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47
GUITAR
BUYER
NOVEMBER 2006
The fabled Celestion Blue
sits right up there with
The Fender Stratocaster and
Gibson Les Paul as a benchmark
in classic guitar tone and
history. It was the first
loudspeaker – first known as the
‘Bulldog’ – designed specifically
for guitar, used most famously
in the original Vox AC30,
helping no end to create that
combo’s characteristic
shimmering highs, warm
midrange, captivating overdrive
and high perceived volume.
Rated at a mere 15 watts, it’s easy to
push the Blue to a sweet spot where
it’s working hard, in conjunction with
a low-powered amp, for a wonderfully
rich tone, chock full of harmonics. A
little power stage distortion, plus some
speaker breakup makes for classic
guitar tone, which is all very well until
you start using a more powerful amp –
the Blue simply can’t cope with
today’s 50 and 100 watters. Welcome
then, the Celestion Gold.
LITTLE BIG VOICE COIL
Quite why it’s taken Celestion this
long to redress the situation and offer
a tonal equivalent to the Blue with
higher power capacity, is something
of a mystery when you look at the
sum total of the tweaks. According to
the marketing materials, Celestion has
come up with a new voice coil, albeit
after extensive R&D and testing, that
brings the power handling capacity up
to 50 watts, while keeping the tone
and response of the Blue. There have
been tweaks to the cone too, but
Celestion is remaining tight-lipped
about the specifics. Critically, the Gold
retains the alnico magnet design,
generally regarded to be less muscular
sounding than more modern ceramic
types, but richer in terms of
harmonics, and less harsh for classic
rock, roots and blues tones. Most
guitar players will know the term
‘alnico’ from guitar pickups, where
this alloy of aluminium, nickel and
cobalt is used for magnets. It brings
similar sonic and dynamic traits to
speakers when compared with
ceramic magnets, though is said to
be significantly more expensive.
Along with UK manufacturing,
that undoubtedly contributes to
the Gold’s high price.
To get an idea of how the Gold
sounds, we mounted it in a Vox AC30
Custom Classic, next to a reissue
Celestion Blue of the same impedance
and wired them separately, so we
could A/B test with different
amplifiers: the AC30 (set to lower
volumes), a Matamp C7 and the
Orange Tiny Terror. Upping the power
for the Gold, we used a Mesa Lone Star
and this issue’s WKZ Little Devil. For
comparison with the higher powered
amps, we used a Celestion Classic
Series G12H (30W) and a Mesa Black
Shadow C90 (90W), in separate
cabinets of roughly the same size,
materials and design as the AC30 box,
to try to keep the cabinet effect more
or less constant: obviously speakers
will sound very different in
different boxes.
FANCY A DRIVE?
With the Matamp C7 sat atop the Vox
cabinet, initial play testing confirms
Celestion’s claims in that the Gold
indeed has the requisite richness and
musicality we’d expect from alnico.
The 15-watt Blue breaks up that bit
earlier as you’d expect, where the Gold
holds its ground with a handful of
watts from the Matamp. As the amp
breaks into power-tube distortion, the
Blue is adding to the drive colour with
its own flap, while the Gold lets you
hear more of the amp itself at these
relatively modest power levels. It
QUICK
BLAST
SPEAKER
CELESTION G12 ALNICO GOLD
CELESTION G12
ALNICO GOLD
PRICE:
£239
BUILT IN:
UK
TYPE:
12-inch guitar
speaker
FEATURES:
50 watts
power handling, 100dB
sensitivity, pressed steel
chassis, round copper
voice coil, alnico magnet.
Available in 8 and 15 ohm
variants
MOUNTING:
Overall
diameter 309mm, overall
depth 165mm. 4 mounting
slots (7.9mm diameter),
cut-out diameter 283mm
WEIGHT:
4.2kg (9.3lbs)
CONTACT:
Celestion International Ltd
PHONE: 01473 835300
WEB: www.celestion.com
GB
INFO
CELESTION G12
ALNICO GOLD
GOLD STARS
‘Blue’ tone, but at
higher power: nuff said!
BLACK MARKS
Extremely expensive
GB
RATING
...
■
For the first part of
this test, the Blue and
the Gold are wired
separately for A/B
testing in the same cab
■
This is all looks
remarkably similar to
the Blue, but inside
lies a beefier voice coil
A FABULOUSLY RICH, HIGHLY
MUSICAL SOUNDING DRIVER
GB
OPINION
