Lightweight speakers

[e9b6]

I have used for a good number of years a pair of Peavey 112 speakers with BW horns.

Great sound and I have no complaints other than the weight of them.

Now I am over 75 I desperately need to lighten the load.

Any recommendations?

Colin

[dessa]

Hi Colin re lightweight speakers. If you are on a budget I can recommend the Celestion BN12-300S . It’s actually a bass speaker but Quilterlabs use them in their high power combos and cabs. I had one in my Nashville for a while with great results. Lean Business do them for around £115. I use one for Guitar in my 2x12 dual purpose cab and one in my 1x12 ext. cab. Be sure to get the orange label. If you want to get the best then Telonics every time. Hope this helps mate

[Malcolm]

Colin, I have been using a Sica Neo 12inch ( bass speaker) for a few years now, great speaker, Ken Fox on US Forum fitted them in his custom amps. They are available from Hotrox Nottingham, although 4 ohm May have to be ordered in, prices around £100.

[Tony Russell Davis]

Anyone with an Anapeg is probably not 'on a budget', right Colin?
Malcolm and I both use the same amp - the Sica seems a fine unit, but mine's a Telonics 15in (for C6th) in a separate cabinet, really light, full range and cannot be faulted. I guess the 12in is probably sufficient for E9th?

[e9b6]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will investigate these.

Colin

[e9b6]

I decided to go with the Celestion speakers as suggested by Dessa. Just fitted them - they replaced the BW speakers without difficulty so I am using the 112E cabs
They are surprisingly bright for a bass speaker, or have the BWs gone soft?
A quick adjustment with the EQ and I am happy with the sound.
I cannot believe how light these are compared with the BWs, 2kg compared with 18kg
Thanks for the advise

Colin

[Eamonn O'Regan]

I recently installed an Eminence Patriot 15" neo speaker in my Nash 400, having bought it for $75 at the Telonics room at the TSGA Jamboree in Dallas last month. It was an 8- ohm 'sample' speaker, hence the low price. It has shaved at least 10 lbs off the amp weight. The Eminence people tell me it will be available very soon in Europe. Very light weight (c.8lbs) and sounds great. I have no idea what it will cost in UK but expect somewhere near £200......but they are brilliant speakers.

[Jif]

I have just been lucky enough to bag a new Orange Label Celestion BN15-300S put on ebay by Lean speakers as a loss leader, starting at 0.99p. I won't tell you what I paid for it but it was below half price. I had been looking at Neodymium speakers, I'm generally not a big fan of Celestion speakers but thought it was worth a shot at the price I paid for it. I wish I had spotted your post earlier Dessa as I was looking for some feedback on these speakers.

Only thing is it was an 8 ohm rather than a 4 ohm, so it reduces my power output from 210 watts to just over 100 watts, but hey, that's still plenty!

I fitted it a few days ago into my Peavey Vegas and am very impressed with the sound I am getting from it. Straight out of the box it sounded good, I've since been breaking it in feeding some low frequencies through it for a few hours at a time and it sounds better and better as it loses the new speaker stiffness.

To me it sounds better than the BW that was in the Vegas and has halved the weight of the cabinet, which was giving me old back gip.

The 15" has a range up to 4kHz and is good on the highs and high mids. The speaker was designed with slap bass bass in mind, so has a fast response and is nice up the top end.

Lean are currently selling the 4 ohm version for £129 and the 8 ohm version for £80.

I would recommend these speakers, maybe not quite as classy as a Telonics or a Eminence EPS-15C, but at a 3rd of the price these Celestions appear to do a good job.

[Ken Byng]

Dear all
One thing I have found with Neodymium speakers is that (generally) in addition to be much lighter in weight than speakers with Alnico and Ceramic (Ferrite) magnets, the Neo speakers have a much brighter top end. Travis Toy and Paul Franklin have worked with Eminence to produce signature steel guitar speakers with a reduced top frequency. Modern speakers have become way more efficient than in previous years, and coupled with lighter baskets and magnets, the steel players of today have a wide choice of quality loudspeakers that don't break your back when you've installed them in your favourite amp.

I really like Peavey's Valve King amps, and have a 2 x 12" Valve King 100w combo. I took the 2 stock speakers out of my amp and put a couple of Telonics 12" drivers in it. I now have a 100w valve amp that is extremely lightweight but with very 'chimey' JBL-type top end speakers. I now have a real tone machine that I love to put my Tele through.

Sica, Celestion, Eminence and Telonics all make speakers that would enhance any cabinet, so in effect we are spoilt for choice.

[Jif]

That's interesting Ken, I've been loosely following some of the discussion on the US forum regarding the Travis Toy Eminence speakers and also the Eminence EPS-15C and I guess the Telonics modelling is similar in that these speakers are tailored to work well with pedal steel. I have wondered exactly what they are doing to achieve this and my guess was that the difference would be achieved through tailoring the high and high mids to get a smoother high end, in other words tame the highs.

Thanks for the info.

My hesitation with the Celestions was from experience with Celestions in guitar amps such as Marshall and Fender where I found Celestions to be a bit brittle on the high end and tend to break up too quickly, but then that's what many guitarists like about them, all down to taste I guess.

Have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with the BN15-300S, it has plenty of top end but is generally well balanced over the whole range and nice down on the low strings on the Universal.