18Watt.com

Since I've heard good things about WGS, I decided to finally contact them and try them out. Today I received the "Green Beret" - their version of the Greenback. The version I have is the 25 watt 16 ohm 12" speaker.

To test the speaker out, I'll be using my version of the 18 Watt Lite 2b(ish), with the stupid simple master volume, and my reverb circuit.

First I'm going to break the speaker in a bit playing for a few hours, and then I'll record a demo with the speaker.

Then I'll switch the speaker cable over to the Red Fang and record more for comparison. No, they're not the same speaker, but I love the way the Red Fang sounds in that circuit, so it will be useful to see which I (and anybody watching) also likes better. If I had a different Greenback to compare to, I would do that as well...but I don't.

Their packaging and build quality look very good:

If things go as well as I expect with this speaker, I'm going to try out the 15 Watt 12" Black & Blue Alnico next. That would be a more direct competitor for the Red Fang, but has a lower wattage rating, which I prefer for this circuit. I want me some speaker breakup.

Thanks,
Josh

I finally got around to recording a demo. I spent a little time breaking the speaker in, and it opened up nicely. It has a really sweet musical compression to it. I also find it has a good, earthy tone when switching pickup positions on some of my guitars (the Gibson CS-356 in the demo has the stock pickups, and well, to me they're meh).

Comparing the two speakers: there's things I like about both a lot. One thing I don't like about the Red Fang is that it's 3db higher on the sensitivity, and along with that extra volume comes extra noise. You may notice that the volume jumps a little up with the Red Fang, that's the difference in volume of the speakers at the same output level on the amp.

I'd like to hear some opinions on the two. I'll get into my opinion more later. I'm also probably going to do a second demo with a different guitar. I find the stock Gibson pickups to be not-so-dynamic, but just okay. DiMarzio and Lace kill them IMO.

Here's the demo: https://youtu.be/8UPTpxWOvxo

Thanks,
Josh

For contrast, and more dynamic pickup response, I made a second demo with the Green Beret and the EF86 Xtra using my Mr Rogers guitar.

Here's the EF86 Xtra demo with the Green Beret: https://youtu.be/6HW3k1lRyL0

Here's the original EF86 Xtra demo using the Red Fang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZasESAeIfU

In both of those cases there's only one speaker loaded in the 2x12 vertical cab.

Thanks,
Josh

you can clearly hear the different character between both speakers,as to which is best comes down to personal preference. i'll be interested in hearing other peoples comments on the green beret in comparison to an original greenback though.
nice gibson Josh!

Thanks! It's a beautiful guitar, but I'm not a huge fan of the pickups. I usually hate Gibson pickups, and I only dislike these, so that's an improvement.

There's things I like about both speakers. If going with just one, I think I prefer the Green Beret...but I plan on trying out the Black and Blue with the Green Beret in series for 16ohm. I think that should give me the best of both types, in a much better wattage range.

To be more specific, I think the WGS is a little more responsive/musical, and pulls out some nice woody tones. It does have a weakeer bottom end by comparison, but it's obviously focused for the guitar range. This difference is only apparent when I run full band loops through my looper pedal. The Emi has a bigger bottom end, and higher wattage handling which works great for the loops, but leaves me desiring more for guitar tone. It sounds fairly well rounded, but doesn't feel as alive as the WGS speaker. I think the combo of the greenback + blue alnico sound is what I'm really looking for.

I'm probably also going to compare the Black and Blue to the Red Fang since they're both supposed to be similar to the Celestion Blue.

If anybody wants to donate a UK greenback and/or a Blue alnico, I'll take 'em.

yeah you could here the difference in bottom end especially with the gibson,some nice tones with the eminence! i like the sound of the black & blue you describe for the early breakup,depending on the character/tone!

geoff 1965 wrote: ↑

Thu 09/12/19 11:24 am

yeah you could here the difference in bottom end especially with the gibson,some nice tones with the eminence! i like the sound of the black & blue you describe for the early breakup,depending on the character/tone!

Yeah, the head I played the Gibson with has a more pronounced bottom end. I had to tweak the cathode resistor to improve it. With the 1000uF that's in it, it sounds great. With the 250uF that was in it, it sounded farty.

cool! so what tone caps are in the gibson,.022uf orange drops?

geoff 1965 wrote: ↑

Thu 09/12/19 1:12 pm

cool! so what tone caps are in the gibson,.022uf orange drops?

lol, I haven't looked. The more I look into it, the more I'll want to swap out the electronics. I've already swapped out all the hardware (originals in the case). Once my office is properly setup, I'll likely want to play that guitar more, and then those stock pickups / electronics are living on borrowed time.

My experience is that it doesn't matter if it's a $500 epiphone, or $5000 Gibson; swap out the hardware and electronics/pickups and you get a better guitar.

never had an actual gibson,the closest was a 1980's japanese built tokai that i regret selling! the reason i asked about the tone caps was i noticed gibson custom shop using sprague "bumble bee's" in some of the les paul's, i thought they were obsolete,unless they have repro's made?
what do you think of this signature eminence Josh? the specs and sound clips are good but it's expensive!

geoff 1965 wrote: ↑

Thu 09/12/19 6:01 pm

never had an actual gibson,the closest was a 1980's japanese built tokai that i regret selling! the reason i asked about the tone caps was i noticed gibson custom shop using sprague "bumble bee's" in some of the les paul's, i thought they were obsolete,unless they have repro's made?

I've owned a few, and I've done work on a ton of them over the years for customers. My general opinion is that guitar manufacturers shouldn't make pickups, or brand their hardware.

what do you think of this signature eminence Josh? the specs and sound clips are good but it's expensive!
EJ_1240.pdf

I didn't listen to any samples, but the tone curve doesn't look that far off from their Private Jack (greenback) - what stands out is that the higher highs are actually tamer. That could be good or bad.

Like any speaker, you have to experience it to decide if you like it. I don't generally seek signature series stuff, unless it blows me away...and oddly enough, the only "signature series" thing I use is a Joe Satriani guitar pick. I guess that's the limit I'm willing to spend on somebody's name.

yeah i've seen you post good feedback on the private jack's and at 10W less the johnson should break up a little earlier so it's probably a good speaker. i agree with you on not paying for someones name endorsement though!

Oh man, I just listened to the demo of the WGS BlackHawk 50 on their site... I think I like it better than the Black and Blue, I might be going that way instead.