watts, both channels.
At his point I had tone compareable to the same tone I've heard from about ANY amp I've ever heard or played through. Very touch sensative, clean tones far better than the best Fender and very balanced response. The second channel sounded better than it ever had, not dry or muffled in the least and very much like the first channel even without the mod, but with some gain applied smoother. The tone controls now responded better and had a wider usable range. The amp became very chimey, also regardless of speaker, and I was able to pull some treble out for a change.
I pumped a little of the Ross compressor into the signal and the amp took off. I could feel it in my hands. Super response and chords that were very distinct at any gain setting.
Until.... Until I stepped on the TS-808 re-issue. I didn't like what I heard at all, so I pulled out a modded TS-808 re-issue and didn't like that either. So at that point I pulled out my hidden treasure, a TS-808 original, and guesss what? Same thing. All the articulate tone was sucked away and I was left with a one trick pony. Great for that "woman" tone, but that's about all.
The effects changes;
My pedal boards are pretty simplistic, and I have two (2) to deal with, both almost the same, and I run in this order, a Peterson tuner, Maestro Boomerang or Keeley modded wah, Ross compressor, TS-808, AD-9 delay, Russian Big Muff, out to amp.
I don't, and won't, insert anything into the effects loop. Don't need to do it, don't like to do it, don't think I should have to put an EQ in the loop to get incredible tone. Now I know some of you use the loop, and that's fine, but to me simple has always been best.
I tested each effect individually looking for the tone loss and the only color I got was from the Boomerang, which can add a little top boost depending on placement. The AD-9, although not true bypass did NOT effect the tone more than to warm it up a little, and the Big Muff is what it is, a fuzz box which I use on two (2) songs, but which has true bypass. Nothing effected the tone like the TS-808 so my mind snapped and out it came. At this point I was getting some incredible Andy Timmons tone without the TS-808 and almost let it go at that. But I wanted HUGE tone so the search went on for a clean boost and a new distortion unit.
I tried maybe every stomp box in my collection, about 12, including everything from a Maestro Fuzz Tone to a Klon, then went out to Ebay and sniped an Xotic RC Boost. I got the RC two days later and put it in line just after the wah and Ross, then before everything else. I left the tone controls alone, 12 o'clock, gave it some gain, gave it some volume and plugged in the 1960 LP Historic. I was immidiately blown away with the depth of the notes. Everything was HUGE. Nothing was altered, and all my tone was there plus all of the floating harmonics the TS-808 took away had come back to stay.
The problem was this is not a distortion pedal. I could get the grind I wanted from either channel, dial it out with the guitars volume, etc., but by bringing up the volume and gain I destroyed the gain structure I had set up. So in the end I set my clean channel to just about 12 o'clock and set the RC to almost the same volume with just a little boost. This allows me to push the clean channel to where I get a good grind that can be easily dialed out using the guitar volume pot. Did I mention sustain that never ends? This pedal loves everything I have on the board, especially the Ross compressor.
Now the last problem. Where do I get the singing leads, James Gang crunch, Claptonesque, Allman Brothers, Santana (old style) sound that makes the last part of the puzzle.
After another two (2) days of searching listening and going back through my collection light dawned on marble mountain. I went back to Ebay and sniped a BB preamp. I placed the BB in front of the RC and now have all of the possible tone, grind, distorion, I could want with no loss of tone, no cone cry, no muddy bass notes and perfectly balanced response from all six strings.
Was this long drawn out and fairly expensive test worth it? You bet your ***. In the end I'm happy. I'll sell some of the TS-808s and the speakers on Ebay and get most off my money back, but even if I don't, no big deal, they go into the collection. However, what I think I may have done is save many of you the need to spend your hard earned cash. Are these components for everyone? Of course not, but many of you should be pretty happy with just one or two of these suggestions.
Have fun guy's, and never give up the quest for tone.
My Weber search took me to a whole new world, but it's a world I had visited many, many times in the past 45 years. If anyone may remember I had stated that ALNICO magnets, although tonefull and as old school as you might get, weren't always the best choice, especially with a 50/100 watt amp if you're looking for head room. I then went on to talk about speaker ratings, and being what they are and how speakers are rated by the manufacturer, that a 50 watt speaker should work fine when pushed to 100 watts. I also believe that this point was proved by another board member with a call to one or more manufacturers. In the end my quest took me in the exact opposite direction using higher powered ceramic speakers.
Those being my guidelines for guitar cabinets and speakers I decided, knew, had heard, owned, etc., exactly what I wanted for my genre, blues, R&B, soul, classic rock. I needed pristine clean, some grind, articulate distortion (no mud). So off I went on a buying spree that's taken over a month to complete, and found what I think to be an incredible combo of components for the Lonestar.
The AMP;
I have never really been 100% happy with the tone of the Lonestar, 95%, but never 100%. I have tried the mods and reverted back to the original configuration, tried different tubes, etc., but never found that clean sound that was the foundation for everything else heard.
I started by replacing the speaker. I tried an SRO, 6 or 7 Eminence, 6 or 7 Webers, 3 Jensens, and 2 JBL D120s.
In the end the speakers were compared side by side using multiple cabinets, listened to by 3 people, and recorded using Cubase 4 and Heil PR-40 microphones. The speaker ranking was as follows, best to worst;
Weber California, Ceramic
JBL D120F #1
JBL D120F #2
Weber Blue Dog, Ceramic
SRO
Weber 12F150, Ceramic
12" Jensen
Anything Eminence
The Weber California w/ aluminum dust cap had by far the smoothest response, but not as bright as a D120. There was no mid range hump and bass notes were clear and strong, the highs were articulate and seemed to be 3 dimensional. When pushed hard the bottom held up and there was no cone cry. I was able to run the amp at low volumes in the 100 watt mode withouit tone loss. When pushed hard the Weber gave up the goods like no other speaker except maybe the D120, but gave up the goods sooner.
All the JBLs and the SRO were the same for all intents and purposes, all were an equal to the Weber California, but all were too sensetive and thus too loud at lower amp settings.
The Blue Dog is a great speaker but lacks clean tones at higher amp settings. Articulate, but not as articulate as any of the speakers above it, and the bottom was not as stiff as either of the D120s or the California. I had recommended this speaker in the past and still do. It's a better speaker than most of the Celestions on the market today, and a far better speaker than what comes in the Lonestar.
The Eminence and Jensens were no match for any of the other speakers and all sounded like mud by comparison.
The Weber California is the speaker I chose. (Now what to do with all of the other speakers I have lying around.)
TUBES;
I changed the tubes in the amp to GT 6L6 GE re-issues rated at 7, and replaced all of the 12AX7s with GT ECC83s ($24 ea.). I did not like this combo at all at first and ended up replacing the reverb tube with a 12AX7 and the amp came to life. I now like the tone of the amp, regardless of speaker, far better than with 12AX7s all around.
Settings;
Whatever you feel is best with the effects loop at 1pm and the amp set at 100 watts, both channels.
At his point I had tone compareable to the same tone I've heard from about ANY amp I've ever heard or played through. Very touch sensative, clean tones far better than the best Fender and very balanced response. The second channel sounded better than it ever had, not dry or muffled in the least and very much like the first channel even without the mod, but with some gain applied smoother. The tone controls now responded better and had a wider usable range. The amp became very chimey, also regardless of speaker, and I was able to pull some treble out for a change.
I pumped a little of the Ross compressor into the signal and the amp took off. I could feel it in my hands. Super response and chords that were very distinct at any gain setting.
Until.... Until I stepped on the TS-808 re-issue. I didn't like what I heard at all, so I pulled out a modded TS-808 re-issue and didn't like that either. So at that point I pulled out my hidden treasure, a TS-808 original, and guesss what? Same thing. All the articulate tone was sucked away and I was left with a one trick pony. Great for that "woman" tone, but that's about all.
The effects changes;
My pedal boards are pretty simplistic, and I have two (2) to deal with, both almost the same, and I run in this order, a Peterson tuner, Maestro Boomerang or Keeley modded wah, Ross compressor, TS-808, AD-9 delay, Russian Big Muff, out to amp.
I don't, and won't, insert anything into the effects loop. Don't need to do it, don't like to do it, don't think I should have to put an EQ in the loop to get incredible tone. Now I know some of you use the loop, and that's fine, but to me simple has always been best.
I tested each effect individually looking for the tone loss and the only color I got was from the Boomerang, which can add a little top boost depending on placement. The AD-9, although not true bypass did NOT effect the tone more than to warm it up a little, and the Big Muff is what it is, a fuzz box which I use on two (2) songs, but which has true bypass. Nothing effected the tone like the TS-808 so my mind snapped and out it came. At this point I was getting some incredible Andy Timmons tone without the TS-808 and almost let it go at that. But I wanted HUGE tone so the search went on for a clean boost and a new distortion unit.
I tried maybe every stomp box in my collection, about 12, including everything from a Maestro Fuzz Tone to a Klon, then went out to Ebay and sniped an Xotic RC Boost. I got the RC two days later and put it in line just after the wah and Ross, then before everything else. I left the tone controls alone, 12 o'clock, gave it some gain, gave it some volume and plugged in the 1960 LP Historic. I was immidiately blown away with the depth of the notes. Everything was HUGE. Nothing was altered, and all my tone was there plus all of the floating harmonics the TS-808 took away had come back to stay.
The problem was this is not a distortion pedal. I could get the grind I wanted from either channel, dial it out with the guitars volume, etc., but by bringing up the volume and gain I destroyed the gain structure I had set up. So in the end I set my clean channel to just about 12 o'clock and set the RC to almost the same volume with just a little boost. This allows me to push the clean channel to where I get a good grind that can be easily dialed out using the guitar volume pot. Did I mention sustain that never ends? This pedal loves everything I have on the board, especially the Ross compressor.
Now the last problem. Where do I get the singing leads, James Gang crunch, Claptonesque, Allman Brothers, Santana (old style) sound that makes the last part of the puzzle.
After another two (2) days of searching listening and going back through my collection light dawned on marble mountain. I went back to Ebay and sniped a BB preamp. I placed the BB in front of the RC and now have all of the possible tone, grind, distorion, I could want with no loss of tone, no cone cry, no muddy bass notes and perfectly balanced response from all six strings.
Was this long drawn out and fairly expensive test worth it? You bet your ***. In the end I'm happy. I'll sell some of the TS-808s and the speakers on Ebay and get most off my money back, but even if I don't, no big deal, they go into the collection. However, what I think I may have done is save many of you the need to spend your hard earned cash. Are these components for everyone? Of course not, but many of you should be pretty happy with just one or two of these suggestions.
Have fun guy's, and never give up the quest for tone.
