New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

[75lespaul]

I'm not buying anything--yet--but man, all these ebay auctions crack me up. If a guy's got a 70s 4X12, he will claim the new speakers are crap compared to the originals, and the guys selling the new ones say they are the best sounding speakers ever. I know they wanna make the sale, but sheesh!

I just want to get some opinions. I've had both. I had a 73 50 watt head and cab, and it sounded really great. I also had the 35th (I think) anniversary white 50 watt plexi halfstack with reissue greenbacks. I though that was the best sounding cab I'd ever heard. I had another cab from around 74 or 75 with blackbacks that sounded great, but not as great as the white cab with reissues. In the 80s, I was extremely fortunate to be friends with a man whose brother was trying to recreate the original greenbacks, and he bought up about ten Marshalls dating from 66 through 70--purple, red--wow! Plus the cabs. Great, great cabs, right on par with my white one.

That being said, did I just play through some old speakers that weren't that good or were the late 90s oliveback reissues a near perfect speaker? The white reissue by the way sounded incredible until you hit about 7, then it was mud.

 

[Rich_T]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I've got a 1960ax with greenback reissues and I couldn't be happier. This thing really kicks out the jams. I've tried an older cab with V30s, which were also nice, but I really don't think they compared to my cab. But then that might just be a taste thing. But definately no complaints about them new celestions from me.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I wish I could say I'm a speaker expert, but I know I'm not. The problem is that to really compare them, you need to put all of them in a row, using the same head for reference.

I've heard a lot of eras of Marshall cabs, and I think my favorites would be modern reissues with no corner caps, but using a crisscross of Vin 30/H30 or Greenbacks.
Some older ones are sweet, but a 100W head can buckle them past 6.

The best cab I've heard is the one I use....the Bogner finger jointed baltic birch w/Vin 30's made in England. I'm assuming British made and Chinese made Celestions are identical, besides the fact they're made by different people. I still have a desire to buy two H30's and criss cross them in that cab, just to see if it's better, but I don't even care because I like Vin 30's anyway.

 

[75lespaul]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I love the V30/G12H X pattern. It's what I have in my 4X12 now. Well, with my 73, that's the only head I played through that cab. My white cab and 74 checkerboard with blackbacks I played the white 50 watt head, my Crate Blue Voodoo and a JTM45 reissue. Over my buddies house in the early 80s we would spend entire weekends taking one head and playing through every cab, then the next head, then the next, lol. Every weekend he had a new head and cab. The funny thing is that his brother finally hit pay dirt and really cloned the old greenbacks. I don't remember why but we kinda drifted as friends and I lost touch with him. After the Celestion reissues I always wondered what happened to them and if they were a part of the reissue. He's the guy who introduced me to Ken Fisher also.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I Love the V30s but I think alot of the tone comes from speakers that have been broken in very well from hours and hours of playing...

 

[Rich_T]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I Love the V30s but I think alot of the tone comes from speakers that have been broken in very well from hours and hours of playing...

I completely agree with that. V30s don't sound great to my ear until after a good number of playing hours, they really smooth out and lose that ice pick tone that some complain about.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: New vs old Celestions. What's "better"?

I don't know what speakers you chose, but I've used Celestion Modern Lead speakers, and replaced them with their modern equivalent (Celestion Classic Leads) recently, same basic speaker. To me, new versus old don't even matter, but that's just my 2 cents, and I have like no experience with speakers.