Weber 12" Blue Dog ceramic speaker

I just installed a 12" 50-watt, 8-ohm Weber 'Blue Dog' Ceramic speaker in my 93' Fender Blues Deluxe to replace the stock Eminence 12" that came in it. The stock speaker was rather thin sounding, especially in the low to upper mid-range. The treble frequencies also had the unenviable 'ice-pick' highs which we all so love to hear (sarcasm, sarcasm...). I must say in Eminence's defense that they are indeed great speakers, you just have to have the right one to match the amp and tone that you are looking for. This speaker was clearly not the right one for me.

So, in goes the Weber and suddenly a silly grin appears on my face. The amp is now complete! I have obtained tonal Nirvana!...well, it was a great improvement anyhow. The amp is now much fuller sounding and the higher frequencies are no longer piercing. The addition of the rich middle frequencies have given the amp the sound that I have been looking for. It's not a Bogner or a Bad Cat, but for $500 for the amp I can say that I can finally live without spending the money on the aforementioned boutiques. The Weber sounds just as fabulous whether played clean or dirty. The notes bloom nicely and have a great natural compression now and the overdrive sounds have a nice, smooth, throaty growl. Being that this speaker has a ceramic magnet the clean headroom is quite high. I have yet to push the clean channel into speaker breakup, but I can attest that it will be a much higher volume level than I can comfortably stand in front of.

I spied this speaker on eBay and was able to win the auction for $84.00 including shipping. I have recently come to realize the vast importance of speakers in obtaining a good tone. I have spent years and lots of $$ trying out different stomp boxes, pickups, etc...searching for a particular tone. Until now I have ignored the importance of speakers. DUH! Oh well, better late than never, huh? I am interested in trying out some hemp-cone speakers and AlNiCo magnet speakers to see what benefit, if any, there is. Eminence makes an affordable hemp-cone speaker called the Cannibis Rex which sports the same hemp cone that Tone Tubby uses. It runs about $90 new compared to $140 for the Tone Tubby. I'm all for saving $50, right? Also, the Eminence Red Fang is a 30-watt AlNiCo speaker which is supposed to be similar to the Celestion AlNiCo Blue, but at $150 it's a hundred bucks cheaper than the Celestion. Sounds good to me!

I'll keep posting my little ditties and acquisitions in my quest for tone, but I think that short of building my own tube amp, I've gotten pretty close to what makes me happy. Hasta la bye bye for now...